Racism and white supremacy. We have seen, and its been plain for allamericans on their television sets, just how serious a problem we face from nationalists and white supremacists. As President Biden has made clear, advancing equity is everybodys job. Important issues and we have quite a bit more on that in our special coverage including a special guest coming up momentarily. You should also know as we track everything going on in the first full week of the Biden Administration, the president has won now fast confirmation for janet yellen who is the nations first woman to be treasury secretary and for his secretary of state Anthony Blinken signs that the senate is going to work on the nominations as it swore in senators for a separate project, swearing them in today as jurors for the upcoming impeachment trial. Democrats argue they have new and compelling evidence there. Plus an update to a story we brought you last night. New clues on Mitch Mcconnells breaking point. He is publicly blinking in his standoff with the new boss in town, majority leader schumer. They now have what they didnt have yesterday, a verbal agreement to hammer out the Senate Business plan, whats called an organizing resolution, that does not, not grant mcconnells initial and many said farfetched request that there should be absolute protection for him to do filibuster obstruction. No protection for that. What you see when you take this altogether is a president working hard on a health care and Health Crisis emergency, the effort to staff the white house cabinet, the effort to get mcconnell out of the way as well as this ongoing preparation for the trial of the former president for the insurrection against that very capitol. It is a lot to juggle even as there are signs that some things are working. To paraphrase cold play, nobody said it would be easy but this looks really hard. Let me bring in our experts to kick us off. Alex wagner is a cohost of show times the circuit and veteran of msnbc and juanita oliver. Good evening to both of you. Your thoughts, alex. Theres a lot of work to do, ari. The countrys in crisis. The Biden Administration realized theyre going to have to walk and chew gum and cook dinner and dance backwards in heels and all the things at the same time. Look, i think in addition to the multiple crises facing the country, were dealing with a Republican Party thats imploding before our very eyes. We talk about the fact that Mitch Mcconnell be is trying to weaponize an organizing resolution. Everybody should take a moment and absorb that. This is the organizing resolution is a pro forma piece of Senate Parliamentary procedure. Mitch mcconnell tried to weaponize it. That to me indicates the Republican Party will leave no stone unturned in terms of the levers of power. If they could weaponize the senate gym, they would. Anything that there is, they will try to use as a lever of power because they understand they are dealing with an administration and a Democratic Party that is emboldened, that is scared for the future of the country and that is willing to do a lot of really big things to save what i think they see as the country on a precipice. Well, alex, as a student of washington, may i ask you then a relatively silly followup question . You can always. What do you make then of Mitch Mcconnells argument which he made bluntly and in public that he would continue to basically try hostage obstruction tactics unless he was given the commitment that he could endlessly try hostage obstruction tactics . Right. The its completely counterintuitive. Mitch mcconnell doesnt want anybody to do away with the filibuster because its the one tool he has. It is a very, very effective tool the way the republicans have used it. Hes virtually guaranteeing the democrats are brought to the edge of getting rid of the filibuster because his tactics to preserve it are so willfully wrong, if you will. I mean, it is so plainly obvious what he hes laying out his agenda of obstruction and hoping that the democrats dont fight. I think honestly if you had asked me a week ago whether there was momentum within the Democratic Party to get rid of the filibuster, the antics of the past few days have almost ensured there is going to be a real ground swell of consensus inside the Democratic Caucus to do something about the filibuster because of mcconnells behavior over the last couple of days. You make such a great point, which i want to present that point and evidence for it to juanita. Heres senator tester, part of that manchin block of people who say, well, hold me back. I dont really want to do it unless i had to do it. Here he was reacting to what you identified. Mitch mcconnell saying he would literally filibuster anything if we had tester. He says, i feel pretty damn strongly, juanita. I will also tell you this, im here to get things done. If all that happens is filibuster after filibuster, roadblock after roadblock, then my opinion may change. This was among our homework for tonights show, we had this ready and its exactly the point alex was teaching us. Your thoughts . Honestly, im not sure what tester needs to see more of. In fact, not only this moment when mcconnell tries to, as alex says weaponize a procedural moment, look at the past four, six, eight years when mcconnell had leadership and absolutely did nothing but his own agenda, ignored the needs of the american public, ignored the needs of this pandemic, ignored the needs and realities that people are facing in exchange for what . Pursuing his judicial plan . Mcconnell has already shown everybody his hand. Hes already shown how he moves in this body and as he continues to i guess come to terms