eamonn each saturday and sunday at 7 p.m. eastern. you can find us on blue sky and instagram at eamon msnbc. you can also listen to every episode of eamon as a podcast. just scan the qr code on your screen to listen on the go wherever you get your podcasts. also, beginning monday, rachel maddow hosts five nights a week for the first 100 days of trump's presidency. while my friend and colleague alex wagner travels across the country to highlight his policies and promises. watch the rachel maddow show weeknights at 9 p.m. eastern, right here on msnbc. and for inauguration day, rachel maddow and team will bring you key moments of the day, followed by analysis from our primetime anchors throughout the evening as the new term begins. special coverage begins at 6 a.m. eastern, right here on

msnbc. until we meet again, i'm ayman mohyeldin in new york. a special edition of the weekend starts right now. >> welcome to a special pre-inaugural edition of the weekend. a new chapter of american history begins as president elect donald trump will once again take the oath of office, becoming the 47th president of the united states. now, trump spent the 2024 campaign promising to test the limits of executive powers. and now that reality is coming into focus. nbc news reports that the president elect intends to sign more than 50 executive orders after his swearing in, several of which he intends to sign in front of a crowd at the capital one arena. these orders are expected to reclassify potentially thousands of the federal workforce positions as political appointments to ensure

loyalty to the administration. another will order that climate funding already allocated by congress, by the way, and that matters. we'll discuss in the inflation reduction act be cut off. trump is also expected to declare a state of emergency at the southern border, as he did during his first term. trump previewed some of these orders at a pre-inaugural rally in dc earlier this evening. >> we're going to do a lot of things. you're going to see something tomorrow. you're going to see executive orders that are going to make you extremely happy. lots of them. >> joining us now to discuss it all are civil rights attorney and former new york city mayoral candidate maya wiley and msnbc analyst and columbia university professor of practice basil smikle. i would also note that maya runs a very important civil rights organization. if i do say so myself. >> yes she does. >> yes she does. welcome to you both. so let's let's start with tomorrow. and the 50 executive orders. >> basil. >> and the approach that trump

is taking coming in the door. there's a little bit of sound from tonight's rally about an invasion. let's listen to the invasion. >> speak. by the time the sun sets tomorrow evening, the invasion of our borders will have come to a halt. and all the illegal border trespassers. will, in some form or another, be on their way back home. so that what i understand, and what i've been hearing from talking to various folks, is that the intent is to shut down america's border to the south tomorrow, with the possibility, again, using the military to enforce that. >> how do you assess congress's reaction to this? >> the american people, i mean, this is the first day. and yes, i know that there are a lot of

folks in magdalen land that really feel strongly about this, but where do you how do you think something like these actions are going to ring with the american people? >> well, i think it should terrify many americans, particularly if you live in big cities where you have a lot of immigrant populations congregated. >> not only will the executive orders go after what they say are people who are undocumented, who may have committed crimes. the warning is if there's anyone undocumented in the house at the time or wherever they are at the time, those folks are in danger of being deported as well. so what i and we've talked about this, he said what he was going to do. he is going to fulfill that. and as much time as we spend, not necessarily us, but collectively talking about the palace intrigue and the chaos and the concern around individual appointees. the reality is that a lot of people funded project 2025. a lot of

people co-sponsored it and there. so that means there is a there is a cohort of individuals who are going to be in government whose sole task is to implement that, that, that policy and this, this, this immigration executive order is not going to have the economic impact that he thinks it will, and it would be detrimental. number one, it'll rip families apart. but the truth is, there were a lot of people that voted for him despite what he said. right. and that's what's so concerning because they're in they're in for a wake up call. yeah. >> can i just note that i know it was widely reported that the deportation operation that was expected to begin starting in chicago. nbc news and others reported over the weekend, apparently chicago has now been postponed. not that it's not going to happen, but because of the media leaks, they're not going to start with chicago first. so the sources emphasize that the operation is not canceled. the people that would have been arrested remain

