Transcripts For MSNBCW The Rachel Maddow Show 20201126

But what people may not remember is what a surprise it was at the time that it happened. A month earlier, nixon had famously resigned the president under the threat of impeachment, and he left the white house aboard marine one, handing the presidency off to his Vice President , gerald ford. As donald rumsfeld, george w. Bushs defense secretary, who served in the ford administration, later recalled, those of us close enough to observe it ourselves could see how tormented ford was by the decision. And when he finally made it, it caught many of us by surprise. It was a surprise because fords pardon came on a sunday morning, september 8th, 1974. As the times reported, quote, government buildings were almost empty, and no one was expecting any dramatic president ial action. Mr. Ford attended Early Morning communion at st. Johns episcopal church, then returned to the white house to make the announcement. And i have sought such guidance and searched my own conscience with special diligence to determine the right thing for me to do with respect to my predecessor in this place, richard nixon, and his loyal wife and family. Theirs is an american tragedy in which we all have played a part. It could go on and on and on, or someone must write the end to it. I have concluded that only i can do that, and if i can, i must. Now, that surprise decision generated immediate backlash. On a trip to pittsburgh the following day, ford was greeted by crowds of hostile protesters outside the venue where he was due to speak. Protesters held up signing excoriating him for his decision, and they booed the president. When he left the hotel, mr. Ford found the crowd of demonstrators had grown considerably, and he was booed. There also were some cheers. [ crowd booing ] on the flight back to washington, the president declined to talk to reporters about the pardon. His Spokesman Says the president knew the pardon would be controversial and was aware of the reaction. A white house switchboard operator told the president last night the volume of calls was very heavy and kind of unfavorable. Ford would go on to lose the 1976 election to jimmy carter in large part because of that decision. And since then, other president ial pardons have generated controversy. Now, following his 1992 election loss, george h. W. Bush pardoned Reagan Defense secretary Casper Weinberger and five others for their role in the irancontra scandal. Bill clinton generated immense outrage for his pardoning of financier mark rich on the final day of his presidency. But no president ial pardon has been less surprising than the one issued today when to absolutely nobodys surprise, President Trump announced his controversial decision to offer a full pardon to his First National security adviser, Michael Flynn. Flynn, as you recall, a former threestar general, has become a cause celebre on the right for trump devotees, conspiracy theorists, and republicans at large. All argue that flynn was somehow the target of a deepstate plot by the Obama Administration and an unfair prosecution by special counsel robert mueller, all of which ignores the fact that flynn himself admitted under oath two times in court to lying to fbi agents about his discussions with the Russian Ambassador to washington during the transition and that he once served as a cooperating witness as part of the mueller investigation. It was trump, after all, who fired flynn from his job just three weeks into his tenure as National Security adviser after president obama explicitly warned trump about hiring him in the first place. And it was Michael Flynn specifically, trumps pressuring of fbi director james comey to, quote, let the flynn case go, that actually resulted in the appointment of the special counsel, robert mueller. Today the white house announced that, quote, the president has pardoned general flynn because he should never have been prosecuted. But nothing could be further from the truth. Its important to remember what it was exactly that flynn did and why it was so problematic. Remember, flynn came under fbi suspicious in the summer of 2016, right around the time that he was encouraging lock her up chants at the Republican National convention, and the investigation was part of the fbis look into the russian hack of the Democratic National committee. Flynn was scrutinized early on by the fbi because of his coziness with the russian regime, including a trip to russia where he sat alongside vladimir putin. And also because of his recent business dealings with russian entities. But it was actually flynns lies to fbi agents about his discussions with russia during the transition that constituted a direct threat to u. S. National security. Remember, the United States had just seen its election attacked by russia. Following the election, the Obama Administration announced targeted sanctions against russia to punish them for this behavior. But instead of reprimanding russia for its brazen attacks on the u. S. Election in an effort to help trump, flynn told russia not to worry about it. He signaled that the Trump Administration planned to do nothing about it and might perhaps roll back those punishing economic sanctions once in office. Now, fbi intercepts of calls between flynn and the ambassador revealed that flynn repeatedly reassured russia on this point and that those sanctions were the central topic of discussion between the two men. So