>> new this hour, officials in california initiating an investigation into potential causes behind the wildfires there, as some los angeles residents right now are hoping to get back to their neighborhoods to see if their houses survived the sweeping flames. nbc's maggie vespa is in altadena, california, for us. what are we hearing about all this, particularly from residents? maggie. >> yeah, alex. we're hearing that actually, thousands of them are able to get back into their homes, and that's largely thanks to work. like what's happening behind me here. we showed you these utility crews. now you can see and hear the jackhammering happening in this neighborhood. they're basically doing everything they can, scrambling to try and get burned, power lines back up and running, all this electricity equipment back up and running and mitigate the risk here so people can come back in safely and sift through their homes. >> we also have video from earlier today of tow trucks hauling charred cars out of this neighborhood, also near here. >> so that's the kind of work

that's happening in these areas that are still closed down. we got an update from the l.a. county sheriff saying at this point, 11,000 people have been let back into. >> there's that video, the area burned by the palisades fire, 21,000 let back into the area, burned by the eaton fire. >> that's this area in and around altadena. >> keep in mind the death toll of these combined fires at 27 but expected to rise, with dozens still missing. >> and it's the search for those missing people that's really keeping a lot of these areas closed as first responders go door to door. >> we talk a lot about, obviously, the homes that burned and the people that have had to evacuate. >> but there are some keep in mind who never left these evacuated areas. they ignored the mandatory evacuations. we talked to one man who used garden hoses to save his home and six others, and now his home is fine thanks to his staying behind and doing just that. but now he's realizing he has to live surrounded by blocks and blocks of, frankly, this burned out hellscape. here's here's

part of our conversation. >> like being in a in a film. >> by some one of those people that write horror film films. apocalypse. >> apocalypse is, you know, apocalyptic, apocalyptic film, an apocalyptic film of a future that when you watch it, you never think you that it's going to happen to you. >> now, we're just so glad he's okay. >> i asked if he would recommend that others do what he did, and he said absolutely not, but he couldn't leave his home. a quick note containment lines are growing. that's good news. eaton fires 73% contained palisades 43%. and then a final headline today, alex, you might have seen president elect trump telling our own kristen welker that he now says he will, in his words, probably visit this area in the following in the coming week. basically saying that he thought about coming this week, but he thought it would be better if he waited until he was president to come and see the devastation

firsthand. >> well, it is quite a statement to do that. >> okay, maggie vespa, thank you, my friend. a new potential wrinkle in the hamas-israel ceasefire deal. the details in just a few moments. good day from msnbc world headquarters in new york. welcome to alex witt reports. it is 3 p.m. on the east coast. high noon out west in less than 48 hours away from donald trump's inauguration on capitol hill, crews are tearing down outdoor fences and dismantling infrastructure that had been put in place for monday's events. as the transition moved proceedings indoors ahead of those bitter cold temperatures expected in the nation's capital. we'll have details on that in just a moment. trump will arrive in the d.c. area tonight. he is hosting a reception and fireworks at his golf club in virginia, and claiming on social media that this is the most important weekend in american history. also happening now in d.c, the people's march. progressive groups expecting crowds of up to 50,000 over the course of today

as they protest trump's agenda. >> as we're going into the martin luther king jr. holiday, i am reminded how every time in american history we have made progress on civil rights, on women's rights, there's been a backlash. and the only way we continue that progress going forward is to double down and stay committed. >> a new wall street journal report today says trump could begin large scale deportations in chicago on day two of his administration, nbc news confirmed. that report announced a briefing was scheduled friday for agents who volunteered for the operation. a new poll, meanwhile, says support for trump's policies, including deportation, exceeds support for trump himself. big developing storylines at this hour, and we've got correspondents and analysts with the very latest. let's begin with washington's and nbc's vaughn hillyard. vaughn, welcome. so what did we learn from trump's interview with nbc's kristen welker, especially his plans for this first week?