targets for ice. and but they said chicago is not going to be the first city to see mass deportation. >> and we know who's behind this. stephen miller is behind it. >> he was the architect of a lot of the anti-immigration policies that we saw under trump's first term. he has spent the last four years building relationships inside congress, building relationship with elon musk, and really perfecting how he can execute these policies. take a listen to what he said. this is the incoming deputy chief of staff for policy, stephen miller, talking about bureaucratic workers at tonight's trump rally. >> accountability is coming. justice is coming. the whole federal bureaucracy is about to learn that they don't work for themselves. they work for you. they work for president trump, and they work for the american people. >> so i want to pick up on what basil was saying about project 2025, which is a big part of that was the fact that they were gathering names. it's not simply that they're going to dismantle bureaucracy, it's that they are going to replace people with loyalists. >> exactly. >> so project 2025 made very

clear that it was about ideology, not about neutral operation of government. it was about weaponizing government, not making sure that government was actually doing what congress has asked it to do through legislation and the programs it was supposed to implement. that's very different from saying, hey, we want to disrupt the fact that we don't think government is working well enough. that would be a legitimate debate and position about what would make it work better. this isn't about it working. this is about breaking it. it was very, very explicit that it's about utilizing it for whatever donald trump wants to do. because what we have had historically in government, what the civil service laws represent, is saying you should not be owned by a party if you are supposed to deliver for the people, you're supposed to have expertise, not ideology, and

they are flipping it on its head and acting as if that's a good thing. >> remember when we talked to kevin roberts from the heritage foundation, the heritage foundation? we did an interview with him, and kevin roberts was like, i don't think 15,015 thousand government workers is enough. anybody to donate it to a democrat. and they michael was like, my daddy used to be a government worker. he was like, well, i'm sure your daddy's a nice person, but your daddy was a democrat or don't. he got to go. he got to go. that's crazy. he's got to go. virginia. hello? look out! any state? look. all y'all with these good government jobs, the good government jobs, they coming for, y'all. good government jobs. >> can we just add one thing that gets completely ignored in this conversation? how do we build a middle class? >> well, then there's a lot of good government. >> there's good government jobs. >> yeah. well. and the and it's the destruction of organized labor and. right. because there's some that decided not to endorse because they still wanted to support him. but organized labor has traditionally been the path for so many americans to get into the middle class, not just

because of the jobs, but even the housing that they've built tens of thousands of units of housing around the country, that housing that donald trump and his father probably wouldn't let a lot of us in. >> by the way, i don't think anybody on this panel would qualify for one of trump daddy loans back in the day. >> exactly right. and one of the things that is concerning to me also is the raucous applause when during their rally, when they're speaking, because that suggests to me that people feel that their deputized to be able to go out and do the work that donald trump and his and his actual paid supporters are going to do. so does that mean that our neighbors, family members are going to be calling us in to, say, calling in to say, i have undocumented folks in my family, in my household, come and get them. that's the that's the real concern. that's what that kind of atmosphere produces. >> well, we've actually seen it. yeah. >> and we are hearing anecdotes of people, individuals, vigilantes feeling like they can

stop people and demand to know whether they're a citizen or not. >> so can i let me just throw something and put it right here in the middle of the table? >> i know we all, all of america to take a look at and pay attention to who gets to draw the line on any of this. >> where will the line be drawn once these executive orders get get put in place? i just look at the tiktok effort right now and recognize the president of the united. the incoming president has said that by executive order, he will refuse to obey federal law. and i'm looking and the and some of our friends in the press is writing it up like it's regular, writing it up like it's regular. >> he's not saying they're like, well, donald trump said he's going to sign the executive order. this is bad for joe biden. what the heck is going on? i'm serious. >> i'm glad you asked that question, because it was. i was reading the three, four, five, seven, ten, 12 stories that came out around this afternoon. when

