maryland that are having record high hospitalizations. they even have an emergency declaration there. new jersey's largest hospital system also bracing to break 2020 records and 1,000 military medical experts have been deployed to try to deal with overcrowding in the icus, with cases exploding, dr. fauci says more trips to the hospital will be a key indicator to watch. >> very often, you can't just forget about the number of people who are infected because that's the forewarner of what might happen with hospitalization. as you get further on and you see less severity, clearly hospitalization is the important thing. >> against this backdrop, the cdc is defending the way that it has changed the guidance for isolation time, cutting it in half, for people with few symptoms. today, meanwhile, the president of the american nurses association saying this. >> we believe that the guidelines are premature given what is known about omicron. it seems to tip more towards economic needs as opposed to taking into consideration the health needs of nurses and other members of the health care team. >> let's get right to it. we're joined by dr. michael osterholm, director of research and policy at the university of minnesota. welcome back. happy holidays and happy new year to you. >> thank you. thank you, to you, too. >> thanks. what is the picture that is emerging here of this omicron variant and the outlook if things keep going this way? >> well, we have to first admit we're into a viral blizzard right now that's impacting all 50 states, roughly at the same time. some areas are hit harder than others. but in the end, in the next six to eight weeks, we'll all see this large surge of cases. the big question is what will be the severity of that illness. will be in fact see people dying at the same rate we have seen them dying from delta? i don't think so. but the bottom line is we're going to have so many more individuals infected with omicron that we surely could have the same challenges to our health care system. let me just add one additional piece to that that really does set up for this perfect storm. and it also plays to your opening with regard to the nurses. is that it's very likely that 20 or more percent of health care workers are going to get infected even though they have been vaccinated and they'll be off. at that point, we are already basically providing health care in this country by the skin of our teeth. and it's going to be a real challenge to see the potential overlay of ill employees and sick people. >> yeah. and against that backdrop, the problems with testing. again, this is a rich nation. testing is part of the patchwork mitigation techniques we have seen. indeed, the biden man dade isn't technically a full mandate for businesses. it's a requirement to vax or test regularly. that becomes a bigger problem if amidst these surges you can't get access to good testing. take a look at what of what we're hearing from frustrated americans. >> feels a little third countryish. we should be doing a better job with testing. >> quite confusing, yeah. >> way too many people and not enough testing, not enough sites. >> i was looking for the home test and couldn't find it anywhere. >> it's been rough. that's why i'm here, because i couldn't find the at-home test. >> doctor, your thoughts? >> well, one of the things we have to understand is that we haven't done enough to get ourselves in a better place for testing. but even though the rest of the world has been emphasizing testing, including europe, they're now in the soup too. it's very difficult to find a test in the united kingdom and they were considered to be the best prepared in the world for being able to do testing. this is what a surge like this does. on top of that, as you know today, we have testing centers around the country, particularly on the east coast, where they were shut down because so many workers were sick with omicron. so the challenge we have right now is, again, our entire system and all of our lives are going to be impacted by how many sick people are out, whether it's at the grocery store, whether it's at the hospital, whether it's running your subways, doing testing. we haven't even talked about people doing the tests in the laboratory who are sick. so i think this is going to be an immense challenge for the next six to eight weeks. >> when you look at what we have learned from other countries, dr. fauci was citing the countries that got omicron earliest as slightly hopeful piece, again, nothing that great about all of these problems, but looking at it clinically, that there was a hope there that if the south african model would hold for the united states, you could be through the worst of this peak by early february. what do you think of that kind of analysis? does that hold, or do you differ with the fauci view on that? >> no, actually, i think that is right. i have been saying now for the last two weeks, you know, up to eight weeks from then. so i think it is right at that same timeline. this is going to go up quickly, which actually is a problem. you know, if you think about, 1,000 cases presenting for medical care, but 1 a day for 1,000 days is no problem. if 1,000 people present on the same day, you have a real problem. that's the challenge we're up against right now, is we're going to see so many individuals presenting for care. right