>> right. he told our kristen welker that he intends to sign a record number of executive actions, executive orders here. it's not clear specifically at this point in time, alex, which ones yet we know that there were trump aligned organizations during the last several years, ever since he left the white house that have been preparing. i was told by one organization, more than 270 executive orders, that he would have the opportunity to effectively choose from draft executive orders. we expect everything from mass deportation executive orders, as you alluded to, our julia ainsley being told that plans are made for ice to begin as soon as tuesday. on executing that deportation effort in chicago before moving to other cities. but for donald trump as well, here you're looking at an inauguration day, which is going to be moved inside of the capitol, but one in which is going to be much less about the pomp and circumstance. there's no parade, but i think more so

than any inauguration that we can recall. in years past, donald trump has vowed to use that day as a day to begin enacting very a very specific policy agenda. and for him, that includes everything to a potential executive order on schedule f, which would reclassify part of the federal workforce from a career civil workers to political appointees. and so, for donald trump, this is the beginning of executing on an administration that he said that he didn't have the opportunity for during the course of 2020 and the pandemic to ultimately be able to wholly use that first term to execute the type of change that he wanted. and that's why this go round, you see many a similar faces at a staffing level, who he is bringing in this go around and we're going to see a great many others, including speaker mike johnson and a new vice president, not pence, but j.d. vance standing there for what will be a very much a much more loyal republican majority up on

capitol hill, and staffers who donald trump has implicit and explicit trust and faith in to execute upon, upon his agenda, upon taking office and being sworn in on monday. >> can i ask you quickly how big a deal it is that this is being moved indoors? and when we know that donald trump won't be able to have the expanse of looking and seeing people in the thousands upon thousands there out in the crowds celebrating him, i mean, how big a deal is this that it's moved inside to the rotunda, right. >> let's let's be clear. it's very cold outside. and i at the same time, there are tens of thousands of folks that were already flying in here and staying in hotels across washington, d.c. and so we've heard from some of them who have expressed frustration from not having the ability to stand out on the mall and be a part of that ceremony. of course, he's going to have a effectively a rally tomorrow inside the capital one arena, which is where the washington wizards play in the washington capitals. but on monday, the parade is being moved inside of that arena

as well. and again, that arena holds just 20,000 people. and typically for inaugurations, you see hundreds of thousands of folks. and of course, 2017 was a memorable inauguration. and in those first hours, the then president was frustrated by questions about the crowd size of those who came to gather to see him. and we don't know how many were going to be out there in the grass to see this one here. but that question will go unanswered as the mall will be closed in the greater areas around the capitol. as he has sworn in at noon on monday. >> okay. vaughn hillyard, thank you so much from d.c. let's go now to that big breaking news from israel, where prime minister benjamin netanyahu is warning the cease fire deal with hamas, set to begin in less than 12 hours, is temporary, and he has the right to resume fighting if necessary. let's go to nbc's ralph sanchez in tel aviv for us. so give us a sense, ralph, how precarious this cease fire deal is as families of hostages are awaiting the release of their loved ones. >> so, alex, potentially

precarious in the short term, potentially more precarious in the long term. we are some ten hours away from when this cease fire is supposed to go into effect, 8:30 a.m. local time. prime minister netanyahu has said. at this point, hamas has still not provided the names of the three female hostages, who are due to be released tomorrow. he is saying he considers that to be a breach of the deal. if hamas does not come up with those names that we just came from hostage square, where thousands of the people who care most deeply about the hostages were rallying, i can tell you they are not panicking at this point that the deal is going off the rails, but they are concerned by this, and they are waiting to hear the news that it is confirmed that three israeli hostages are coming out tomorrow. the longer term threat to this deal is that prime minister netanyahu, indicating in that speech tonight that while he is committed to phase one of the deal, that six week ceasefire that will see the release of some 33 hostages, he

is threatening to resume the war on the other side. take a listen. >> we maintain our right to resume the war, if necessary, with the backing of the us and all senior officials of the american administration have all testified, have all said that it is the hamas who provided obstacles to the negotiations. >> it was the hamas that created these obstacles, not israel. >> so the way this deal is structured, that in the middle of phase one negotiations are supposed to start to get us to phase two. now, phase two would see a complete end to the war, total israeli withdrawal from gaza and the release of all remaining living hostages. and the concern here is that either this cease fire breaks down during those first six weeks, or that the negotiations to get to phase two do not bear fruit, and