this came out, i was like, none of the ones that i read from some very reputable, reputable newspapers even mentioned or addressed the fact the question, can he do this right? no, he can't. and tom cotton rightly says, i'm sorry, you don't have the authority. he came out like an hour or two after all this started breaking. >> it's a crazy day. you don't have to be in the camp. tom cotton who? >> right. so who's drawing the line? >> well, that's. well, that that's the concern because i looked at you mentioned tiktok and i saw yesterday tiktok goes down. hopefully president trump will fix this. tiktok goes back up. thank you, president trump i was like, he's branding. he's branding. he's using the country to brand himself. yes. when has that? when have we done that. yes. and what's and so to the to that point, i don't know if there's anyone willing to stand up to, to bring those to, to, to draw those lines, to bring it back. i hope that it's the

senate. but that's only because only because they're supposed to be. >> they're supposed to, not only because they're supposed to be something bad going on, because they're only because they're supposed to be the saucer that the hot cup of tea. >> that's right. but that's not going to happen. but i don't think that's going to happen. i don't think that's going to happen. >> so. all right, so you to my basil need to stick around because we got more of this coming. we're going to continue this conversation after a quick break. you're watching the break. you're watching the weekend. here's to getting better with age. here's to beating these two every thursday. help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need, and the flavor you love. so, here's to now... now available: boost max! ♪♪ herbal essences is a force of nature. our shampoos and conditioners are made with supercharged botanicals. ♪♪

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forgotten no longer. and the crime and the gangs and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential. this american carnage stops right here and stops right now. from this day forward, it's going to be only america first, america first. together, we will make america great again. >> that was. that's what you want. >> that was some trump's first

inaugural address. maya wiley and basil smikle are back with us. so that that was a mouthful. >> i want to pick up michael's question of how he does all of this, because a lot of how he does all of this, or will try to do it is through emergency powers. emergency powers, of course, were meant to temporarily enhance the powers of the presidency in a time of emergency or crisis. if you had a situation where congress simply could not act fast enough, that's not what this is about. he's not even giving congress a chance to legislate around any of these myriad challenges. you had the brennan center doing some research on what is available to any president of the united states, a lot of it sort of normal, reasonable, a lot of it pretty scary, giving the president the power to take over domestic communications, the power to seize americans bank accounts, to deploy u.s. troops to any foreign country. we simply do not have the checks on the presidency that you would need to control someone like donald trump from abusing emergency powers. >> we would have a check if we

had a senate that was willing to stand up to the president. what we even saw, even in the process of nominations, we saw senators who knew that there were issues and problems with some of the things that trump was, some of the people trump was nominating and simply capitulated rather than make public their actual concerns about the qualifications of the candidate. but here's the thing. the reality is there are checks and balances. but they are we the people. because when you don't have the elected leaders doing the job they've been elected to do, it is incumbent upon it's going to be it's going to be litigators who are going to come forward to defend communities from the american carnage that is an american dictator, because what we're talking about is the same thing that we saw in korea, south korea, and we've seen in other countries where an elected president decides to take powers that have not been conferred on the president. and if the

elected class doesn't stand up, we the people must. and it will happen both through the courts. and then we'll get to the question of the supreme court, which is a real legitimate question, but also the power for us to deny permission when we are willing to organize the peaceful opposition that says if we got to be in the streets and say, no, you won't, we will be. if we have to be in the courts and say, no, you won't, then we will be. that doesn't guarantee victory in the moment, but it's the thing we must do as we honor doctor king, who said, a man can't ride on your back if you don't unless you bend it. and we cannot bend it as people. >> so that that raises a very interesting point for me, because i took note of the fact that there were protests in town yesterday. large groups, large groups. why not tomorrow? why not tuesday? >> well, how about that? why? why not to the polls?