of course the fbi was going to investigate this behavior, especially once flynn lied about it to fbi agents. Remember, they had it on tape. They knew it. He said that no such discussions had taken place. So how could the fbi not investigate that . He was lying to them about something they knew to be true. Not only was flynn now subject to russian blackmail on account of his lies to the fbi and to Vice President mike pence, the overtures to the russians themselves from the incoming Trump Administration were hugely problematic. During testimony this summer, former acting attorney general sally yates, who first blew the whistle on the fact that flynn was compromised, explained why. We had general flynn engaging in discussions with the Russian Ambassador that were essentially neutering the american sanctions, and that is a very curious thing to be doing, particularly when the russians had been acting to benefit President Trump. And then he is covering it up. Hes lying about it. So the agents understandably needed to understand what the relationship was here between general flynn and the russians. And it was a very deliberate, planned set of conversations with the Russian Ambassador to essentially tell them, dont worry about it. Things are going to change once were in place. And that wasnt the only troubling conduct by flynn by the way. Flynn was advising the Trump Campaign during the election at the same time that he was being paid over half a Million Dollars by the turkish government to advance turkeys interests. Flynn even participated in talks to kidnap a turkish cleric living in the United States and deliver him to turkey. The Mueller Report also revealed that flynn was engaged in a secret effort with a republican operative during the campaign to try and obtain Hillary Clintons emails from russians on the dark web. And yet despite all of this, flynns move to withdraw his guilty plea this year and hire fever swamp lawyer sidney powell, the same lawyer by the way who was recently dumped by the president s legal team for engaging in conspiracy theories about this election that were so outlandish, they couldnt even stand her. That resulted in praise from the president and the Justice Department making the unprecedented decision to drop its own case against the former National Security adviser. The judge in flynns case was not ready to go along with that, but no matter. Today came the pardon we all knew was coming. Flynn now becomes the second trump associate convicted as part of the russia investigation granted clemency by this president. Trump previously commuted the sentence of his longtime adviser roger stone, who we now know told the president in advance about wikileaks dumps of stolen clinton emails. Now, flynn may be the latest felon to receive a pardon, but it appears he will not be the last. Already tonight were seeing reports that trump intends to pardon several other criminal elements in his orbit, and there are many. The New York Times reports tonight that flynns pardon may set off a wave of pardons in his remaining weeks in office. Now, that is going to be music to the ears of former Campaign Manager Paul Manafort, former white house adviser steve bannon, former top fundraiser elliott broidy, and trump personal lawyer rudy giuliani, all of whom have either been convicted, indicted, or are currently under criminal investigation. Tonight the president also retweeted his congressional ally matt gaetz, who says the president should pardon everyone, including himself. Theres a lot to unpack here. Joining us now is andrew weissmann, a former Senior Member of special counsel muellers team, former fbi general counsel. Andrew weissman is the author of where law ends inside the mueller investigation. Thank you for joining us tonight. There is a distinction between this pardon and every other pardon i mentioned by previous president s, and that is this, like the commutation of roger stones sentence, is about stuff that was related to donald trump himself and or his election. Absolutely, and this is another example of this president really letting us see that our system of checks and balances really dont take into account how to deal with a president who is shameless and brazen and has no respect for the rule of law. And now were seeing it play out with respect to the pardon power, this time with respect to Michael Flynn. But as you said, were likely to see this happen again. And one thing i would add to your excellent litany of what Michael Flynn did is after committing a slew of crimes, many of which he committed as the National Security adviser to the president of the United States. In other words, he committed a felony as the National Secure adviser. He then appeared in court, admitted what he did, and then later told the judge that he lied to the court when he said he was guilty. In other words, he admitted that he committed yet another felony, which was lying to the court. So this is not a normal situation where someone says, you know, thats a really good candidate for an exercise of the pardon power. This is somebody who because of the conflicts, you would think the president really shouldnt be weighing in at all on this type of crime because he obviously has a vested interest in it in the same way he had a vested interest in the commutation of roger stones sentence, where the judge actually said that that crime was committed on behalf of the president of the United States. So lets just