that we may be looking at a return to fighting in just over a month and a half. alex. >> okay. ralph sanchez there. thank you so much from tel aviv. let's go now to some new and fast moving developments today. with tiktok set to go dark for u.s. users just under nine hours from now. president elect donald trump, who takes office monday now saying he will likely give tiktok a 90 day extension of its potential ban. but what happens in the meantime is still uncertain. all of this after the supreme court ruled the app must cease operations in the u.s. unless its china based parent company somehow finds a new owner. i want to bring in nbc business and data correspondent brian chung. so, brian, what do we know? even if trump grants that extension? >> yeah, well, tiktok is playing hardball, and they're saying that this app might go dark effective just a few hours from now. here's the statement from the company saying unless the biden administration, which still holds the white house at least until monday, unless they immediately provide a definitive statement, tiktok will be forced

to go dark on january 19th, the white house responding this afternoon saying that they think this is a stunt, that they really won't do anything and want to pass the statutory hot potato to the trump administration. that points to this app going dark. and this could be a big deal for the most downloaded mobile app in 2024. check this out. over 800 million downloads, 170 million users on the app in this country. pretty substantial when you consider there's only 330 million people in this country. so again, the stakes here are very high. and i do want to point out that there have been some developments in just the last few hours. in an interview with kristen welker, our moderator of meet the press here at nbc. president elect donald trump saying that he's likely to put in place a 90 day extension when he enters office. he would he said he would likely do that on monday. and we're getting now reports from our friends over at cnbc that there could be a potential buyer in the wings in the form of perplexity. i this is an ai company. but again, a sale is not that simple. tiktok has said it doesn't want to sell, and also the chinese government

could veto any sale. so it seems like tomorrow this app will likely go dark. what happens after that? it really depends on what president donald trump is able to do once he's inaugurated on monday. >> alex, can you give me a quick sense of the major economic impacts potentially here when it goes dark? >> yeah, substantial, because it's not just people dancing on the social media app. here are some stats for you. according to oxford economics, $24.2 billion in contribution to us gdp in 2023, $15 billion generated from small and medium sized businesses. a lot of small businesses using tiktok to drum up support and even online sales. 224,000 jobs supported by tiktok and $5.3 billion generated in taxes. i do want to note that these are stats that tiktok, even though it's from oxford economics, they've been pumping them as well. but look, at the end of the day, if tiktok goes dark, you're already seeing it online. users saying, hey, where am i going to take my content? and these are some of the apps that people have said they've been going to instagram reels, youtube shorts, as you can imagine. but some of these other apps, lemonade and also red note, red note, which is

xiaohongshu in chinese. this is another chinese app, and lemonade shares an owner that's connected to bytedance. so this is kind of a part of the protest that we've seen from some tiktok users saying, you know what if the if the government here in the united states is concerned about me using a chinese app, i don't really care. i'm going to put my content wherever i can get it. but it nonetheless underscores the fact that a lot of people who are scrolling today are trying to figure out where they're going to scroll come tomorrow, alex. >> but those two could be in the crosshairs. next we will see brian chung. many thanks. coming up next, senator ron wyden of the intelligence committee about the fallout from the tiktok ban. plus, the tense moments during the cabinet confirmation the cabinet confirmation hearings. we're back in 90s. prilosec knows, for a fire... one fire extinguisher beats 10 buckets of water, and for zero heartburn 1 prilosec a day... beats taking up to 10 antacids a day. it's that simple, for 24 hour heartburn relief... one beats ten. prilosec otc. are you looking for a walk-in tub, for you, or someone you love? well, look no further. january is bath safety month.

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cleans em, and gets in between em, for 100% cleaner teeth. your perfect clean starts with oral-b. week of confirmation hearings on capitol hill, donald trump's pick for treasury secretary scott bessent is expected to face a smooth confirmation process, even as he was grilled by democrats on how trump's economic policies could hurt american workers and benefit the wealthy. members of the senate finance committee pressed the billionaire hedge fund executive and major trump donor thursday, who will shoulder the cost of trump's potential tariff increases on china and other countries, asking who's going to bear that burden? >> all through the campaign, we heard they weren't the foreign countries were going to pay it. >> i think that's baloney. >> it's going to be paid for by workers and small businesses. so your response?

