all right. that is going do it for us for tonight. we will see you again tomorrow. again, tomorrow likely to be kind of a weird day, the first time we have had to commemorate an event like the january 6th attack. nobody knows what tomorrow will be like. we will be here to help you understand it all tonight. now time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." good evening. >> i think you remember exactly

24 hours ago at this moment i told you who was going to -- no, you don't. 24 hours ago was too long ago. anyway, let me remind you, 24 hours ago at this moment i told you that cher was going to be on the show last flight, and she was. and you, you gave me an order for cher. i want to show you, if you have 20 seconds, how that played out. take a look. >> please do. >> she left a message for you at the beginning of this hour. she told me, she gave me this order, to tell you, please tell you, and these are her exact words, hello, and i love you. that's from rachelle maddow. >> i don't drink, but i would have a cocktail with her. >> when should i schedule that,

rachel? >> so, here's how this played out in my life. so i am going about my business taking the dogs on a late night walk, and i get -- because, you know, the dogs need to go out when the dogs need to go out. i get a call from my mother. now, usually you get a text. my mom is a good texter. you get a call, that means somebody in the family has died or somebody needs rescuing, this is urgent. my mom calls me to say when are you having cocktails it to cher, to which i say i can't believe lawrence did it. she said what? she said, didn't you say you have to have cocktails with cher. she said you get to have cocktails with cher, but she doesn't drink. it was the weirdest dog walk in a long time, but one of the weirdest moments in public life. thank you. >> i will pour the pellegrino for cher and you make whatever that thing is you make. >> i will. i have a feeling my mom is going

to hide herself somewhere on my person in order to be there whether it happens. we will have to arrange for that, too. >> we will try to make it all happen. >> thank you, lawrence. >> thank you, rachel. thank you. well, on this night exactly one year ago probably right now sean hannity was anxiously texting donald trump's fourth white house chief of staff, mark meadows, saying i am very worried about the next 48 hours. unfortunately, for sean hannity and the country, sean hannity was sending a text to the weakest and most criminally inclined of the trump white house chiefs of staff. mark meadows had already engaged in a phone call with donald trump to georgia's secretary of state, a call that was clearly criminal in nature, a violation of state and federal law on election interference. the whole country had already heard the audiotape of that criminal phone call.

sean hannity heard the audiotape of that phone call, which is now being investigated by a grand jury in georgia. he heard the audiotape of that phone call to georgia secretary of state and that may be why sean hannity's text to mark meadows are filled with fear that donald trump does not know what he is doing and that mark meadows does not know what he is doing. we know now, thanks to bob woodward and the book "peril" and other reporting, that they already knew that the white house counsel was threatening to quit over donald trump's criminal attempts to change the outcome of the presidential election. on this night, exactly one year ago, sean hannity texted mark meadows, pence, pressure, white house counsel will leave. mark meadows already knew that. sean hannity knew that mark meadows already knew that, but at this hour, one year ago, sean hannity was desperately trying to get the weakest white house

chief of staff in history to step up to a deranged president and do the right thing. say the right thing. it was on this day one year ago that mike pence told donald trump in the oval office that he was go not going to violate the law and attempt to reject electoral votes submitted to address the next day. in that meeting on this evening one year ago in the white house donald trump told mike pence, what do you think, mike? trump asked, look, i've read this, and i don't see a way to do it. we've exhausted every option. i've done everything i could and then some to find a way around this. it's simply not possible. my dperp interpretation is no. i met with all these people. they are all on the same page. i personally believe these are the limits to what i can do. so if you have a strategy for the 6th, it shouldn't involve me because i'm just there to open

the envelopes. you should be talking to the house and senate, your team should be talking to them about what kind of evidence they are going to present. no, no, no trump shouted. you don't understand, mike. you can do this. i don't want to be your friend anymore if you don't do this. you're not going to be sworn in on the 20th. there is not a scenario in which you can be sworn in on the 20th, pence said. we need to figure out how to deal with it, how we want to handle it, how we want to talk about it. you've betrayed us. i made you. you were nothing, trump said. your career is over if you do this. pence did not budge. in a series of tweets today, robert costa reviewed some of the developments of this day one year ago that we did not know about then, including that rudy giuliani even wanted to go over to vp's home and give him a talking to late on 1/5.