take that a little further because when we compare this to other commutations or pardons, its not just that the president might have had an interest, but there had been speculation for the last four years that , and be all incorrect, but there was some element of the president signaling messages to these people who had information on him that you play the game this way, ill take care of you later. This idea of quid pro quo. You would know more about this than i would, but the fact is the previous pardons that we talked about earlier didnt have that element. It wasnt there couldnt the average person couldnt look at it and say, well, maybe trumps getting something out of this. Sure. Well, one of the things that you can tell from the Mueller Report i detail in my book is that the president used the dangling of pardons to thwart cooperation with the special counsel investigation. In other words, thats one aspect of his obstructive conduct so that if you are a roger stone or a Paul Manafort, you can say, you know, maybe its better to not cooperate with the government because you know what . I dont think im going to be going to jail. And in roger stones case, you know, that actually worked out. He never served a day of the sentence that a federal judge handed out to him because the president acted before he actually had to surrender in court. So that use of the pardon power is very different than what weve seen. Now, thats not in any way to say that the use of the pardon power by george bush one or bill clinton was in every instance correct. I think there are also ways in which the pardon power has been abused. But here when its part and parcel of the crimes and the conduct that the president has engaged in himself, it really is of a different nature. And i do think it is a factor that the new attorney general is going to have to consider when they consider what should happen to donald trump when he is a former president because a key issue for the new attorney general is going to be, what do you do with his obstructive conduct . Is it really okay to sweep it under the rug, or is it appropriate for him to be held to account for that . You make a good point. Mark rich and bill clinton were well connected, and george h. W. Bush was involved in irancontra, so they both issued pardons to people who were involved with them. Andrew, it was good to see you. I was kind of excited to see your english cocker spaniel. I dont see any sign of him around or her. Hes had his day in the limelight. Thats enough. Thank you for joining us, my friend. Good to see you as always. Andrew weissmann is a former Senior Member of special counsel muellers team. I want to turn now to congressman adam schiff to sort of pick up where we left off. Congressman, good to see you again. Thank you for being with us. What andrew was talking about is interesting and troubling first of all. How does what happened today affect two things . Number one is matt gaetzs comment the president should pardon all sorts of people, which he probably will do, including himself. And how does this affect what happens on january 20th of 2020, because the president as we know faces a lot of exposure, both civilly and criminally. I would say this. It doesnt literally impact whether the president can pardon himself or whether that will be enforceable in court. In fact, im quite confident thats unconstitutional. One of the premises behind our constitution is that no one is adjudge of their own case. We are bound by the rule of law. We are a nation of laws, not individuals. If a president could commit any crime he wanted and simply pardon himself, it would be selfdefeating. So i dont think that would be upheld, but it may be tested. If the Southern District of new york were to decide, for example, that having asked a judge to sentence Michael Cohen to jail for a campaign fraud scheme in which individual number one coordinated and directed the scheme and individual number one is donald trump, and they were to bring charges against him when he leaves the white house, the Trump Defense team would undoubtedly raise a pardon if he had given himself one in his defense. But i dont think the court would uphold that, and nothing that happened today will affect the constitutional analysis. Whether it will affect the analysis of a future attorney general or Justice Department, i think they will have to look on a casebycase basis, the egregiousness of the president s conduct with the president s priority that the country hail the great divide. And i dont envy the difficulty of that decision. Let me ask you about the other area of the expertise other than the law and that is intelligence. Often these other pardons have been instances in which one could argue that the prosecution was unfair or one could argue that the person has paid their price, or one could argue that the pardon is of no consequence. None of those apply here from the perspective of intelligence. Michael flynn is a man who understood intelligence. He worked in intelligence in his military career, and he was in charge of and responsible for matters of intelligence, which arguably were compromised during his short tenure in service of President Trump. Well, unquestionably. And, ali, as you pointed out, when Michael Flynn lied to the Vice President , the Vice President then went on National Television and misled the american people. The russians knew Michael Flynn had lied because he had talked directly