>> yes, senator, i would respectfully disagree. and the history of tariffs and tariff theory, optimal tariff theory does not support what you're saying. >> well, joining me now, the second most senior democrat in the senate who you just saw there, ron wyden of oregon, he is the ranking member of the senate finance committee. his new book, it takes chutzpah how to fight fearlessly for progressive change. it came out this week. and senator, big congratulations on this new book. i have a copy myself. we're going to get to all that in a moment. but let's begin with scott. best defense of trump's potential tariff increases. we heard the response. were you satisfied with it? >> absolutely not. and look, all this week the trump people were talking mumbo jumbo about this tariff issue all through the campaign. trump was making it up. he kept saying foreigners are going to pay no, our workers are going to pay, our small businesses are going to pay. and it sure looks to me like those

tariffs are going to be used as money to pay for more tax cuts for the people at the top. to give you an idea how ridiculous they've been, earlier this week they proposed something called an external revenue service, which was somehow going to pretend that money was going to be raised from foreigners. at the end of the day, the reality is our workers, our small businesses are going to get socked. and the reality is that money could be used to have more tax breaks for people at the top. and by the way, alex, there was a secret document that our staff uncovered over the weekend from the house, house republicans, and they're looking at hundreds of billions of dollars of additional breaks for corporations. >> okay, well, there's a bombshell right there. i want to thank you for sharing that. i'm sure more will come out. but i must say, what it sounds like you're saying is that it's kind of like when donald trump said, oh, yeah, mexico is going to pay for the wall, that you're making almost a comparison of that tenor to what bessent replied to you. but let me ask you about the comment. >> really sounded like an apologist for the glutton class. i mean, we're for people who are

workers. we'eople of modest means. we want to give everybody in america the chance to get ahead. and when i asked him about the difference between wages and wealth and what we were going to do to get a fair shake for people on wages, he was just incoherent. >> so he did warn of the risks. if congress does not extend trump's 2017 tax cuts. let's listen to what he said about that. >> this is the single most important economic issue of the day. this is pass fail that if we do not fix these tax cuts, if we do not renew and extend, then we will be facing an economic calamity. and as always, with financial instability that falls on the middle and working class people. >> is that how you see it, senator, i don't this is a slogan for helping the glutton

class. >> here's the situation in 2017. if you look at the 2017, you know, tax bill now, they want to supercharge it with more breaks for the people at the top 2017. in terms of the average tax cut, it was much greater, much greater for the people at the top than it was for people in the middle or the folks of modest means. we want a tax bill that gives everybody in america the chance to get ahead, and that's we're going to push for. and by the way, it's going to take a lot of chutzpah to go after these big special interests and take them on. >> oh, yeah. are you going to vote to confirm him? >> right? >> right now i couldn't. we'll have more conversations among colleagues on monday. >> okay. as a member of the senate intelligence committee, you're also going to take part inonfirmation hearing for tulsi gabbard as director of national intelligence, which has been delayed due to some paperwork issues as we understand it. what do you need to hear from her, and do you expect you will hear that? >> well, first of all, we want to know what her positions are.

you know, she started out saying that she was against the foreign intelligence surveillance act. then some republicans got to her and they said, now she's for it. we have huge challenges here. you mentioned that tiktok, tiktok is part of the debate, and salt typhoon is part of it as well, where the chinese, like on salt typhoon are trying to climb around our phone systems and do surveillance on law abiding americans. we need somebody in this position who really knows what they're doing, and i have serious questions, whether that's tulsi gabbard. >> yeah, i want to have my director, sean, put up a full screen on what you wrote about relative to tiktok, because you've introduced extending the tiktok deadline by 270 days with some legislation. here's the warning, quote the rushed divestment of tiktok is a huge giveaway to donald trump and his cronies, who are poised to scoop up a massive social media company and turn it into another partizan mouthpiece. so as a member of the intelligence committee, you understand the national security implications here. and, you know, you have

