joining me now, timothy snyder, a professor at yale university. thank you for making time for us this evening. there are a lot of people who don't want to hear what you wrote today in "the boston globe" or what you tweeted yesterday. they want this to be over. they believe, as joe biden constantly says, this will pass and he will be the next president of the united states. but what you write about is something deeper than that. the scar that this will leave on democracy, you actually refer to germany of the 1920s as an example of how dangerous this can be. >> that's right. i mean, an election doesn't ordinarily unroll with a story like this. in the united states, usually the story is clear. one person wins, one person loses, one person gives a victory speech, one person concedes. what we have to think about looking forward is what it means when a sitting president and many of his important allies, the majority leader in the senate, for example, the secretary of state, for example, take part in what is unequivocally a big lie. all of the evidence i

timothy snyder is the author of "on tyranny," professor at yale university. professor, thank you for your time this evening. we appreciate it. >> my pleasure.tyou >>> president trump has spent this pastid week firing top national security officials and replacing themna with administration loyalists, which would be concerning at any point in time, but why now? why the week after losing the election? the house intelligence committee chair, congressman adam schiff, joins us live next. congressman joins us live next it's moving day. and while her friends are doing the heavy lifting, jess is busy moving her xfinity internet and tv services. it only takes about a minute. wait, a minute? but what have you been doing for the last two hours? delegating? oh, good one. move your xfinity services without breaking a sweat. now that's simple, easy, awesome. xfinity makes moving easy. go online to transfer your services in about a minute. get started today. >>> we have new reporting tonight on donald trump's efforts to fire senior pentagon leaders and install staunch loyali

timothy snyder's book did that for me. at the beginning i was struck by his very prophetic moments in the book and what strikes me is his refrain of being mindful and protecting the key institutions. i felt that with some books i encountered things that passed over quickly the first time around. and i do imagine that it will maybe give me more humility when i know all i can do is grapple with a book in the moment and whatever strikes me strikes me but to have enough self-awareness this may not be the most important thing about the argument or the book and there is a certain nature to my own insights about each of these works. i realize that there is often more there than i anticipated. >> you have won a pulitzer prize for criticism of your book for the "washington post" and you've read more than 150 books on the first book and now you will be a kinder critic. congratulations on all of that. >> welcome back to our centennial speaker series. thank you for joining for today's event featuring jeanette garrett scott. if this is

timothy snyder.nk you for educating us. >>> tonight, cnn brings you the story of joe biden and his long journey from the nomination this summer to president-elect. at 10:00 eastern on cnn. >>> up next, the dangerous mis-information game the president and his allies are playing. ♪ ♪ i see you looking (uh) ♪ i see you looking (na, na, na) ♪ ♪ i see you looking (uh) ♪ i see you looking ♪ watch what i do (camera clicks) ♪ watch what i do ♪ i see you looking ♪ watch what i do! (camera clicks) ♪ watch what i do ♪ i see you looking ♪ watch what i ... do! >>> a group of national, state and private officials agree this year's election was the most secure in american history. helping keep president trump's claims of voter fraud alive, the right wing echo chamber. >> many are trying to steal this election from president trump. >> this is the 2020 form of birtherism, election denialism. delegitima delegitimizing. from facebook to twitter. the top posts were from president trump, his evangel list supporter, frank

timothy snyder's book on tierney did that in these dramatic moments in the book. what strikes me most about the book is his refrain of being mindful and protecting the key institutions. i filled with some books i encountered things i may have passed over quickly the first time around and i do imagine it might give me more humility when i'm reviewing books in the moment and whatever strikes me strikes me but to have the self-awareness to realize this may not be the most important thing about this argument or this book and there's a certain ephemeral nature about each of these works. even people who spend years or life times and then i show up in a couple of days reading them and trying to pass some kind of judgment on them seems unfair and having to reread and reconsider these books is useful for me because i realize there is often more there than i anticipated. a. >> you've already won a pulitzer prize for criticism for your book criticism for the "washington post." more than 150 books and the trump era and now you will be a kinder critic. congratulations on all o

timothy snyder's book did that for me for instance. beginning is struck by a very prophetic, pre- fascism. a very dramatic moments in the book. and when i was rereading it in 2020, what strikes me most about that book is his refrain of being mindful and protecting key institutions. just take the institutions you care about and you stick by them. so i felt that with some books, i encountered things that i may have passed over quickly the first time around. and i do imagine that may be give me more humility when i have been knowing that all i can do is grapple with the book in the moment. and whatever strikes me, strikes me. but is sort of have enough self-awareness to realize that this may not be the most important thing about this argument or this book and there is a certain nature to my own deep probing insights about each of these works. people spend years in lifetime sometimes on this work and then i show up in a couple of days and read them. they try to cast them type of judgment on them. seems grossly unfair. i think having to re-

