you cannot throw in these fatwas — you know, most famous of which was against salman rushdie — becausee left who simply think that certain things said about transgenderism or a whole host of other issues should not be given a platform. are you saying there is an equivalence with the islamist fundamentalists? no, i'm not saying there is an equivalence but i'm saying that many of the signatories, garry kasparov or some who do have fatwas, to some who escaped authoritarian regimes in iran and elsewhere, to dwayne betts, the poet who spent eight years in a maximum security prison since the age of 16 and then graduated from yale law school afterwards, a lot of these people who have been through serious forms of silencing believe it operates on a continuum, so... isn't it — there was a counter letter after yours, signed by a whole bunch of other writers — jeff yang, i believe, was one of them, he works for the wall street journal. he said "it is hard not to see thomas‘" — that's your letter — "as merely an elegantly written affirmation of elitism and privilege by people have absolutely no pr

salman rushdie, thanks for coming. >> good to be with you. >> you have spoken about this before donald trump was as play tabletl -- blatantly demanding in overturning what the voters decided. your thoughts tonight? >> well, you know, i'm going to be optimistic right now. it seems to me we've had four years of something which became more and more and more like an authoritarian regime as time passed. we have a moment now where mitch mcconnell accepted the results of the election, even moscow mitch, and so maybe we can now look forward to a year after this horrible year, this dreadful pandemic in which we have a sane government that will behave like a sane government and we can beat the pandemic. i think literature has a role to play here because we've living in a moment of an incredibly fractured belief in the truth, one man's reality is another man's fake news and literature has always been a way in which people have been able to rediscover truth because literature is about truth. it about the truth of human nature, the truth of how we are with each other, what we do to each other and m

plus later tonight, we end the hour in a big way with salman rushdie. n y with salma rushdie. start with all the moms in the world. narrow it to all the karate moms... in desperate need of brown sugar. meaning, you. you're the one we made mywalgreens for. with pickup in as little as 30 minutes. hiya! get 30-minute pickup at walgreens.com unlike ordinary memory want supplements-ter? neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. try our new gummies for 30 days and see the difference. >>> attorney general bill barr formally resigned and leaves office next week, a move that shows how barr differed from so many republican veterans that found themself fired by tweets. they are trying to cast barr as some independent figure that left clashing with trump with voter fraud and keeping that newly revealed hunter biden probe sealed. having covered this throughout the whole period of the trump doj, this is classic barr. it's not unlike the gap between barr's leader that offered a mueller book rep

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salman rushdie, thank you so much. have a safe holiday.t does it for us this morning. yasmin vossoughian picks up the coverage right now. >> hi, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian in for steph ruhle this morning. it's tuesday, december 29th. here is what is happening this morning. all eyes on the senate today as the chamber comes back in session soon. the fate of really two important measures now in their hands. first whether millions of americans will get $2,000 stimulus checks instead of the $600 already passed after the house voted to pass that measure with 44 republicans joining most democrats in approving it. the senate's top democrat now asking the president to convince senate republicans to back the bigger payments today, too. >> i am telling donald trump, don't just talk about it, act. these senate republicans have followed you through thick and thin. get them now to act and

and in 2010 pat buchanan ralph nader and salman rushdie were on all johnson was one of our guest as thebritish historian. >> we are living in the age of this is v comforting and considerable now where your e-mail correspondence and have them while condition and of the world we have expanded in the material sense that morality appears to be no better than ever. everything that is true you look at the time of george washington or go further back to the time of into the middle ages of the crusades we have to admit the public morals on the whole are not substantially improved there are a large number of dreadful things that occur in anyone who has lived through the middle of the 20th century as i di did, must take a pessimistic view to on - - improve the moral standard nevertheless i'm not without hope that this can be done crystal take the view on the whole the world is a good place and it's getting to be a better place but we must work our hardest to improve the standard because that is what is required. >>. >> favorite author and guest and what you reading? l did you ever have on oliver