now, we're hearing of health care systems around the country that have sent out notices today that unless it's an emergency care, don't expect to be seen for the next several weeks. again, a combination of the number of people seeking care plus the number of health care workers who are out sick. so i think this is going to be the challenge, but i do think it's going to be over with in the sense of the big peak as dr. fauci said, by early february. >> we ended the year 2020 really looking at the hope of the vaccine, obviously, a change of leadership in washington. we end '21 now with this covid case rate as mentioned just totally crushing any hope of progress there. what do you think we'll be ending 2022 like? >> well, i think first of all, let's put this into context. i mean, we obviously are focused on the united states, we should be, but if you look at every country in the world, including china right now, which has had one of the most draconian responses anyone could imagine, shutting down large metropolitan areas of 10 to 15 million people to control this. everybody in the world is being challenged by this virus. you know, we just took the virus too lightly. we didn't understand what it could do. now where we're at, and i actually think we actually have some light at the end of the tunnel. ari, there are enough people listening to this that do remember the early days of hiv/aids when it was a death sentence. today, it's long term chronic disease because of drugs. what we'll see can covid down the road is going to be a situation where in fact we still want people to be vaccinated. we want to prevent as many infections as we can, but imagine if we had medicines available, readily available, that people with their first signs of symptoms of covid could take them, and they don't go on and become severely ill, when they're immune compromised or not. i think that's what we'll see in the next year, we'll see much more of a combined vaccine and drug model that i think could have tremendous impact on the pandemic in a way that right now it's hard to imagine. >> dr. michael osterholm walking us through all of it here. i appreciate it. thank you. >> a lot more on the program. coming up, cruz is going to cruise. you may remember his fight with the fictional character of big bird. now, he has an attack that has backfired. we'll explain. also, top democrats are saying it is time to turn to hardball for biden in the new year. senator barbara boxer is our special guest tonight. that's coming up. she joins me live. >> and later, a special report that's breaking down the facts of what actually happened on january 6th, even as tucker carlson and others try to cover up the truth. >> and then by the end of the hour, a music visionary behind everyone from springsteen to aretha, the one and only clive davis on "the beat" tonight. so stay with us. inner voice (sneaker shop owner): i'm surprising my team with a preview of the latest sneaker drop. because i can answer any question about any shoe. but i'm stumped when it comes to payroll. intuit quickbooks helps you easily run payroll in less than 5 minutes... ...so you can stay... one step ahead. you don't get much time for yourself. so when you do, make it count with crest pro-health. it protects the 8 areas dentists check for a healthier mouth. the #1 toothpaste brand in america. crest. a must in your medicine cabinet! less sick days! cold coming on? zicam is the #1 cold shortening brand! highly recommend it! zifans love zicam's unique zinc formula. it shortens colds! zicam. 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browsing gives parents one less thing to worry about. security, control and peace of mind. with xfinity xfi, it's all built in at no extra cost. we're back with former u.s. senator from california, democrat barbara boxer. thanks for being here. happy holidays. >> and to you. >> you know, in this business, we talk a lot about the things that are going wrong, and lord knows that's important. something that is going right is amidst all these problems, a type of economic rebound. a lot of the early data shows the federal spending and what biden was pushing was working, and it's no secret that not everyone feels that way. i want to read from "washington post" here, dana milbank says basically, the american economy improved more in biden's first 12 months than any president in the past 50 years. polling shows economic pessimism endures. largely, he says, because disinformation has prevailed. you could also add to that list, senator, that economics can be measured any number of ways as long as we're dealing with the top story tonight, the horrors of covid, people aren't going to be in a great mood. what do you see there as the challenge for the biden administration if indeed the numbers are this good and this underappreciated? >> that is a good question. and i think the answer is pretty straightforward with joe biden. just keep putting one foot in front of the other, and deliver for the american people. you know, i was thinking, because i figured you might ask me a question like this, and i thought to myself, what if you went to a show on broadway that everyone loved in the whole wide world, everyone loved it, it's the greatest thing, and sitting in the middle of the show, you get a stomach ache and start to get the stomach flu. you feel sick. you come