>> well, okay. well that's that's that's an early on question. but to your point about we the people. yes. here's my concern that a lot of what we see out of maga and trump is to create a chilling effect. it is to get you is preventive, is to get you not to act, to put fear in you from acting. and so i took the fact that in 2020, over a million women showed up the weekend after the inauguration. they said, oh hell no, we ain't going through this right. and this time you had that. those large groups protesting before the inauguration, was it because they knew on monday, tuesday, wednesday the crackdown would be so severe? well, that's i'm just curious as to whether or not there will be the follow through on the we the people side, regardless of their political origin story. >> well, we the people who are the civil rights coalition are

going nowhere and bending to no one. right. so and that's look at the leadership conference on civil and human rights. we've got over 240 national organizations. a lot of them are membership groups. we look like the country. we represent every zip code, and we look like almost everyone who's in this country. and i say that because there is a deep resolve, i think the difference in between 20 and 24 are twofold. one, we saw what happened on january 6th, and people are being much more cautious about protecting people who are protesting. we do need to rightly be organized for the protection of people who are engaged in nonviolent protest, while we also make sure that people have what they need. and i will say this, you know, this is an after an election in which we all agree with the peaceful transfer of power. it's not about creating any sense that voters did not vote. we honor the peaceful transfer of power.

but you're not going to see people capitulating to harming children. you're not going to see people capitulating to militarizing the police to go after people because they are black or brown. because remember, when we're talking about immigration deportations, are you hearing anyone talk about eastern europeans? by the way? i don't think we should be either. i'm just saying this is and even that speech we heard, even that speech we heard tonight was explicitly calling us them within this country about who belongs. and that is something that we have to organize the big tent around. and as people start to see who did not believe he would do what he promised, and he does start to do it, that's different. >> i take maya's point about the peaceful transfer of power, basil. and there's a there's a split screen because it is like the civil rights community and activist community and people who are a part of the

pro-democracy movement. but then you have this from the new york times earlier today. you know, defiance is out. deference is in. trump returns to a different washington. the times writes this the mood leading up to the second trump inauguration reflects how much has changed since the first trump inauguration. much of the world, it seems, is bowing down to the incoming president. technology moguls have rushed to mar-a-lago to pay homage. billionaires are signing seven figure checks and jockeying for space at the inaugural ceremony. some corporations are preemptively dropping climate and diversity programs to curry favor. >> well, that that that is happening, particularly among the wealthy and the tech industry, because they can do that. they have the luxury of being able to say, you're you're in power now. so let me let me talk to you. you know, the average person doesn't have that power. they don't have that level of access and agency. and to maya's point, the guardrails really are us at this point. we are the resistance. it's got to look different than resistance 1.0. resistance 2.0 has to be different. but to your to your question, a reporter asked me the other day, is there this

democratic malaise? it's like there's no malaise. we're a little introspective right now, but there's no malaise. there are a lot of and the truth is, there are a lot of people that were invited to the barbecue. not everybody can come to the family meeting. and that's that's where we are right now. as a as a friend of mine told me, that's where we are right now. this is true. and that family meeting is about is about an agenda that is very clear, that is very purposeful, very intentional, and is inclusive of all of these organizations that have been doing the work for a long time. but understanding that these organizations now need to be protected in a little bit, in a way that they perhaps were not before, particularly a lot of nonprofits. and i would also add at this point that heretofore, i love that word. heretofore, we have had a lot of folks in our community that were really siloed, particularly very wealthy in our community, particularly black folks. and i will say this among like sort of the black wealthy and the nonprofit sector and so on,

siloed. that has to end because this resistance 2.0 is very inclusive. it should be very inclusive because there are folks who are trying to get to school right now that are being blocked. there are folks that are getting jobs right now, industry after industry, company after company, that is saying we're going to take away that dei done. and one of the key themes of project 2025 for every agency that's outlined is the taking back of the dismantling of equal the office of equal protection. >> oh, that's one of the executive orders that apparently the president will be signed tomorrow. tomorrow? yeah. i'll be watching for this resistance right now. i think i'm an independent voter. my wily vassal. schmeichel. thank you both very, very much. next, folks, we are going to talk to journalist jose antonio vargas ahead of trump's expected executive orders, specifically on immigration. you're watching a special edition of the weekend. work, play.