long been a proponent for privacy rights. so give me a sense of what's behind this move to delay it. and do you expect the biden administration to act in the next 24 hours, or is that a closed book? >> well, first of all, senator markey, senator booker, a group of us wanted a delay to find a legitimate american buyer. for exo where trump would step in and try to do something to wire a deal between china and. and elon musk is big contributor. that would look pretty corrupt to me. and i'm going to be watching out for that. >> what about the supreme court, which ruled that the law does not violate the free speech rights of tiktok users? but you're concerned about first amendment violations. how so? >> well, i've always felt the founding fathers in their writings. alex always said that the first amendment was the most important amendment. it was actually more important than government in many of their writings. so you start with the proposition that we want to have those voices. we want to have

the first amendment being secure. i do think that china represents a very real threat. that's why i've been leading the push to consult a typhoon. but striking a balance is something that's doable. but you have to have a transparent process. find a good american owner. that's what senator markey, senator booker and i are looking for. >> and yet the tiktok ceo, as you know, is expected to attend trump's inauguration on monday alongside other tech execs. that includes elon musk, mark zuckerberg, jeff bezos, tim cook and others. president biden warned of a tech. >> let me mention let me. yeah, let me mention just real quickly, alex. mark zuckerberg toadying up to trump, i think is really awful because basically what he's trying, trying to do is move us back towards some sort of reconsolidation with just the biggest players. that was the internet before the last few years. we cannot go back there. but that's what zuckerberg is looking at, is consolidating media with the big guys. >> so given what president biden

warned of, the big industrial complex tech industrial complex during his farewell speech wednesday night, how do you overall measure their influence and sounds like you're sharing president biden's concerns? >> if you look at it, the cabinet to be is just full of billionaires, and we want everybody to have a chance to get ahead. the reality is a firefighter and a nurse pay taxes with every single paycheck. that same reality is, is if you're a billionaire and you want to buy, borrow and die in terms of your economic decisions, you can pay little or nothing for years on end. i go back to the days with bill bradley, better basketball player than me, when we said we want a tax code that gives everybody in america the chance to get ahead, we're going to have the chutzpah to take on those special interests and do that. >> bill bradley was a better basketball player than most everybody. let's get to some chutzpah, because it's all about your new book. and again, the title is it takes chutzpah how

to fight fearlessly for progressive change. and it's out days before donald trump takes office. give me a sense of where the progressive movement stands today. and did the election results create setbacks? and i'm curious, the top advice, sir, that you offer in this book for moving forward with change. >> give me the big issue is to make sure that we focus on the economics that are the big challenge for working class people. >> the town meeting that i'm going to now will feature a lot of questions where the second word will always be bill. it might be grocery bill, it might be electric bill, it might be medical bill. and i think that we lost our way in the last few weeks of the campaign on those economic issues. and, you know, you get hit by inflation. gerald ford always saw years ago how serious that was. that's what we're going to make our focus. and it's going to mean taking on these big lobbies. i mean, they

have huge arrays of talent, accountants and lawyers. we know what we're up against. but political change doesn't start in washington dc and trickle down. it's almost always bottoms up. and we can win these fights with some chutzpah, which is basically the indispensable tool for making change for the better in america. >> okay, well, i'm going to keep this book around and i hope we cross paths. i'd love you to sign it for me. but again, everyone, it's the book. it takes chutzpah. how to fight fearlessly for progressive change. senator ron wyden, thank you so much for your time with us. much appreciated sir. >> thanks for having me. >> meantime, read them and weep. these maps showing the cold and snow on the move, when and where snow on the move, when and where it will be the worst next. you know, when i take the bike out like this, all my stresses just melt away. i hear that. this bad boy can fix anything. yep, tough day at work, nice cruise will sort you right out. when i'm riding, i'm not even thinking about my painful cavity. well, you shouldn't ignore that. and every time i get stressed about having to pay my bills, i just hop on the bike, man.

