where it just wakes and to primary season, and already both parties seem to be circling their wagons around their likely nominees. a rematch between president biden and donald trump seems inevitable. but both men face plenty of uncertainty between now and november. that s why president biden is south carolina tonight, a week ahead of its forest in the nation democratic primaries. a victory seems certain. but the mood of black voters and the state is hard to predict. and just a bit, i ll ask to black activists who helped engineer the presidents 2020 win in georgia about what the president needs to do to repair his standing with african americans before election day. as for donald trump, he faces twin challenges. his last republican rifle is sharpening her attacks as the campaign moves into her native state. and the former president s legal troubles are mounting. a new york jury yesterday hatching him with an 83 million dollar judgment and his defamation trial. john it may not
the also rans claiming small victories, even though they each got walloped by the inevitable nominee donald trump, apparently put in place by god, because as one iowan put it, god picks unusual people. also tonight, michigan governor and biden campaign cochair gretchen whitmer joins me to discuss the democrats view of the republican race and whether president biden has a michigan problem. plus, the war on dr. king s memory. there is more to his legacy than just that one speech that republicans often misuse for their own political aims. we begin tonight with iowa s choice. today the winner of that state s republican presidential caucuses, donald trump, spent a significant part of the day after not in new hampshire as presidential history would suggest, but in a manhattan courthouse for the beginning of a trial to determine how much he has to pay in damages to a woman he was find liable for sexually abusing and defaming. let s just establish that straight away. donald
politicsnation. tonight s lead, a solemn anniversary. it has been four years to the day since and ceramicists stormed the u.s. capitol in former president donald trump s name. and despite the horrors of that day, very little has changed in our politics. capital rioters are still being brought to justice three years later. just this morning, three january 6th fugitives were arrested by the fbi in florida. and with just days before our first presidential nominating contest of this election year, the u.s. supreme court will soon decide whether colorado and other states can legally bar trump from the appellate over his january 6th conduct. though that conduct hasn t stopped much of the republican party from circling around trump as your choice for president. a reality that president biden, in his first campaign event of 2024 last night, cost a historic, existential threat to our union. democracies still americas secret calls, the most urgent question of our time. donald t
voters are asking for. all right, matt duss, thank you very much. that is all in for this week. alex wagner tonight starts right now with ali velshi in for alex. good evening, ali. important point there, this isn t an either or, all or nothing, don t support israel or do support israel. it s a measure of condition that goes along with the aid that we give ukraine or any other country that says we have to prosecute this war in a different way. in fact, it s interesting one of the things that we learned, right, during the early days of the war was very intense conditions placed on ukraine about attacks in russia, specifically because of fears of blow back, of escalation. and it was, this was an active conversation, very, ve clearly. very early, and they re constantly. i m glad you brought that up. thank you, my friend. have aooweekend. thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. i am ali velshi in for alex wagner. last month, the united states economy gained 2
what comes next for israel? we re going to discuss with a former member of the knesset. the true story behind the ousting apartments first black president. spoiler alert, it wasn t about plagiarism. we will discuss the conservative effort to get claudine gay removed. another hour of velshi begins right now. good morning it is sunday, january the 7th. it is orthodox christmas. i m ali velshi. if you paid any attention at all to the u.s. jobs report at any point over the next three years, there s a good chance you heard the phrase, better than expected. you probably heard it again over the past few days, following the latest report for december. 216,000 net new jobs were created. much better than expected, per cnbc. in the old days, we d say than 150,000 or more jobs created in one month was good. there are now one point 42 open positions for every job seeker in america. while every available job is not matched to every available job seeker, mathematically, america has more j