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reported yesterday that chicago was set to be the first city targeted. but breaking tonight, nbc has learned that that operation has been postponed due to media leaks. still, the raids are coming in. communities across this country will now be living in constant fear of the uncertain. pulitzer prize winning journalist jose antonio vargas spent decades in the united states as an undocumented immigrant. 13 years ago, he publicly revealed his immigration status. just last month, vargas finally secured a u.s. visa. it took him 31 years to achieve legal status, but he is still not on a direct path to citizenship. jose antonio vargas joins us now for a television exclusive. he is the founder and president of define american, an organization. full disclosure i co-founded. he's also the host of define american with jose antonio vargas and author of dear america notes of an undocumented citizen.

>> oh, well, i know what a story i know, right? >> thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> so people say, let's get in line. there's no line. >> well, i have to tell you. >> so when alicia and i co-founded this organization 13 years ago, that's the number one question i got asked. and it doesn't matter, by the way, if i was talking to republicans in alabama or progressives in wisconsin like they did not understand, why can't you just go fix this thing? >> right? you know what's interesting? >> reporters themselves don't understand this. i actually think a big part of the issue. >> i mean, i recently found out and i am a reporter, so i have to fact check something before i say something out loud. >> i recently found out that there's a d.c. based news operation that reports on politics without a single full time immigration reporter on staff. are you telling me that we've elected someone president twice with immigration as the central campaign issue, and all we do is think of immigration as a political issue and not as a process? like, how does this

actually work? so tomorrow, when the deportations happen, do people understand that you have 11 million undocumented people because immigration is not one size fits all and immigrants are not monolith? >> oh, speaker mike johnson was on meet the press earlier today, and he was asked about the mass deportations by kristen welker. and let's play for you what he had to say. >> i cannot think of a better dollar for dollar investment than to restore the security and the safety of the country. >> we have dangerous illegals in the country, criminals who have already committed crimes here, violent crimes against american citizens. >> the best thing we can do is return those people from from where they came. >> that's the rhetoric. but to your point, the process in what? first of all, i will note that the data and i mean this some of this data is from the heritage foundation. actually, the majority of undocumented people in this country, they are not the people who are committing

crimes. it's actually american citizens who are committing. >> why would they put that kind of spotlight on themselves? >> yeah, just, you know, i just think it's important to put that out there on the streets. >> hey, i'm going to come here illegally and commit crimes because, no, i'm going to come here illegally and in the middle of a snow in manhattan. >> make sure that you have your doordash. i'm going to come here illegally. there you go. so to make sure you have strawberries in your salads and hamburgers and lettuce in your hamburgers, i'm going to come here illegally to make sure that the state of texas, where there's 1.8 million undocumented people, half of the industry and construction in texas are undocumented. so when the speaker of the house says dollar for dollar investment, what are we actually talking about? here's i have a real challenge for my fellow journalists. step up, follow the money. right. follow the money. get really specific. so, as you know, the whole goal of this is how do you for us, for us, a different american. i had one story, one really specific story, right. and i told and i'm telling it with as much specificity and humanity as i can. and guess what? the 11

million undocumented people. and by the way, i don't think it's 11 million. if i just counted all the undocumented white people that want to buy me coffee at starbucks, at the airports, i think it's way more than 11 million undocumented people. i think we don't talk about undocumented black people nearly enough. the largest is it sunday. >> i need to pick up a plate to well, yes, it is sunday. haitian folks, folks from the continent of africa now, undocumented white people like europeans, the fastest growing undocumented population in the country are not coming from latin america. >> they're coming from asia. the second largest undocumented population are coming from india. have we talked to the incoming to the to the incoming vice president about that, who is married to an indian-american woman? why has that not come up? >> because it's not neat and it doesn't fit the narrative. and when you talk about the fact that people don't report on this because they don't think it's a policy question, they think of it as a political question. let's be honest, for a long time they just thought of it as a latino political question, because we have been the face of