with their ambassador. That made him vulnerable to compromise. He could be blackmailed. This was indeed the concern that sally yates raised in bringing this to the attention of the administration that he was now subject to compromise. By giving him a pardon now, imagine the signal that sends to our russian adversary, that essentially, you know, the president can make russias problems go away by dismissing a case against someone who had lied on their behalf, who had concealed these illicit contacts. It just makes a mockery out of our system, and i think demonstrates that it can be exploited by hostile foreign powers. So what is the remedy for that because there are a number of americans who say, look, lets put this ugly chapter behind us. But a point you and i have discussed in the past, particularly about the decision to impeach President Trump, was not that it may have been a popular decision at the time, but that it was something that you and others felt was incumbent upon members of congress to do if there was conduct worthy of impeachment. The same thing applies here. What do you do when theres conduct worthy of prosecution and people for whom it is important to pursue in the face of a president who seems to be ready to pardon those around him who were involved in things that may have led to his own election . Well, you know, first of all, one of the benefits of a system of federalism like the one we have is that anyone in the Trump Administration even who gets a pardon by the president can be prosecuted by state and local authorities. That pardon does not extend to those investigations and prosecutions. So there is always the possibility of accountability no matter what the president may do. Its also, i think, incumbent on us even if we cant prevent this president s abuse of the pardon power, to make sure that the power is not abused in the future. Ive introduced a bill, the prodemocracy act, that makes a number of reforms. And among them, it would say that a selfpardon is unconstitutional, so it would put congress on the record. It would also provide that in a case like flynn, where someone is pardoned who is implicated in a case in which the president is a subject, witness, or target, that the investigative files will be provided to congress so congress can scrutinize the extent of the wrongdoing. And it also makes clear that a president can be prosecuted for using a pardon as a form of bribe. You keep quiet for me, you lie for me, i will pardon you, that that is a prosecutable crime. So we can defter its abuse even if this president is beyond those remedies. Congressman, good to see you as always. Thank you again for joining us tonight. Congressman adam schiff is the chairman of the house intelligence committee. Weve got much more ahead here tonight including the question of whether President Trump can, in fact, pardon himself. Were going to get some expert advice on that next. Stay with us. music swells music fades exhales experience the power of sanctuary at the lincoln wish list sales event. Sign and drive off in a new lincoln with zero down, zero due at signing, and a complimentary first months payment. Working, parenting, problem solving. At new chapter vitamins weve been busy too. Innovating, sourcing organic ingredients, testing them and fermenting. Fermenting . Yeah like kombucha or yogurt. And we formulate everything so your body can really truly absorb the natural goodness. Thats what we do, so you can do you. New chapter wellness, well done. Welcome to a better way to live. Welcome to my house we have one house rule here. We dont go past the wall. Wanna jump it . Yeah [ screaming ] duh, duh, duh whats on the other side of the wall . [ screaming ] the only way to survive is if the pack stays together. Thats my girl. Boom kill circle. [ gasps ] hey everyone youll never guess what i found . Sorry. Never apologize for an effective kill circle. Donald trump had issued 278 president i 28 president ial pardons. Michael flynn makes it 29. Even if you include the handful of commutations as well, donald trump has actually pardoned the fewest people since William Mckinley in 1897. That number might be allowed to spike. White house weighs pardon blitz before trumps exit. Quote, its not just michael t. Flynn. The white house is weighing a wave of pardons and commutations by President Trump in his final weeks in province, prompting jockeying by a range of clemency seekers and their representatives, including more allies of mr. Trump. Among those hoping for pardons are two former Trump Campaign advisers, rick gates and george papadopoulos, who were convicted by the way in cases stemming from the mueller investigation. The president is also, quote, musing about pardoning his Campaign Manager, Paul Manafort, who was convicted of felony crimes and is receiving solicitations from his lawyer friends who want their clients offer the hook for their convicted crimes too. Now, its not unheard of for a president to issue a wave of pardons and commutations on his way out the door, but this president threads a particular needle which we were just talking about, having both a penchant for revenge and for keeping up a large professional circle of convicted felons. And theres also the added wrinkle that theres been open speculation for years that donald trump might pardon himself in the waning days of his presidency since his Legal Protections as the most powerful person in the world are set to expire on