timothy snyder's book did that for me. i was struck by its prophetic fascism and there are dramatic moments in the book and when i was reading it in 2019, 2020, what strikes me most about that book is his refrain of being mindful and protecting the key institutions, picking institutions you care about and sticking by them. so, i felt with some books i encountered things i may have passed over quickly the first time around. and i do imagine that it will maybe give me some more humility when i am reviewing all i can do is grapple with a book in the moment and whatever strikes me strikes me. but to sort of have enough self-awareness to realize that this may not be the most important thing about this argument or this book and that there's a certain ephemeral nature to my own insights about each of these works. these are people who spend years, lifetimes sometimes and then there's a couple of days reading them and trying to pass some kind of judgment on them it seems grossly unfair. having to reread and reconsider these books i

professor timothy snyder, thank you so much for your time, sir. >> thank you. >> of course. >>> holidayslready a hard time for many families facing economic hardship and this year, it's even worse. long lines at food banks and millions of americans out of work. when we come back, how president-elect biden is going to handle this economic crisis on top of the pandemic. you're live in a cnn newsroom. hey neal! with 3% cash back at drugstores from chase freedom unlimited, you can now earn even more. i got this great shampoo you should try. yeah you look good. of course i do neal, i'm kevin hart. now earn 3% at drugstores and so much more. chase. make more of what's yours. now roomba vacuums exactly where you need it. hey google, tell roomba to vacuum the kitchen counter. and offers personalized cleaning suggestions for a clean unique to you and your home. roomba and the irobot home app. only from irobot. roomba and the irobot home app. honey honey? new nyquil severe honey is maximum strength cold and flu medicine with soothing honey-licious taste. nyquil honey. the nighttime, sniffling, sne

. >> the historian timothy snyder points to the danger of such rhetoric.f you have been stabbed in the back, then everything is permitted, claiming that a fair election was foul is preparation for an election that is foul. if you convince your voters that the other side has cheated, you are promising them that you, yourself, will cheat next time. having bent the rules, you will then have to break them. a political system is not a collection of laws and rules. it is an accumulation of norms and behavior. when senate majority leader mitch mcconnell says trump is 100% within his rights to behave as he is, mcconnell is missing this crucial distinction. there is a reason past presidents have conceded defeat when it was statistically clear they had lost without waiting for the last vote to be counted. and trump's defeat is decisive. biden is on track to vin as many 2013.oral votes as trump did in biden's margin in georgia is over 25 times larger than the difference in florida between george w. bush and al gore in 2000. biden enjoys a larger margin in pennsylvani

famed author and yale professor timothy snyder writes in "the boston globe" today that, quote, trump's big election lie pushes america toward autocracy. clinging to power by claiming you are the victim of internal enemies is a very dangerous tactic. don't underestimate where this can go. underestimating donald trump is a mistake that people should not go on making. laughing at him will not make him go away. if it did, he would have vanished decades ago. after all, a claim that an election was illegitimate is a claim to remaining in power. a coup is under way, and the number of participants is not shrinking but growing. republican lawmakers find ever new verbal formulations that directly or indirectly support trump's claims. the longer this goes on, the greater the danger to the republic. joining me now, tim snyder, best-selling author of the books "on tyranny" and "our malady." he's a professor of history at yale university. thank you for making time with us this evening. there are a lot of people who don't want to hear what you wrote today in "the boston globe" or what you tweeted yes

timothy snyders book did that for me. at the beginning i was struck by the prophetic pre-fascism, the dramatic moments of the book and when i reread in 2019-20201 strikes me most about the book is his refrain up just being mindful of the protecting key institutions, just institutions we care about stick by them. i felt that with some books i just encountered things that may have just like passed over quickly the first time around and i do imagine that it will maybe give me more humility when i'm revealing knowing all i can do is grapple with the book of the moment and whatever strikes me, strikes me, but to sort of have enough self-awareness to realize that this may not be the most important thing about this argument for this book and that bears a certain nature to my own deep probing insights about each of these works. these are people that spent years, lifetime and sometimes on this work. i show up instead a couple days reading them and try to pass judgment on them which is grossly unfair and having to reef-- reread and