this issue for so long. i say that to you, my filipino friend. >> and i have to say, by the way, because also, alicia and i are really good friends with a woman named cristela alonzo, who's mexican-american, and we have kind of a mexican population. she was just texting me today because she was so happy about this. i'm so glad that i got this process in mexico, because i have to go to mexico to follow, to get a visa to follow this process. to get in line, i had to leave the country that i have been my home for 31 years, that i paid a lot of taxes to because undocumented immigrants pay taxes, leave the country with no guarantee that i'd be allowed to come back. and being in mexico, i have to say, i think we in this country owe the mexican people a great apology. we have racialized this issue to such an extent that we think this is a mexican border wall issue in a country, by the way, that has what the united states of amnesia that doesn't even want to acknowledge the fact that all of these places texas, arizona, california, i'm sorry, who did they used to belong to? >> mexico. >> that's the point. and that's

that's the rub for a lot of folks. there is a mentality and a mindset that wants to deliberately create a vision or a vision of this issue that people can sink their teeth into and be angry about and not appreciate everything you just said about the men and women who are actually doing the work in this country. i got into a little bit of a tiff, as i am wont to do from time to time with people, and this one guy was throwing this up in my face about what they need to go back. i said, okay, when they go back, is your is your son going to take his lazy out there and do the work? see? >> see michael? >> is he going to. but my point is, who's going to do the work that you're claiming is not getting done right? who's got the speakers talking about the economic impact? does the speaker not understand the economic impact? when, when

because of this policy tomorrow? it's not about so much of it's about the people who are going to be deported, actually. but you know what? it's also about the chilling effect that it's going to have on people who are here legally, who get caught up in this system because they have the wrong name or they live in the wrong neighborhood. >> and the reality is, you can't talk about an undocumented person without that person's relationship with all of the other people in their family. that's right. right. the parents are undocumented. the kids are u.s. citizens, right? don't they? to me, what's been so chilling is watching some democrats, you know, with this lake and riley act. hum. right. hum. >> and to me, what the full screen up of the democrats who are supporting the lake and riley act. >> what's been fascinating to me is the message is if you're an undocumented immigrant, you're not you're not entitled to due process of law. right? which is a cornerstone of american democracy, which means what? you're not human. the speaker of the house, what did he just say

were illegals? right? that's what he just said. so now again, calling i am journalism is my church. it is my religion. i've been praying since i was 16 years old. so when the speaker of the house does that, what is our job? how do we how do how do news organizations, how do journalists now ask this moral question that is being asked of us? we live in a country where there's 48 million immigrants, 48 million of all status, right. of the 48, 11 million are undocumented. of the 48 million in the next 50 years, 88% of the population growth of the country is going to come from that 48 million people. the country is only going to get more asian, more latino, more black and more mixed race. that's not die. that's not diversity. that's just a fact yet. >> yeah. >> that's why stephen miller is working posthaste. >> that's it. >> stephen, i would really love to talk to you, man. >> yes. stephen miller, you have an open invitation to come on the weekend from jose antonio vargas. yes, yes, we would all love to chat. >> we would love to have that

conversation. up next, historian jon meacham will be joining us as we prepare for another transition of power here in america. you're watching the america. you're watching the weekend, a very special edition. struggling with the highs and lows of bipolar 1? ask about vraylar. because you are greater than your bipolar 1 and you can help take control of your symptoms, with vraylar. some medicines only treat the lows or highs. vraylar treats depressive, acute manic, and mixed episodes of bipolar 1 in adults. proven full-spectrum relief for all bipolar 1 symptoms. vraylar is not approved for elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis due to increased risk of death or stroke. report changes in behavior or suicidal thoughts to your doctor. antidepressants can increase these in children and young adults. report fever, stiff muscles or confusion which may be life-threatening or uncontrolled muscle movements which may be permanent. high blood sugar, which can lead to coma or death, weight gain and high cholesterol may occur.

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>> the only 3 in 1 extended relief formula for dry eyes. >> blink. when i got this order, i was shocked because this cookware is sturdy. it has this durability that's going to last for years only you're getting this at a fraction of the price. get $20 off your first purchase at winscombe. >> the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. >> ask not what your country can do for you. >> ask what you can do for your country. we know that the best way to enhance freedom in other lands is to demonstrate here that our democratic system is worthy of emulation. >> government is not the solution to our problem. >> government is the problem. >> there is nothing wrong with america that cannot be cured by what is right with america.