home, and people say how did you like the show? it was lousy. that's what's happening here. there's this underlying terrible problem of covid, and it doesn't go away. now, from what i hear, you know, and i listen to msnbc all the time on this subject, is may well go away. but we need to not be frustrated about these polls right now. it seems to me. and the last point i make here is this, i think the american people are fair. and if they look back to see what this president inherited. let's just take a second to look at it. a country bitterly divided, who is handed a mess, a pandemic raging, an economy collapsing, our capitol attacked. this is joe biden's inheritance, if you will, when he took over the presidency. now, we are moving forward at a rapid pace. and we haven't even rolled out the infrastructure bill yet. putting aside build back better, this infrastructure bill is fantastic. i wrote a lot of them in my past history in the senate. this is better than any i ever put together. >> yeah. you know, you mentioned what this president is dealing with, and of course, he's also governing and trying to stabilize things and that's sort of where obama and biden were different figures. book end this wild trump era, and you have governance again, and governance is in some ways messy and some ways dry and boring. it's also what a lot of people said they want today get back to given four years of the rookie chaos among other things of trumpism. i think we have a photo here today of the president talking to vladimir putin. they gave us the read-out, the call on that, senator. that's the photograph courtesy of the white house of him on the phone. a statement here late today was that he made clear the u.s. will respond decisively if russia does further invasion of ukraine. and other pressures on stability in the region. because that's news today from the white house there, i'm curious what you think as well as we take stock in the year of the kind of regular president stuff that this president biden is doing that is a contrast from four years of chaos. >> yes, i mean, he takes these problems one at a time. he is very experienced. i served on the foreign relations committee for many years, and he was my chairman for many years. and he knows literally more than seriously the vast majority of people about what's happening in the world. and with ukraine, you know, he quite understands that ukraine became independent from the ussr in 1991, that's 30 years ago. russia has got to get over it. we know there are ethnic russians in the ukraine about -- i shouldn't say ukraine, in ukraine. but the fact is that's true, that's about 19% of the people. and that needs to be resolved. but you have got a lot of tools when you're joe biden. and you know you have got the strongest military in the world. you know you can help ukraine which we have been doing for many years, over $2 billion worth of help and training. and you know you have the soft power of diplomacy, and a lot of tools in the toolbox there as well as sanctions. so this president, i feel that we are in many ways are blessed to have him here at this time, even though polls are bad. you know, that's just a patch. >> and then finally, i'm curious, we were speaking with david plouffe yesterday from obama's team. he's very concerned that if the democrats lose the house, then you really will be on a track, collision course for democracy itself because he thinks the republican party has basically embraced stealing elections and voter suppression as its organizing principle. your thoughts on that and the stakes for a midterms that are around the corner really, less than a year away, with people fatigued for all the reasons mentioned. >> yeah. we have an election coming up. the reapportionment doesn't look as if it's as bad as we thought it would be, which is kind of a miracle. but yes, we have one political party that has embraced voter suppression as one of their main planks. and so at the end of the day, at the very end of the day, it's about the american people deciding, you know, this isn't a parliamentary system, but we now have one party that has veered so far to the right in so many ways, we have to have the people who were republicans before really just drop that label and either become democrats if they can't get themselves to do that, to become nonpartisan independent voters and let them be the ones to decide these elections because one party has gone bad on us, and it hurts my heart. i grew up with a very different party. and i had a lot of mentors in the republican party, on the environment, on women's health, lots of things like that. all those years ago. >> yeah. i hear you. well, barbara boxer, always good catching up with you. again, i wish you a happy new year. >> to you, too. >> thank you. we have our shortest break in the show, 60 seconds. coming up, ted cruz owning himself. also, we go inside the january 6th riot. the insurrection. and show you the facts that are increasingly becoming part of a republican cover-up. accountability when we're back in 60 seconds. ng-lasting relief with a revolutionary, rollerball design. because with the right pain reliever... life opens up. 