with the reality that he is now minority leader, hes going to keep kicking and screaming. So, again, i dont know what else center tester needs to hear or see. The evidence is there. Its already shown that mcconnell and other republicans are going to be obstructionists to the very end. Democrats absolutely have responsibility to stand up. You know why . For the millions of voters who elected them. For the black and Brown Community that turned out in georgia to deliver the senate. Those voters are expecting big, bold actions and democrats absolutely do not have an option to not deliver on that. Yeah. Alex, there is plenty of legitimate debate in policy, the size of the government, whether a program should be led more by the feds or the states, whos going to pay for it, tax and fiscal policy. Plenty of legit stuff. There is not a big market right now to say that after everything we just went through the federal government should do nothing on covid or jobs or the recession, right . People who have suffered under these business restrictions, they say, okay, if stuff is closed or restricted, is there support . Because closing down stuff for Public Safety and supporting peoples paychecks in the meantime is very different than shutting them out. Aspect of this story weve reported on. We could all come up with five more. Im curious what you think about the pickle Mitch Mcconnell is in where he would rather fight about rules or other side shows than perhaps politically admit they dont want to pass the biden plan to do any of this stuff, not to say its perfect, but its something on those issues. Well, having to actually legislate forces you to actually have a governing agenda. In the age of trump what we saw was the Republican Party rip up any platform and feed it to the fire. I mean, the Republican Party is the party of trump and i dont mean that sort of just rhetorically. Its whatever he thinks. The fact that Mitch Mcconnell on january 12th was keen to get rid of trump, pushlg him from the party then on january 13th said were not going to convene the senate because we cant have an emergency session and then in the beginning days of the Biden Administration say its too late to have an impeachment trial tells you everything you need to know about how Mitch Mcconnell is going to lead his party. Its been keeping the finger in the wind and understanding which way the winds are blowing, that is towards trump. There is a reason that Kevin Mccarthy is begging and scraping on the phone to donald trump. There is a reason that Mitch Mcconnell is behaving the way he does. 85 to 91 of the Republican Voters would pull the lever for donald trump. The party is still very much his. Without his tweets to guide them, they are basically men and women without a country, without a platform, without a party. And as such, will do everything to delay and obfuscate around actual legislation because they dont know where theyre going. They are a flock whose shepherd is down in palm beach kicked off social media. So where do you go from there . Well, yeah. If you dont have a tweet, you dont know what to think. Im running over on time for this because i have a special civil rights guest. Juanita, briefly your final thoughts on this washington topic. Absolutely. I think alex is right, that the gop is at an absolute loss right now. And its a little bit conflicting, right . They couldnt stand trump in private but now they need his guidance. Now they feel beholden to him even still, especially what we saw today with a vote on senator pauls notion that this impeachment trial is unconstitutional. Hes not there but theyre still afraid of the boogie man. Hm. Juanita, alex, thanks to both of you. We turn to President Bidens other new action today on racial equality. I ran for president because i believe were in a battle for the soul of this nation, and the simple truth is our soul will be troubled as long as systemic racism is allowed to persist. Were not a nation of morally deprived because of systemic racism, were less prosperous, were less successful, were less secure. Biden making the argument in several ways and discussing new policies on housing, civil rights, but this is about more than words. He also wants to take, he says, concrete action to tackle scenes like this. Youre looking at a private prison in mississippi. This is a New York Times report where they found this very controversial video of an inmate getting brutally assaulted by these other inmates. As the times reports, no guards in sight. No effort to protect the human rights of this individual as they were brutally beaten, helpless on the ground, quoting the times. There was a guard navigating the surveillance camera in that area. There are many experts who say this is exactly why poor policies and lack of accountability make private prisons worse. Now bidens solution tonight . He says hes pulling america out of the private prison business. No federal contracts will be renewed or made with private prisons Going Forward. Its a break with what the Trump Administration had done. This is just one piece of a much broader and more systemic issue. There are many people who point out more should be done if you want to deal with the prison problem in the United States. For that reason, as i mentioned here near the top of our broadcast, we want to bring back a guest weve heard from before. Germ main mckes son is the cofounder of campaign zero. He goes well beyond rhetoric which is why i wanted to see you tonight. Thanks for being here, sir. Its good to be back. As i mentioned in our reporting so folks understand, there are many reasons why experts see private prisons as a particularly big problem with