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winds are going to be blowing about 25mph. so making it feel like 5 to 10 degrees. and then we're going to have that snow that's falling tomorrow. so that's going to stick to any cold surfaces. and we're going to have snow on the ground on monday. so that's going to be very, very cold. some people are saying maybe bring a little piece of cardboard to stand on to kind of separate your feet from that cold surface, because that's going to be chilly for a couple of hours by 9:00. we're looking at temperatures only in the 20s. that's cold. 12:00 not going very far. we're going to be right around 22. and then look what happens at three. we're actually going to lose a degree. so 21 degrees. but really notice the winds blowing at 25mph. and what the body is going to perceive is a wind chill. so it's going to feel like 5 to 10 degrees. that is what you need to dress for. this is going to go down as one of the coldest inaugurations in history for sure. the coldest one was in 1985, ronald reagan. that was his second inauguration for him, seven degrees. and yes, that was held indoors as well. i know president obama's in 2009 had temperatures in the 20s as well. it's not just d.c. that's seeing these bitterly cold temperatures. we have 109 million americans under some

sort of cold alert. we have an excessive cold watch that's in that maroon color and excessive cold warning in that pink color. and notice just the land that it covers right from the northern plains to the upper midwest, the ohio valley down to the southern plains. and we're going to be talking about ice in the southern plains by early next week. so alex winter is here, but these are abnormal winter temperatures. we're looking at temperatures 40 degrees below what is typical for this time of wow, that's too much. >> okay, michelle. thank you. i know why a former doj spokesman says pam bondi cannot be trusted with the department. we're going with the department. we're going to hear from him next. (vo 1) when you really philosophize about it, there's one thing you don't have enough of, and that's time. time is a truly scarce commodity. when you come to that realization, i think it's very important to spend time wisely. and what better way of spending time than traveling, continuing to educate ourselves and broaden our minds. (vo 2) viking. exploring the world in comfort.

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[ambient noise] granger comm or just stop by granger for the ones who get it done. >> u.s. attorney general merrick garland is sending an emotional message to the country as he prepares to say farewell to the justice department during what may be his final remarks as ag. garland praised his colleagues and appeared to rebuke attacks from donald trump, one of the department's loudest critics. nbc's yamiche alcindor is at the white house for us. so, yamiche, give me a sense of the tone of garland's remarks. >> well, this was really an emotional and serious speech by outgoing attorney general merrick garland. he talked about defending the honor of the career officials who worked at the doj before he got there, and will work there after saying that they that he understands that their work is something that needs to be taken seriously, needs to remain independent, but that it is work that is worthy of the trust of the american people. take a listen to more of what he said. >> the same powers that enable the federal prosecutor to pursue

justice also create the potential for grave injustice. to ensure fairness in the administration of justice, we must temper this grant of discretion with a set of principles and ensure we exercise our authority in a just fashion. >> we must understand that there is a difference between what we can do and what we should do, and he talked at length about the need for the doj to remain independent. >> but he also said that he understood that there were a lot of unfounded attacks and criticism, and said that he knows in his heart that he believes that these officials at the doj, that they have not been pursuing politics, but instead that they've been pursuing justice. he also, i think, really had a message for maybe some career officials who are struggling, whether or not they should stay at the department of justice. he said, remember why you came here. remember that you are worthy of the trust of the

american people. so this was really a speech where merrick garland, yes, was talking about the accomplishments and his tenure there. but he also really, i think, was trying to give a message to people who might be struggling in the department saying that this is something that could still go on, that their work can still continue no matter who's at the top. so that's a really interesting speech and a really emotional speech, alex. >> and serious as you described it. okay, yamiche, thank you for that. well, joining me here in the studio, we have anthony coley, msnbc justice and legal affairs analyst. he is former director of the department of justice, office of public affairs and former senior adviser to attorney general merrick garland. so welcome to you. and it makes you the perfect person, given the fact that you got to know him very well. give me give me a sense of what stood out to you from his farewell address. >> well, i will tell you. >> you heard yamiche. >> here, talk a little bit about these attacks. >> and these attacks are coming from all sides. merrick garland has done one thing, is unify democrats and republicans against him. right. i will tell you what i saw in my time there. right. i saw him put in place people and processes to both

improve the morale of the department that had fallen to record lows during the trump term. >> but i also saw him do that to also reassure the american people that facts and law and not politics guide decision making. >> what's also interesting here is that, like, that sounds noble. what i just said, and it is how it plays out. it is not always welcomed by democrats and republicans alike. alex, i'll tell you, i go back to my first year there at the justice department. i remember when president biden was asked on the lawn of the white house whether or not doj should pardon steve bannon for, you know, fell into response to this congressional subpoena. >> do you remember that? >> yes. >> and the president said yes. and that was a big no no. as a president of the united states weighing in on a doj prosecutorial decision. >> yeah. >> and within an hour of the president making that statement, influence on. >> yeah, exactly.