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this insurrection because there are people who don't want you to see this that are lying about those violent crimes even as they were caught on camera. attacking officers. we look at these graphic and disturbing moments when the mob was crushing an officer. [ screaming ] >> if we are ever going to face what was actually done inside this insurrection, we do have to face and examine this. in all of its horrific detail. right at the outset, two minutes into this long video i mentioned, rioters initiated attacks on the police. they apparently sprayed mace at the officers. other reports later found bear spray on the scene which is more dangerous than the type of spray police are allowed to use. then you could see rioters seizing a police body shield. they pull it out into the crowd. that's just minute two of this video. four minutes in, the crowd presses forward into the barricade of police. some are holding poles. they chant usa again. they yell. in order to coordinate these attacks, chanting use the shields, and make a wall, as they again advance criminally on the officers. >> use the shield! use the shield! >> make a wall. >> that's just five minutes into this. then they try to break through the line of the building, hitting officers with a pole and yelling for the mob to push. >> push! push! >> that continues. you see there in minute seven, all of that beating and attacking. by minute nine, you see officers partially able to pull some of those glass doors closed. rioters then begin attacking with poles and shields, trying to pry those doors open again. by 12 minutes into the video, people are spraying apparently mace at the officers, and there's more conspiring among the group to break through with these chants of heave-ho. >> heave-ho! heave-ho! >> that is just some of the 20 minutes out of the six hours. that last escalation led to the now infamous crushing of the officer you saw earlier. all of this, i want to be clear with you tonight, there's a lot going on, but this is the crux of it, this insurrection, this violence four years plus in the making. all of this is under a tenth of what transpired during the insurrection. which is increasingly looking far more organized and more legally sinister than it might have to a passing observer on tv. those motivated coordinateled attackers were breaching entries while many lawmakers were still inside these buildings, including vice president pence and the rioters knew it. the goal, to seek through violence that which america, which voters, rejected at the ballot box in our democracy. >> we want trump! we want trump! we want trump! >> the mob rampaging, they went after one of donald trump's targets, occupying speaker pelosi's office. at times it was farcical because of the photos and grand standing bought it was deadly serious, not only the deaths that day, but staffers were sheltered under desks in an adjacent room. pelosi recounting this on 60 minutes. >> the staff went under the table, barricaded the door. turned out the lights, and were silent in the dark under the table. under the table for two and a half hours. >> wow. during which time they listened to the invaders banging on that door. as you can hear on a recording from one of the staffer's phones. >> chilling. mob rioted. it got deeper into the building as it approached the speaker's lobby. breaking the glass of a barricaded door. a woman apparently trying to climb through, that's when she was shot. a warning, this is graphic. >> he has a gun! there's a gun. >> he's got a gun. >> he's got a gun! >> oh! >> that is just some of what we saw as we approach this one-year anniversary, there are defenders of the big lie who are now lying to cover up the violent maga crimes of that day. so it is important to see the facts of what happened, know the evidence, make up your own mind about what to do about it and don't let anyone take this terrible day and minimize it into something less than it was. d save on your auto insurance. 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what will covid bring in six months, a year? if you're feeling anxious about the future, you're not alone. calhope offers free covid-19 emotional support. call 833-317-4673, or live chat at calhope.org today. turning to some lighter political news, cancun cruise has done it again. the republican texas senator ending 2021 with around round of really avoidable mocking. he began the year famously fleeing to cancun while texas was slammed with a terrible winter storm, one of the worst in its history. he basically abandoned constituents in his job during a time that many needed him most. then he picked one of the oddest fight in modern politics. a fight with the fictional character big bird over vaccine safety. now he tried to attack democrats but ended up in the soup himself. cruz posted about a power drunk authoritarian kill joy approach to covid policy. because of an ordinance about dancing. now, he thought he was responding to covid restrictions that he attributed wrongly to washington state. the fact was actually the w.a. government, as in w.a., western australia. not washington state, not america, not u.s. democrats. cruz has been mocked endlessly for this, especially because he was the one picking the fight and making the big deal, and he has a whole staff. they could fact check things. congressman swalwell says, hey, ted, w.a. is western australia, but cool tweet. someone else said, oh, he must be on vacation again. and the you see the cancun cruz fleeing vibes with, you