>> we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking america. >> this american carnage stops right here and stops right now. restore the soul and secure the future of america requires so much more than words. requires the most elusive of all things in a democracy. unity. >> unity. >> with us now is the rogers chair in the american presidency at vanderbilt, john meacham. he occasionally advises president biden on historical matters and major speeches. welcome, my friend. good to see you, john. >> jon meacham, i couldn't think of a better person to end the hour with than you. can you just talk a little bit about we saw this montage right leading up of all these past inaugurations. tomorrow will be different in the sense from from anything in

recent history for, you know, young millennials like myself, because the inauguration will take place inside the capitol rotunda. that rotunda only seats about 600 people, and it will have everyone from billionaires to some democrats and some republicans in leadership, but also some international leaders like viktor orban and giorgia meloni. >> yeah, it's a it's a it's like the star wars bar scene meets c-span. i think we're inaugurations should be moments of democratic lowercase d renewal. they should be moments where we remind ourselves that this is a human, fallible, frail project that requires all of us to want and to be able to give a little bit, as well as our natural impulse to take. and by and large, for almost well,

since george washington took this first oath in april of 1789, until four years ago, we had peaceful transfers of power and we nearly didn't four years ago. so one of the things that i think will be particularly poignant tomorrow is seeing president biden doing something that president trump did not do for him or for the country, which is respect the constitution, respect the will of the people. and i hope that it makes folks want to incentivize over the next four years, a kind of behavior that whatever your policy views at least keeps in mind that the will of the people has to prevail. >> spoken like a true historian. i appreciate the words and the

reflection in the in the connective tissue to history, particularly as we listen to that montage of presidential inauguration speeches. but we ended as we're about to begin again with the president, who views america through a very different lens. john, he refers to this american experience as american carnage. he proposes to tomorrow, begin to yank from the very fabric of this nation, threads that have bound us together from the very beginning. because our histories are tied together that way, whether you are immigrant or slave, whether you are, you know, black or white, hispanic. how how do we or how should we assess tomorrow and the day after tomorrow and the days

after that, in this, in this, through this lens? >> yeah. michael, you're you're of course you're right. i don't often say that to you. so let's mark the calendar. i think where we are is once again, as we were in 2017. we're in a moment personal opinion as a citizen where the fullest manifestation of a lot of forces that at our best we manage to contain are, in fact on the march. right. president trump is in some ways an aberration. but let's be very honest about american history in a lot of ways he isn't. right. this is a country i don't need to tell the three of you that has lived out of compliance with the declaration of independence for more years than we've lived in compliance with it. the

remarkable thing about this country is that, i believe, is that we've gotten as much right as we have. and so what i would recommend to folks who are watching this and who are worried is to feel that there is agency. don't surrender, don't give up. because, you know, this is this is the animal house sermon. did we give up when the germans bombed pearl harbor? you know, we you cannot do that. and this is a place not in the rotunda, but out on the east front of the capitol, where abraham lincoln in march of 1865, with frederick douglass in the audience, talked about how we had gone through essentially a rite of blood sacrifice to expiate the sin of human slavery. the 13th amendment had just passed the first black man

to ever speak in the house of representatives, henry highland garnet, had just a month or so before preached a sermon in the house of representatives. and you know how that day ended. frederick douglass was hustled out of the white house because one of the guards didn't think black folks were supposed to come to the reception. so you have the high and you have the low. our task is to make the high more frequent and to realize our promise. and let's just not give up. >> jon meacham, those were exactly the words we needed to hear as we look forward to tomorrow. thank you so much for making the time. we're going to wrap things up after a quick break. you're watching the break. you're watching the weekend. i brought in ensure max protein with 30 grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks! —uh. —here i'll take that. [cheering] ensure max protein, 30 grams protein, 1 gram sugar and a protein blend to feed muscles up to 7 hours.