at noon on january the 20th. Just tonight the president retweeted a republican congressman from florida, who said the president should absolutely pardon himself and every Single Person in his administration. With just weeks left in his presidency, could donald trump be on the brink of issuing not just pardons for convicted criminals but for criminals to be a la gerald forlds preemptive pardon of richard nixon. Could trump be he paired to offer blank the pardons to his business associates, to his children. Could donald trump be laying the groundwork to pardon himself . Who else would i turn to if i have a question like this . Joyce vance, former u. S. Attorney. Joyce, great to see you, and youre absolutely who i need to ask about this. But i want to first put on the screen for our viewers the clause in the constitution that talks about pardons. It says, the President Shall have the power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States except in cases of impeachment. An article in the atlantic argues that the power to grant means something there. In other words, its not just about trump pardoning himself. Hes got to actually grant himself a pardon and some smart legal minds argue thats not the same thing. What is your take on this . I think that the atlantic article is exactly right, ali. The argument that trump made, you know, in 2018 as the Mueller Report was about to issue, he said, i have an absolute power to pardon myself. But linguistically that cant be true because to grant a pardon, grant means to give something to someone else. And so implicit in this notion of pardoning is the idea that its not something that you do for yourself. Its something that you do to someone else. The New York Times discusses the limitations on these pardons. It was something i was just discussing with congressman schiff. Quote, even if such a selfpardon were possible, scholars differ offer the illegality. It would not inoculate mr. Trump against possible charges stemming from ongoing investigations into his business and finances by city and state prosecutors in new york. A point that adam schiff made, how relevant is that . Its very important because we know that manhattan d. A. Cy vance has been pushing forward on an investigation. Its clear that there are both civil and criminal investigations coming out of the state of new york, and no matter what the president does as regards a pardon, he cant insulate himself from them in any way. Lets talk a little about what this does to the system. One of the conversations i was having with congressman schiff is donald trump, weve normalized a lot of things or donald trump has normalized a lot of things that were completely outrageous and we didnt think about them. In this case hes talking about pardons. Hes already commuted the sentence of roger stone. We hear hes talking about rick gates and Paul Manafort and george papadopoulos. How do you disentangle the idea that the president is considering pardons like all president s on their way out of office do for people who are tied up in a conspiracy that the president himself wants you to believe doesnt exist . We need to absolutely reject the idea that any of these pardons are legitimate. Trump may be able to issue them, and frankly they may never be tested because lets say that he were to pardon himself. That would only be tested in court if he was subsequently indicted down the road and offered the pardon as a barrier to prosecution. So we dont know whether well get there or not. But these pardons have no smack of legitimacy to them. This is a president putting himself above the law. And to go back to your opening point, ali, about whether or not the constitution permits a president to pardon himself, the Founding Fathers deliberately rejected the notion that we should have a king, someone who is above the law. They embraced the notion of a president and a constitutional republic. So issuing selfpardons is fundamentally opposed to what the Founding Fathers created when they structured our form of government. And that will turn out to be a very important point. Joyce, before you, i got most of my legal knowledge from law order. Im much better for our acquaintance. Thank you for clearing this up for us tonight. Joyce vance is a former u. S. Attorney and an msnbc legal analyst. All right. Any guesses about how else the president spent his day today . If your bingo card has, quote, rant for ten minutes over speaker phone about how evil democrats stole pennsylvania, congratulations. More on that and senator chris murphy is live right after this. S that just dont smell clean . What if your clothes could stay fresh for weeks . Now they can downy unstopables inwash scent boosters keep your laundry smelling fresh way longer than detergent alone. Pour a cap of downy unstopables into your washing machine before each load and enjoy fresher smelling laundry. With 6 times the freshness ingredients, downy unstopables gives you more of what you love. If you want laundry to smell fresh for weeks make sure you have downy unstopables inwash scent boosters. A new buick . For me . To james, from james. Thats just what i wanted. Is this a new buick . I secret santaed myself. I shouldnt have. But i have been very good this year. Wow wow wow this year, turn black friday into buick friday all month long. Now during buick friday, pay no interest for 84 months on most 2020 buick suv models. But today theres a combination of two immunotherapies you can take first. One that could mean. A chance to live longer. Opdivo plus yervoy is for adults newly diagnosed with nonsmall cell lung cancer that has spread and that tests positive for pdl1 and does not have an abnormal egfr or alk gene. Its the first and only approved chemofree combination of two immunotherapies that works together in different ways to harness the power of the immune system. Opdivo plus yervoy equals a chance for more days. More nights. More beautiful weekends. More ugly sweaters. More big hugs. More small outings. Opdivo and yervoy can cause your immune system to attack normal organs and tissues in your body and affect how they work. 