know, a little down under kangaroo. another person took to twitter to say that this has made texas something of a national embarrassment. and then jim carrey himself from dumb and dumber, asked, is this washington or western australia? well, that's the memes anyway. jim carrey always a good time if you can weave that into politics. so, is there a lesson here for ted cruz? well, like all of us, you have to check things before you go posting and ranting online about them. now, coming up tonight, we have michael beschloss here, the historian, for a special conversation. first, a legend associated with so many icons. the one and only clive davis on "the beat," next. i grow all my own vegetables shingles doesn't care. we've still got the best moves you've ever seen good for you, but shingles doesn't care. because 1 in 3 people will get shingles, you need protection. but, no matter how healthy you feel, your immune system declines as you age increasing your risk for getting shingles. so, what can protect you? shingrix protects. you can protect yourself from shingles with a vaccine proven to be over 90% effective. shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. an increased risk of guillain-barré syndrome was observed after getting shingrix. fainting can also happen. the most common side effects are pain, redness, and swelling at the injection site, muscle pain, tiredness, headache, shivering, fever, and upset stomach. ask your pharmacist or doctor about shingrix. shingles doesn't care. but you should. are you taking a statin drug to reduce cholesterol? 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[cheering] that was awesome. and, the hits won't quit, with peacock premium included at no additional cost. all that entertainment built in. xfinity. a way better way to watch. i want to thank bmg, jay records, clive davis. >> clive davis. >> it's my honor to pay tribute to clive davis. >> clive davis, we welcome you as we induct you into the rock and roll hall of fame. >> all about the '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s, 2000s. he's made the soundtrack, you know, for our lives. >> incredible artists across many genres hailing the music mogul, clive davis. a visionary who launched the careers of so many icons. there's mow single person cited more across different genres and decades in music as an executive and producer than davis. it all began at the monterey pop festival back in 1967 when he was discovering and signing janis joplin, which he tells me about in our interview. >> flowers in their hair. and here was i in khakis and a white tennis sweater, okay. i was not prepared to see new orders. i was not prepared to see what was a musical revolution, not just social, not just cultural, but a music revelation, revolution. and then this charismatic, throaty, rough, fabulous voice. electrifying, janis joplin, and i'll never forget it, as i'm telling you the story. the proverbial spine tingling took place. it was really, without sounding melodramatic, an epiphany. i was seeing an artist i had never experienced before. i had never signed an artist before. i was determining -- determined to sign big brother and the holding company and janis joplin. and i did. >> davis, who is now chief creative officer at sony went on to sign icons like paul simon, bruce springsteen, jennifer hudson, while keeping the marvel and intensity of a pure fan. he recalls seeing aretha franklin and wondering what else she could do in this unfair business. >> i can never forget when i was going to her house in los angeles, and we were going to meet for the first time. that i knew more than any other artist that i had ever met, because she was already the queen of soul, that everything that she would do would be history. everything that she did, sang, would be meaningful to all the generations to come. i met her when she was nearing 40. and she, as all artists, are hungry to be on top, stay on top. one of her first questions is you think i could have hits once i reach 40 years old? i have not had any hits in the last two years of my career. i said, i believe you can. and the challenge to collaborate with you will be my mission as much as any discovery of a brand-new artist. it's a privilege. >> aretha wnt on to earn her first gold record in seven years. davis celebrating another hit. he sat for this interview i'm showing you as part of our summit series, reflecting on insights from people at the summits of their fields. i'm interested in hearing about gill scott heron. >> you will not be able to plug in, turn on, and cop out. the revolution will not be televised, will not be televised, will not be televised. it will be no reruns, brothers. the revolution will be live. >> the revolution will be live. gill scott heron was years ahead of main stream culture on everything from challenging corporate media to capitalism. he is a singer and poet of the '70s as essentially the first rapper. >> gill scott heron was the first rapertest i was ever involved with. biting, cutting edge. dazzling in person. would not make the sacrifice to participate and broaden his musical appeal without -- it was synonymous with him that it would interfere with really that word, cutting edge and biting, but so talented. and one of the earliest greatest rappers ever. >> i love that idea of him as the foundation of rap because of the way he