plus jelani cobb is on the show to talk about what is next for the country.o let's do this, people. welcome to the daily showings distancing show. >> less' kick things off with the story that just won't end. a coronavirus pandemic. cuz i know america has begun a new era but corona doesn't care about who is president. in fact, it's been exactly one year since we first learned that covid-19 had reached the united states and things have only gotten worse. yesterday the country set a new record for coronavirus deaths. and the cdc now predicts that half a million deaths will happen by mid february which is going to make for a weird valentine's day, valentine's day is already pretty weird. i'm supposed to buy an adult woman a teddy beer, that is creepy as hell. the point is it is more important than ever to step up on covid safety which is exactly what the nba is doing. >> after witnessing some opposing players disregard new league rules about unnecessary contact on game night, the nba is now moving team security to mid court following games to stop the hugging and

those are three gigantic crises he will have to face. >> woodruff: jelani cobb, pick up on that.do you see now that most urgently has to be addressed and how do we even begin to address it? >> sure, you know, i think that sean reached for the civil war connection, which has, i think, been instinctive, you know, for a lot of people. we keep going back to that moment, and for good r ason. when we look at, you know, what's happened, you know, and the scale of it and the ideauof a president being elected and being thought illegitimate, declared illegitimate by one of the two major political parties, and tremendous upheaval tipping over into violence coming out of it, that seems to be the ready explanation. i think there are some things about that moment that point to what we should do here. for one, when we looked at the aftermath of the civil war and the resurrection of a movement to reinscribe slavery, indeed, ulysses s. grant was confronted with having to uproot the ku klux klan. he realized they were an existential threat to everything that was achieved by that bloody war. and i

jelani cobb and ben collins join me ahead. >>> as someone who has attended and covered many protestsn my life, peaceful protest is obviously an important core first amendment right. being able to go to the capitol and protest is important, even if you do it in really loud or obnoxious ways, still protected. but there's a specific method of, um, i don't know if you want to call it protest, but political practice, the far right has been developing that is distinct in that it is armed and meant to intimidate and overrun. we saw this nearly a year ago in richmond, virginia. remember that? more than 20,000 people gathered for a pro-gun rally. amid a push for stronger gun control measures in the state. now, it was peaceful, but many rally goers brought firearms and openly carried them through the streets, some even donning military-style tactical gear. then there were the protests against coronavirus shutdowns this spring in michigan, late april, hundreds of people showed up at the capitol, some with firearms, and stormed into the building to protest stay-at-home orders. remember the michi

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we still have with us michelle goldberg, not mehdi hasan, jelani cobb. before we get into what the president just said there, one thing that is incredibly striking to me, it was true of the inauguration day, the match between the presence of covid in the world of the president and the world that we live in, which for a very long time was totally absent. it was like this bizarre disneyland had been constructed around the president where like everyone's doing stuff inside and no one's got masks and everything is normal. what's wrong with you? it was always so strange and surreal to watch that. so to watch we're doing this on zoom, and everyone is spaced at the inauguration, it's such a basic thing, but so -- it makes you realize how bizarre the months of denial were. >> i mean, and not just bizarre, but treacherous and possibly homicidal. and it's telling that these are all people for the most part who have been vaccinated, right? >> yeah. >> actually, joe biden doesn't need to be taking all of these precautions for himself. he needs to be doing it to mode

jelani cobb is a staff writer at "the new yorker" and an msnbc contributor.fessor, good evening. >> good evening. >> what do you make of the call for unity in the inauguration speech? >> some of it is boilerplate, you'll always hear presidents talk about the need to have a united front or a country that stands strong together despite the various divisions of geography, politics, et cetera, et cetera. of course it has additional weight if you're talking two weeks afteryou've seen the capitol overrun by people who think you're an illegitimate president who has stolen the election. i think that frames the context of it. the most important thing i think we should think about in talking about the call for unity is that he also said that white supremacy had to be defeated. i think the combination of those two things made it a little bit different than the typical kind of unity that you hear or the unity you saw that papered over differences or, worse, enabled white supremacy in the name of a kind of ersatz national unity. >> that's what felt different to me too, wh

. >> jelani cobb and ben collins, thank you both for making time tonight. i guess there's some breaking news that betsy devos resigning. these got only a few days left. that is "all in" for this evening. "the rachel maddow show" starts right now. >> "the wall street journal" is in fact reporting that betsy devos has resigned. we are working to confirm it at this moment, but so far that's a journal report. and, you know, who knows, chris, at which point do you bother counting the dominoes or you just put them back in the bag and wait to start the next game? >> yeah, and whether this is like -- this is serious and this means something's going to happen or whether people have had enough vacation days saved up that they're ready to head to the beach. >> the straw broke the camel's back. thank you, chris. >>> thanks to you at home for being with us this hour at this remarkable time in our country's history. the sergeant at arms in the house is responsible for security concerns at the house of representatives. house speaker nancy pelosi today demanded the resigna

. >> jelani cobb and ben collins, thank you both for making time tonight. i guess there's some breaking news that betsy devos resigning. thank you both for making time tonight. i guess there's some breaking news on betsy devos resigning? she's got only a few days left. that is "all in" for this evening. "the rachel maddow show" starts now. good evening, rachel. >> the "wall street journal" is, in fact, reporting that betsy devos has resigned. we are working to confirm it at this moment, but so far, that's a "journal" report. and you know, who knows, chris, at which point, do you bother counting the dominos or just put them in the bag and wait to start the next game? >> yeah, and whether this is, like, this is serious and this means that something's going to happen, or whether people had enough vacation days saved up that they're ready to head to the beach. >> yeah. the idea that they've just had, you know, the straw broke the camel's back, yeah. >> it's a little hard thing. >> thank you, polichris. and thank you at home for being with us this hour at this r

. >> jelani cobb and olivy troy talking dick cheney violence and radicalization on the first show oft is going to . when we return, new data about the highly contagious coronavirus variant first discovered in great britainan and now confirmed in another u.s. state. that story with lori garrett next. h lori garrett next ♪ we made usaa insurance for veterans like martin. when a hailstorm hit, he needed his insurance to get it done right, right away. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. usaa yeah? who's peter? well sweetie, he's your great-great grandfather. here, does he look like me? yeah. your family's story is waiting to be shared. at ancestry.com >>> today the growing threat of the new highly transmissible covid variant first identified in the u.k. andrew cuomo announced this afternoon that new york is now the fourth state to confirm a case. here is the shocking reality of what a 70% more infectious covid actually means. the u.k. prime minister is putting england on national lockdown today. today until mid-february, while daily case numbers form a climbing vertical line there