>> this justice department issued a statement, rather terse statement saying doj is going to make its own decisions, and then we can have that same conversation on the multiple side on, on on the republican side. but the attacks come from everywhere. >> let me get to something you wrote. i read through it very thoroughly, as you can see by my yellow highlighter here, that being former florida attorney general pam bondi, who appears to have bipartisan support to win senate confirmation as the next ag. but you've written about her nomination saying she should not be trusted with the department. >> i really want to like this lady in many ways, she reminds me of janet reno. janet reno was, of course, the nation's first female attorney general. pam bondi was the state of florida's first female attorney general. they were both state level prosecutors, first for many years, and neither one of them were their president's first choice. but the similarities, alex, they end right there. on the one hand, janet reno, you remember, was fiercely, fiercely independent of the clinton white house,

whitewater, monica lewinsky, ken starr's independent counsel. right. >> on the flip side with pam bondi, you have somebody who is fiercely loyal. >> and the reason trump has chosen her to be attorney general is because he he wants to use the justice department to what we all think are inappropriate ends. >> right? and why is pam bondi the one to do this for him? well, she has a record. she has a record. we remember in november of 2022, she was on the ground in pennsylvania talking about mass cheating and mass voting. that didn't that that didn't exist. >> that eroded trust, right? >> that absolutely eroded trust. and i think it was disqualifying. that's what i wrote in this piece. yeah. >> interesting. with regard to what she said about an enemies list. kash patel, if he is the incoming fbi director, if he gets confirmed and all that, give me a sense of your take on that, because she did talk about saying that, you know, i'm not

going to go after enemies. there's not going to be a list. >> and yet we can't trust this woman, right? >> she didn't have the gumption to stand up to tell donald trump what other close republicans in his administration on his campaign, 60 plus courts were telling him about the election. right. so i just have no confidence. i don't think the public should have any confidence that when push comes to shove, that she is going to stand up to donald trump and tell him the truth. we don't know whether or not she has an enemies list. i think we're at the point now where we have to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. >> okay, well we'll see. we'll see if she gets confirmed. although at this point it looks like she does have some. >> i think she does. >> anthony coley, it's good to see you. thank you much. this headline in politico caught my eye. everyone in congress is obsessed with this book about the post-civil war era. we're going to talk to a historian about why his book has become a cult favorite, and what we can learn from it next. safelite

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1865 to 1915. john, big, welcome to you. look, president biden says we're on the cusp of an oligarchy. that's a stark warning. is this new to the us? i mean, is this the closest our democracy has ever even come to something other than a democracy? >> well absolutely not. it's interesting. biden, in his speech, pointed back to the robber barons of the gilded age. >> and we associate the gilded age with great income inequality. >> but it's also an era of incredible political instability, political violence, partizanship tribalism. >> and that political dysfunction underlined all the economic dysfunction. so in this era, as in the gilded age, i think until we can address our political problems and our democracy, we won't be able to address our economic issues that grow out of those. >> you know, last april, you said that the 1892 race where grover cleveland became the first president, elected twice in nonconsecutive terms, was nearly identical to what we were seeing then. does the comparison

still hold up now, nine months later? i mean, putting aside the candidate change from biden to harris, will historians look back on 2024 as history repeating itself? >> yeah, every race is new. every race is different. >> and this was a really unusual one. historians will study it for centuries. >> but what's really important for our era and for the gilded age is not the candidates. it's not whether there was a president like donald trump in the past, but the electorate and the mood of our electorate, the grumpiness, the anger, the tribalism, the partizanship, the throw the bums out mentality. we have every four years and these incredibly close elections look so much like what elections looked like in the 1880s, 1890s, that this loop we're in right now feels a lot like the gilded age loop. and i think it's worthwhile to look at how they how they ever got out of a loop like that, because we feel we feel a little stuck today, i think. >> yeah. another thing you said there. here's the quote. if we share one central attribute with the golden age, it's not just the income inequality or the partizanship, but also the slow, stuttering realization that the