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and supplements you take, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding or have kidney or liver problems. if you have hepatitis b, don't stop taking biktarvy without talking to your healthcare provider. common side effects were diarrhea, nausea, and headache. no matter where life takes you, biktarvy can go with you. talk to your healthcare provider today. tomorrow we are going to see we're going to see a lot. i mentioned that some of these world leaders will will be there. obviously, former president george bush, former president obama will be attending the inauguration. former vice president mike pence is also planning to attend the inauguration. carrie underwood is going to sing america the beautiful at the inauguration. there are many athletes that will be in attendance. >> but when you go through all the pomp and circumstance, it is a reminder that this is part of the challenge of this moment, which is we expect that and we have to have that, and that's

part of the peaceful transfer of power. and then the minute he gets into office, he is signing executive action after executive action that do things that are not at all in line with what that pomp and that circumstance is meant to indicate. >> it's yeah, i like the way you put that because what it what it frames for me is really what we're witnessing happen is how the pomp and the circumstance of a national event like this sets us up. it lulls us in. >> and you're a person who loves pomp. >> i love pomp. oh, i can pump with the best of them. trust me, i do. but i also recognize that on the other side of that is the work. and that's the part that they don't want us to pay attention to. they don't want us to pay attention to what you just said about he's going to be signing things. they're going to be taking away a lot from people. and that's going to happen. he's going to he's going

to officiate it. and at the verizon center. right. it's going to be sitting there in this in this big hall signing these these orders. and people are going to be whooping up the dehumanization of their fellow citizen. and that's that's the part of this that i think we really that's why i keep asking the question, who's going to put the guardrails in place and who's going to stand up and say, no? because a lot of this is reality tv on steroids. >> yes. because he is signing those executive orders in the in the arena in washington, d.c. make a show of it. it is it is it is a reality. it's a marketing play. it's a marketing all of the things that he said he was going to do on the campaign trail. so let me sign them all in front of all of my people, my supporters who are there at the at the who are wanting to be at the capitol, but now they're going to be at the arena so they can see that i

make good on what i said, even though what about the eggs? what about the bringing the prices down? all these executive orders aren't going to be about any of that. it's going to be about division. it's going to be about othering people, targeting individuals, americans and people who have been in this country who who frankly, like dreamers, who are americans in every sense of the word, stepped on paper, frankly. right. and it is i take the charge that antonio vargas gave us is that we have to we have to be specific. and as president biden said in his last in his oval office address, the people are standing guard for democracy now! it is up to the people, by the way, we are the keepers of the plan. >> friends, so fun to be with you early in the morning. good to see you. >> we haven't seen you. good to see you. >> good to see you up here in new york. yeah. >> thank you for joining us for this special edition of the weekend previewing donald trump's second inauguration. i want you to tune in tomorrow, starting at 10 a.m. eastern, as rachel maddow helms our special coverage of the inauguration. that's followed by analysis from our prime time anchors and the three of us. as trump's second term begins, you can also catch

the three of us every saturday and sunday morning at 8 a.m. eastern on the weekend. be sure to follow our show on social media. our handle everywhere is at the weekend. msnbc. there is more news to come on msnbc after more news to come on msnbc after this quick break. still living with odors? get back in there and freshen instantly with febreze air mist. febreze's fine mist floats longer in the air to fight even your toughest odors. so long stinky smells and hello amazing freshness. febreze air mist. if have heart disease and struggle with ldl-c... even with statins and diet... listen to your heart. talk to your doctor about repatha. repatha plus a statin lowers ldl-c by 63%. do not take repatha if you're allergic to it. serious allergic reactions can occur. get medical help right away if you have trouble breathing or swallowing, swelling of the face, lips, tongue, throat or arms. common side effects include runny nose, sore throat, common cold symptoms, flu or flu-like symptoms, back pain, high blood sugar, and redness, pain or bruising at the injection site. ask about repatha.

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>> i feel like i'm completely different person. get growing at nfl.com. >> okay, to say there's a lot going on right now would be a bit of an understatement. >> we are now 24 hours out from donald