would do the spoken word poetry, and some of it rhymes and some of it just was social commentary, so i love you thinking that way because at the edge of every genre, it blends into a new one. >> genre bending, part of our conversation. some may seem obvious because it worked and clive davis is buffeted by decades of success. what's more striking is to see how many times he basically ended up staying at the top by trying new things, by bringing other people along. at a time when many executives were opposing or didn't get new voices, whether that's joplin or gil scott-heron, he kept his eyes open. that's why he met with sean puffy combs who played the notorious b.i.g., when helped diddy launch his bad boy record label. >> you know, he was, i think, 21 at the time. i think he was an executive at the network, an uptown records. he was not famous. he had done one or two concert promoting events. he came as a very young man. and to the meeting. i only knew of his background, you know, character mainly by hip-hop music. i knew that the background of puffy was much closer, vastly closer to the street than either i or self-admittedly wanted, and he said you've got to admit, not me personally, but you've got to help me get top 40 to admit hip-hop. and that was a tough order of the day. most people never thought that rap would dominate top 40 or even be prominent in mainstream pop top 40. but i bought into that vision. we did cross over. we did get top 40, and we would be east coast's biggest record combination. >> that's part of our summit series. you can watch the entire conversation on youtube. search melber and clive davis and get the rest of our conversation. >> when we come back, michael beschloss is here. we have to be able to repair the enamel on a daily basis. with pronamel repair toothpaste, we can help actively repair enamel in its weakened state. it's innovative. my go to toothpaste is going to be pronamel repair. facing leaks takes strength. so here's to the strong, who trust in our performance and comfortable long-lasting protection. because your strength is supported by ours. depend. the only thing stronger than us, is you. you're a one-man stitchwork master. but your staffing plan needs to go up a size. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire matching your job description. aleve-x. it's fast, powerful long-lasting relief with a revolutionary, rollerball design. because with the right pain reliever... life opens up. aleve it... and see what's possible. turning now to a special time on "the beat." it is time to fall back. we have two great guests with us tonight. groundbreaking palestinian songwriter and producer who has written hit songs and collaborated with artists you know like beyonce. he is a grammy and oscar nominee. and he is out with his new album see you next wednesday. and we're joined by presidential historian michael beschloss, the author of nine books and host of fireside history on peacocks. the choice, i know both of you a little bit and i'm psyched to have both of you here together. how is everybody doing? >> wonderful. >> that's a terrific resume. amazing. >> yeah, belli has been out here, huh. doing big things. >> hey, man, what can i say. i've been blessed. i've been blessed. look where i'm at. >> hard work and talent. >> hard work and talent and collaboration. belli get into your music. but anyone who knows you work with beyonce as well as your own album, your own work shows. you can be the star and you be also be the collaborator which is so important in creativity. thrilled to have you debut on "the beat." michael is a long-time msnbc guest. i'm going to let him lead. michael, what's on your fallback list? >> well, i'm thinking about the fact that one that better fall back is big oil companies. we've got new information this week, you and i and our viewers knew this, but new evidence that big oil for years has been deceiving the public about how bad the climate crisis is. all i would say is if there are circles of hell in american society, probably one of the worst circles of hell should go -- should be used by a trusted corporation, or a trusted leader, or a trusted public figure of another sort who lies to the public in a way that hurts society. this has really hurt society. and as you know, we've talked about this, ari. i've got two sons who are in their 20s. when they were growing up, i said one of the best things you can learn is which information you get on the internet and from your teachers, from other people you can trust and what you should distrust. and i think that's something that should really be taught in schools. and they really should have a name for that course, which they don't. >> yeah. and as you say, these companies have big power. they're not always using it responsibly. and we're in a time where it doesn't always have to be oil. we've seen with elon musk. >> absolutely. >> you can towards other options. belli, we try to mix it up here. we don't do all serious things, but we hear from everybody. what's on your fall back list? >> oh, man, my fall back list has to be that crypto hamster. i think when you got -- you pick it better than warren buffett. honestly, i don't know who to put the fall back on. i might have to put it on warren buffett because he got for beating them. >> warren buffett fall back if you're getting beat by someone. do you