progress we've been boasting about isn't coming. in this age of technology, you know, in an instant, our quick expectations of progress are unrealistic. i mean, we remember things like abolishing slavery, voting rights for minorities. that took decades. >> yes. and we have a constitution built on checks and balances, built on compromise, built on incremental change. so it is really tricky to live in a world where everything happens at the swipe of a screen, and to look at this political system that is so slow and weighted. but that's honestly how you reform a system. the big changes we see in the past, when people manage to address their political instability, political violence and tone it down, happened from slow, incremental reforms. and i know that's not that's not sexy, that's not exciting. but that's really how we build change over time. so i would worry a lot less about one individual election, and i'd worry more about cultivating a tone in democracy, a vibe almost in our culture, that that is really what changes things from

era to era. >> you know, david french describes us as being in a state of relative political instability compared to other eras in our history. how long has it taken to stabilize the country after periods of instability? and can lessons and timetables of the past predict how long until we stabilize this time around? >> no, that doesn't work. you'd like to think there's some way you can set your clock by history. but every era is different. every era is new. what's really important, i think, is to look back at this history and see that we've had eras of instability, unhappiness, violence in our in our politics, and we've deliberately reformed them that it can be done. >> i think people feel like we're we've driven off a precipice and everything is unprecedented and kind of there's a gravity and a momentum to our politics that is unchangeable. >> people felt that way in the gilded age, and then reform movements built up the progressive era, built up the 20th century, built up the norms that we got used to in the 20th century. so as stuck as we feel and as cyclical and spiraling as our politics feel, people can make active reform and studying

history, studying this history in particular is really eye opening to see how people actively change the problems with their democracy. it honestly can be done. i'm not pessimistic about that element at all. >> i'm glad to hear it might take a while though. >> you know what? i'm going to have you back on this show. you're terrific. and i very much enjoyed this conversation. thank you. next, a remarkable story from la about an eighth graders idea to help others after her my name's dan and i live here in san antonio, texas. idea to help others after her school burned to the ground. i ran my own hvac business and now i'm retired. i'm not good being retired. i'm a pain in the neck. i like to be able to have a purpose. about three or four years ago, i felt like i was starting to slip. i saw the prevagen commercials. after a short amount of time taking prevagen, i started noticing a difference-- i stopped taking prevagen and i found myself slacking back so i jumped right back on it. i've been taking prevagen for about two years now, and i've found a huge difference. prevagen. at stores everywhere without a prescription. ♪

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podcasts. >> now to the story of an eighth grader in altadena, california, who started a donation drive for other teenagers left with nothing after the wildfire burned their school and homes to the ground. thanks to social media and many celebrities picking up on what she started, the donations are pouring in. nbc's morgan chesky has the story that may leave you smiling. amidst all the heartbreak, the former couple at a warehouse in east los angeles. >> the donations are nonstop, and behind every gifted good is a 14 year old doing something great. >> we are moving so incredibly fast, faster than i could have ever imagined. >> when flames took her beloved altadena school, then left dozens of friends homeless. >> avery culver knew she had to help. >> these girls don't have anything, and i want them to feel confident in themselves again. >> so she launched altadena girls on instagram, seeking donations for clothing, makeup, skincare and shoes. >> and within 24 hours, watch

donations pour in. >> i got new pants and a jacket that's super soft. and so one jacket means the absolute world when you have zero jackets. >> avery's efforts not lost on anyone. paris hilton sharing the cause. the 14 year old even meeting meghan markle, who encouraged her to keep going. >> it's so easy to share things, and i. i mean, that's how i think we got so big. >> her altadena girls page so successful she inspired a sequel. >> so this is what altadena boys is all about. yeah. >> it's counterpart. >> now up and running two offering teen guys a one stop shop. >> from body wash to ball caps, all free of charge. >> you always see, like, all the debris or, like, still like the ashes around. and it's kind of like, sad. but seeing, like, everyone, like, happy in one spot, kind of just, like, brings me up a bit. >> a cause bringing the comforts of home exactly where they need to be. >> morgan chesky, nbc news.