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And we do know how to keep you and your loved ones safe. Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Stay six feet apart. We can do this. If we do it together. With 56 days until Inauguration Day and just two days since the transition process finally officially began, president elect joe biden delivered a thanksgiving address today. Biden called for hope and unity ahead of the holidays. The nation grapples with a surging pandemic and a fault line of political division. This thanksgiving, in anticipation of all the thanksgivings to come, lets dream again. Lets commit ourselves to thinking not only of ourselves but of others as well. For if we care for one another, if we open our arms rather than brandishing our fist, we can with the help of god heal. I give thanks now for you, for the trust youve placed in me. Together well lift our voices in the coming months and years, and our song shall be of lives saved, breaches repaired, a nation made whole again. Okay. So while the president elect urged the nation to imagine a nation made whole again, the sitting president dropped in via speaker phone to a meeting of republican state lawmakers in pennsylvania, where they spent the better part of a day discussing unfounded claims of voter fraud in a Hotel Meeting room in gettysburg, pennsylvania. His voice coming through the lawyer jenna ellis phone, which she held up to a mic, trump tried to press his shriveling case for somehow clawing back the election that joe biden has already handily won. We have to turn the election over because theres no doubt. We have all the evidence. We have all the affidavits. We have everything. All we need is to have some judge listen to it properly without having a political opinion or having another kind of a problem because we have everything. And by the way, the evidence is pouring in now as we speak. Evidence pouring in now as we speak. That tirade went on for ten minutes. For ten minutes, he provided no evidence of anything and then not that long after he got off that call, the lame duck president sent this tweet pardoning Michael Flynn. Now, in this moment, america is living through a tale of two president s, one lame duck who will not admit a democratically earned defeat but will spend his remaining days in office pardoning friends and cronies, and a president elect who is trying to shepherd the nation toward brighting days and better hours. How we reconcile those two is a question for my next guest, senator chris murphy, the senator from tt connecticut, who sits on the Foreign Relations committee. Thank you for being with us. The president talked about all the evidence and all the affidavits hes got, but the reason they are 333 in the courts is because there is no evidence. There are no affidavits. In the state of pennsylvania, where theyre challenging this again, there hasnt been a single ballot that has been found to be the subject of fraud. But this does do real damage to our nation because there is a relief act that is not getting dealt with by the senate because they wont even acknowledge that joe biden is the president tobe. No, thats exactly right. Listen, its very hard, if not impossible, to negotiate a big, complex piece of legislation like a billion dollar relief package without the president. And in this case, its particularly important to have the president at the table because Mitch Mcconnell, over the last four years, has refused to act independently of permission and authorization from donald trump. Mitch mcconnell doesnt want to go out and negotiate a Coronavirus Relief package only to have trump pull the rug out from under him. And so Mitch Mcconnell is not at the negotiating table. Donald trump or the white house isnt at the negotiating table. You cant get a piece of legislation passed and signed into law if you dont have the Majority Party in the senate and the white house negotiating, and that is, of course, a tragedy because right here in connecticut, we have, you know, threehour lines for tests because we dont have enough testing equipment. We have fourhour lines for food banks and food pantries because people are getting really desperate as their Unemployment Benefits run out. We need that bill passed. But as donald trump is continually distracted by this sideshow of contesting the election just because his ego is bruised, were not at the negotiating table getting a package done to help this country through what is going to be a brutal winter. Yeah, its quite a time when you pass by in the streets of our cities long lineups and youre not sure whether thats a food bank or a covid testing site. Last week we showed images of a food bank in north texas where 6,000 cars were lined up to get food for thanksgiving. Weve got