feel that the hamster, belly, do you think the hamster is randomly winning or are they on to something somehow? >> i don't know. they probably put a cheap coat on his wheels. he got the cheap coats for the pics. i don't know what they're doing, but that hamster is making money. i'm about to follow everything he is doing right now. >> i love that one. but it's a funny way to remind us of something real, michael, which is over the full span of the market history, there is a lot of studies that suggest the people who say they're good at picking stocks are no better than doing it randomly. >> absolutely true. and maybe we can get that hamster to run around on a wheel to create the power to generate power for msnbc so that our signal can go on, or using some way like that. but, you know, kidding aside, i vote for warren buffett. experience, expertise, i know both of those things are not in fashion these days, but we've got to choose leaders. and i'd rather have a leader than the hamster. >> well, i'd rather have a leader than a hamster is a sentence that may have never been uttered on the news. that's why we're out here. belly, before i lose you, i have to ask you what, have you learned here coming out with the solo product see you next wednesday, and how does it compare, as mentioned, to some of your work with all these collaborations? >> i think with see you next wednesday, great question, by the way. i had stepped away from the game for so long that, you know, it was kind of like me relearning how to walk, you know, essentially how to breathe. so it was a fun experience, man. it brought back that thing that was there right when i started, that challenge, you know. and you know, getting to work with the people i got to work with on this album from nas to the weeknd to some of the young guys like uzi and gunna, it was like a dream come true for me. as a songwriter and a artist myself, collaborator, this album was my favorite project by far. see you next wednesday. >> see you next wednesday. that's fantastic. shout out to all those folks. including uzi. do you ever go shopping for diamonds and jewels with uzi? >> no, no. i'm good, man. i'm trying to do the warren buffett route, or the hamster round. >> save it instead of spending it. uzi likes the jewels really large. they got to be pricey. >> the hamster may be -- >> maybe, hey. i'd rather spend my money on that. >> all right. so i think we went full circle, which is we need more hamsters and less stock market guessing. we need natural power, and we need to be careful with how much bling we buy because sometimes just invest it might be the better run. >> absolutely. >> i want to thank belly and michael for a conversation i don't think happens anywhere else. thank you, guys. >> loved it, thank you. >> peace, love. >> peace and love and our thanks. we got a lot of peace and love here in the vistas of new york. and let me show you one more thing. some of the fun we're having here at "the beat" online. >> oh my god, what time is it? >> it's time to do the interview, ari. put your phone down. >> it's a moment. it's a mood, it's a vibe. >> it's part of the trump m.o. >> he's a desperate man. >> like roger and me. >> get this. you're ready? >> what do you got? >> i'm at the emmys. i'm waiting to hear. >> what we need most is not ideology, it's evidence. >> this is fish, and that's chips. >> when are you going to call me? thinking week. >> okay. >> okay. >> we have fun. or we try to. so sometimes it's that fun lighter stuff or the personal stuff i shared recently with my parents over the holidays, we don't always do it on the show. we do it online. so you can find me @arimedical better on twitter, instagram, facebook or even @ari melber on tiktok, where we have recently become more active sharing stuff from the show as well as personal stuff. i will tell you, i recently put up something from the ski slopes. so all of that is available online. tiktok is fun. you can also go to arimelber.com. or keep it locked on msnbc if you're not into the digital stuff. finally tonight, we want to do something else. and this is important what i want to share with you. we want to pull back the curtain a little bit as we all mark the on the other hand this year. i can tell you here at msnbc we work pretty hard to try to put on a solid newscast for you every week night, and we do that with a very talented, dedicated team. you may not see most of these people on camera. i'm talking about the msnbc producers, researchers, editors, artists, bookers, directors, sound engineers, camera operators, and many, many other talented journalistic colleagues who create this program. so as we end the year, please join me, ari, in taking a moment for this thank you and a very heartfelt shout out to all of our colleagues who create and put on the show. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ good evening, everybody. i'm tiffany cross in tonight for joy reid. we begin "the reidout" with a look back at the journey that was this year. it's impossible to talk about 2021 without including the insurrection. it was an unprecedented attack on our government, fueled by people who no longer believe in fax, but let's keep it 100. this should not have been surprising. we've had countless warning signs of violent racism in america, and this was just the latest example of white supremacy rearing itsgl