Less Government oversight. Biden returning to something that was more in line with what the Obama Administration wanted to do, limit their use federally, and yet you and others have pointed out theres a lot more to be done. Walk us through what you think of todays actions and what more should be done. Yeah. So im reminded this is day six of the administration so its good this is a priority from the beginning. When we zoom out were reminded that about 8 , little bit less than 8 of the people across the country are in private prisons. We know that private prisons arent run more officially, they are often worse for people. We should be moving away from incarceration in general. We look at the federal system, 1 of people are incarcerated in federal prisons. This will be a good first step. Where i hope the administration goes over the course of these four years is to also address i. C. E. , right . 75 of people in immigrant detention are in private facilities. Im hoping that is the next step. Today was a good start, right . Feel like this signals a return to the obama era. This was an executive order obama did. Trump undid it. Then there was a flourishing of the private prison industry. Biden is saying thats unacceptable. Its good that in the first ten days this is a priority. Im excited to see where they go next. I appreciate how you sound pragmatic and its interesting because weve talked about these issues before. Its power. Its also how do you get it done . Its how do you get it right . Theres a moral force or power force. Whether we study mlk or malcolm x, they were sophisticated about political and rhetorical power in addition to having a moral crusade. You just talked about timing. The Obama Administration didnt really take on private prisons, at least from my view in reporting, until the second term. You mentioned this is in the first ten days. I wonder what you think that means about a seat at the table that blm has, which is a large and not monolithic group, but youre also, whether you want to be humble or not, youre one of its visible members. What else do you tell them needs to happen in the early period where Everybody Knows you can make more change in the first 100 days than the last . Yes. I think its true. Many of the obama actions around policing, prisons, they were great actions. They came sort of at the end of the second term and they were good. Its exciting that this administration is starting off there, that they are picking up where trump dismantled things and theyll run with it. Im excited to see what happens around policing. With the police most is local and state but i think the Biden Administration has signaled they will do strong things. When we think about the Prison Action taken today, its like they know people are going to press around immigrant detention. They know people are going to press around clemency, pardons like they know whats coming. I have to believe the people and a great set of people at the doj, like the whole set of people over there are really strong on these issues. I cant wait to see whats coming next. Its heartening this is the beginning. Six days in. This will be 1 of the people incarcerated. I think a lot of people get confused. The end of private prisons doesnt mean freedom. It means public prisons. Im excited to push them even more. This is a good first step. Really interesting, dure. Especially your points on the numbers on the immigration piece which is huge. You mention ms. Clark. Well be reporting on ms. Clark who is a former guest but who ran the Leadership Conference civil rights under law, the Lawyers Committee which used to represent mlk and those organizers to see what she will do under doj will be interesting. Well be tracking it. Well hear from you again, sir. Thank you. Good to be here. We have our shortest break of the beat tonight. Just 30 seconds. When we come back, an update on this impeachment trial, an update on feds arresting a former Police Officer for threats against congress and we have an expert on the new plans to vaccinate everyone faster. Nothing more important than that these days. Later in the hour, a special guest on a very important traffic stop that might get new accountability. Stay with us. Ay with us Research Shows people remember commercials with nostalgia. So to help you remember that Liberty Mutual customizes your Home Insurance, heres one thatll really take you back. Its customized Home Insurance from Liberty Mutual only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. The first steps of the trial are here. We are speaking about the impeachment trial of former President Trump. His fate in the hands of now 100 senators, some of them newly elected, and today each was formally sworn in for the impeachment trial. Senator leahy sworn in to preside over the trial. He has extensive experience, of course, having headed the Judiciary Committee and then late today a surprise. Senator rand paul trying to force a vote on the constitution constitutionality of this trial. The motion killed in a 5545 vote but it may reveal what some republicans think. The very same republicans who fled that chamber over Donald Trumps lie that the election had been stolen, which turned into the riot, well, some of them dont seem interested in Going Forward with the trial at all. Now heres the count. 5 republicans did vote with democratic senators. Thats murkowski, romney, sass, toomey and collins on what, again, was basically a procedural vote who revealed whos more critical of trump. Mcconnell had leaked that hes pleased about impeachment. Well, today he voted with senator paul on this procedural argument thats basically an attack on the trial or even cons