record numbers of foodinsecure families in america. And fundamentally thats connected. That economic crisis, which donald trump did talk a lot about in the waning days of the campaign, hes right about that. People are suffering economically. You cant solve that problem if you dont solve the underlying problem, which is covid. No, exactly right. And i was at a Small Community hospital in connecticut this morning. They do testing in the morning, but they have to stop testing at about 1 00 because they dont have enough tests. They run out. And so they shut down. And theres still a high demand for people in our state to get tested. But because donald trump has botched the supply chain both for ppe at the outset of the crisis and now for testing, we cant really get our hands around the problem, which means then you cant get your hands around a solution. So, listen, joe biden is going to have a mountain of a job when he gets sworn in. Hes going to have to essentially start from scratch with respect to pandemic response, and hes going to have an economy in meltdown if we cant get a package done. And every single day that donald trump is distracted and angry and mad about the Election Results is another day that we cant get that covid relief package, we cant get eviction we cant get benefits to renters, we cant get Unemployment Benefits extended, we cant get money down to states to help with the testing backlog. Thats a huge problem. Can you believe were in the ninth month of this thing, and we dont have enough testing materials, and we still talk about ppe for workers . Its amazing. Senator, good to see you. Thank you for joining me. Senator chris murphy of connecticut. Well, months ago when that first wave of the coronavirus pandemic was marked by those shortages of personal protective equipment, of ventilators and hospital beds, well, things have changed. Another wave is cresting, and hospitals are facing a crisis thats actually harder to deal with than even that. Ill tell you about that on the other side. Little theos nose had cause for alarm. Ordinary tissues were causing it harm. They left his nose raw, with each wiping motion. So dad extinguished the problem, with puffs plus lotion. Puffs have up to 50 more lotion to soothe your blows. Bringing softness and relief to your sensitive nose. Dont get burned by ordinary tissues. A nose in need deserves puffs indeed. St. Louis, missouri, is dealing with a particularly devastating covid surge right now. Officials in the city are sounding the alarm that hospitals are running out of space, and the icus are filling up. Its against that backdrop that ksdk, the local nbc affiliate in st. Louis, got exclusive access to the covid icu unit at mercy hospital, the second largest hospital in st. Louis. Heres ksdk anchor casey nolan. Reporter there are tweleve rooms in this part of the icu. They are all full. They can make more room on other floors, but they cant make more doctors and nurses. The hospital has converted rooms to handle more covid cases, but caring for justice one critical patient can require several nurses and doctors. And like all of the hospitals in the st. Louis region, theres concern this current surge of covid cases could soon mean too many patients for the staff to take care of. Patients like steve jeffrey, who says he contracted covid despite a selfquarantine. Not seeing my wife, its very difficult. I mean the people the people here have been great and very friendly, but still its not its not family. Yeah, so its gotten busier in the last couple weeks. Theres no question about that. Reporter it doesnt take long inside the icu to realize covid is taking an emotional toll on the staff too. Yeah, and sometimes thats the hardest part. That was the hardest part for me back in april, just isolating completely from everybody. Its just hard to be here and then go back home and not really have much to go back home to. Reporter but they keep coming to work and keep hoping that those who will likely see their sacrifice will make some of their own. They need to stay home, and they need to wear their mask, and they need to listen to the science. Do you worry that it could get to the point where you have to turn people away . I think its a concern for everyone, and i think its a concern for the entire city. That anytime of the day or night they can call and say, were out of beds. Youre improvising on a daily basis . On an hourly basis. Hospitals like mercy are quickly finding that there might not be enough doctors and nurses to deal with this crisis if things continue on the path that were on because heres the thing. Highly skilled professionals cant be replicated. The New York Times reports this week that the United States has manufactured more than 200,000 ventilators since march. But while many hospitals in covid hot spots have the supply of ventilators they need, they dont have, quote, nearly enough respiratory therapist, pulmonologists and Critical Care doctors who have the knowledge to operate the machine and provide aroundtheclock care for patients who cannot breathe on their own. One emergency room doctor telling the times, quote, we cant manufacture doctors and nurses the same way we can manufacture ventilators. We cannot make more doctors and nurses. All across the country, were seeing these same cries for help, like this one from a respiratory therapist in omaha, nebraska. I work in the covid units almost daily. They are filling up very, very fast. So i just want everybody to kind of have an idea what we have to go through. This is our ventilator. Our sickest patients go on this almost immediately when they come to the hospital. For our other patients who are still very sick but not needing the ventilator, we have high flow systems that they go on that push that air into their nasal passages and down into their Lower Airways hoping to oxygenate and ventilate them. Its very, very taxing because we have to go in and out of the rooms all the time because these patients drop their stats very quickly because theyre not able to keep that oxygen within their lungs. So all i ask from the community of omaha and countrywide is to please wear your mask, if not for yourself, but for others because its not easy, and were doing our best. I still have my job at the hospital, and its become very hard since covid started. We never know if were going walk into a good day where you can see your patient finally leave who has been there for two months or if youre going to sit there and hold the hands of patients as they as they pass. And some days i can handle it and some days i cant. Its really its hard. I love what i do, but when the only thing keeping you going is your coworkers and everyone is getting burnt out, its its a struggle. Everyone is getting burned out. Its a struggle. In the midwest especially, frontline heros are just fried. Theyre not only understaffed, theyre also in the midst of this catastrophic surge which has now pushed them over the edge. But its not just a midwest problem, its an everywhere problem, spreading an an alarming rate. The United States hit the grim record of over two million new cases in the past two weeks. This rate keeps up, we could see over four million cases in november alone. Over 88,000 americans were hospitalized yesterday, and that number keeps going up and up. Behind each of those hospitalizations, there are countless highly trained, highly skilled frontline workers treating every single one of those patients. They are being pushed beyond their limit, and there isnt an end in sight. 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When the bus made a 40minute layover in richmond, virginia, boit on the decided to get a cheeseburger and a cup of tea. He decided to take a seat at a whites only restaurant. What happened next might not be surprising given the time and place, but it was absolutely repugna repugnant. Its worth hearing about it in bo poi boyntons own words. I gave the waitress the order. She left and i thought she had taken the order, but she came back with the manager, and the manager took his finger and stuck it in my face and said, nigger, move. Thats when the sitin began at that time. As the Montgomery Advertiser put it, quote, it was not boyntons intent to test any laws in the south that night. He was just hungry and wanted something to eat at a clean restaurant. He was not looking for trouble, but when ordered to move by the restaurants manager, Bruce Boynton stayed put. He did so knowing full well that he would be handcuffed and hauled off on a misdemeanor trespassing charge. He was forced to spend three days in jail. He was fined 10 by richmonds municipal court, but still, he refused to let the matter go. The young law student decided to appeal his case, and he kept appealing and appealing until it got to the supreme court, where he was represented by a young lawyer from the naacp named Thurgood Marshall. The same Thurgood Marshall who would later become the first African American to sit on the nations highest court. Together their case ultimately resulted in a u. S. Supreme Court Decision that prohibited bus station segregation, and in many ways, that case was just the beginning, because it wasnt long after that ruling, it wasnt long after boyntons first after boynton versus virginia that a group of young activists decided to test whether that law of the land was actually being followed. In may of 1961, they began organizing freedom rides with black and white students riding buss into the jim crow south where public transport facilities were segregated. They made it a point to use whites only rest rooms and waiting rooms. One of the activists was a 21yearold divinity student named john lewis, who join steady cause knowing he could be risking his life. He ended up being attacked when he and a fellow rider tried to enter whites only waiting rooms. It is the start of the good trouble he would later become known for. The vicious attacks the riders faced including the firebombing of a bus in alabama eventually forced the Kennedy Administration to act and require stricter enforcement of antidiscrimination laws. It was hard fought progress, progress all made possible because of a movement started by a young law student, someone who was not looking to test any laws but who was hungry and wanted something as simple as a warm meal at a clean restaurant. Bruce boynton died this week at the age of 83. Weve got a long way to go as a country, but thank god for people like him who help lead the way. That does it for me tonight. Have a happy and safe thanksgiving. It is time now for the last word with my good friend lawrence odonnell. Lawrence, ive gone across this country in the last few months listening to people talk about their civil rights to not wear a mask, and i think about Bruce Boynton and i think about the real fights weve had about real things versus the nonsense were facing right now