pence eventually has dinner that night at residence with several supporters/donors. giuliani doesn't go over but strikingly trump campaign issues a late statement saying pence agrees with trump position on election. stuns pence and his advisors. that's the pressure on pence, that sean hannity was afraid of, that is what sean hannity was advising donald trump not to do. robert costa writes, as midnight approached, people in the streets were yelling delighted and almost euphoric about trump taking back the election. trump soon called giuliani and then called steve bannon. he was arrogant, trump said of pence. trump's worlds were sobering. trump explaining a way a deal gone bad. very arrogant, trump record. trump kept tweeting into the

night. the january 6th committee wants to hear all about this from mike pence. >> his life was in danger. i would hope that he would do the right thing and come forward and voluntarily talk to the committee. everybody there didn't have a security detail, so we'd like to know what his security detail told him was going on and what all went on. i think it's important that the public needs to know. this was the number two person in government. >> tonight the january 6th committee has been meeting with someone who is a witness to some of what happened on january 5th and january 6th in the trump white house. stephanie grisham publicly resigned on the night of january 6th after the attack on the

capitol. she tweeted her resignation at 7:59 p.m. stephanie grisham made history as the only white house press secretary never to publicly speak with the press and today she made history as the first white house press secretary to tell a congressional committee what she knows about a former president's involvement in an insurrection at the capitol and a criminal conspiracy to violate election law. stiff any grisham first served as a white house press secretary. her final position in the white house was chief of staff to melania trump, who, along with her husband, donald, did nothing while the capitol was being attacked. medicalon now trump did not do what sean hannity tried to do when sean hannity sent a text to mark meadows during the attack on the capitol telling him, ask people to peacefully leave the capitol. during donald trump's criminal attempt to violate election law, donald trump apparently took

more advice from one of sean hannity's advertisers than he did from sean hannity. pillow salesman mike lindell is apparently under investigation by the january 6th committee for that advice. in an interview with cnbc, he said he received a notice from verizon about a subpoena for his phone records from november through early january. leading off our discussion tonight is democratic congressman adam schiff of california, a member of the house select committee investigating the january 6th attack on the capitol and chairman of the house intelligence committee. thank you very much for joining us tonight, congressman schiff. we really appreciate it. >> great to be with you, lawrence. >> i have been linking up sean hannity's texts as your committee has revealed them with the reporting we have from bob woodward, robert costa, and our

sources trying to link up what was happening while thetections were being pumped into the white house by sean hannity. but i assume you probably by now have a fairly precise tiktok of january 5th and january 6th with all of the witnesses you have been talking to. >> that's one of the things we have been working on from the beginning, which is to continue to fill in the sequence of these messages of these conversations and of these events so that we can see them in their chronological order and understand how one relates to another. but i think you also, lauren, very well described why both hannity as well as the vice president are such important potential witnesses. clearly, hannity was privy to information about the possibility of the white house counsel leaving over the pressure put on pence. he was very concerned about what was going to happen in the next 48 hours on january 5th before

they attacked the following day, and, what's more, the vice president, who was the subject of this pressure campaign, is in probably the very best position to talk about all of those who were reaching out to him, including the president, to try to get him to ignore his constitutional duty. their testimony could very well inform our committee, the country about how to protect ourselves going forward, and, you know, we hope both decide to cooperate. >> sean hannity has remained silent about your request for his cooperation. what have you heard from sean hannity's lawyer? >> i can't comment on any communications between our staff and his lawyer or other counsel. but i can say, look, we are not interested and i saw sekulow, his counsel made public replarks, we are interested in his commentary on fox, his political views or his role on

that show. we are interested in him as a fact witness, what he observed, the communications he had outside of that capacity. this was somebody who was a strategist for the president, campaigned with the president, did a lot of things that are not journalistic in nature that he should feel free to talk about, and we hope that he will. >> on vice president pence's testimony, do you -- would you expect that he would be able to discuss, for example, what was happening to him during the attack on the capitol, because there are some security concerns involved in protecting the information about how a vice president is protected in a situation like that. >> if he is willing to sit down with us, that's exactly the kind of thing we would work out with him, with his lawyer, with his staff to figure out if there are

any sensitivities, how we can make sure we get the information we need without compromising anything that would be required to protect any future vice president. but clearly what's at the central core of our investigation is not in that category. it is, you know, that pressure campaign on him to violate his constitutional duty, where that originated, what the president's role was, what different players were involved in that effort to subvert the will of the american people through their franchise. none of those things would compromise his safety or that of any future vice president. >> i am going to talk to laurence tribe in a moment about attorney general's speech today. but i am wondering if -- there has been speculation that the attorney general is waiting to move on an investigation of donald trump and others in terms of the insurrection, waiting for

your work to be complete. do you see any reason why the attorney general should or would wait for your work on the committee to be complete? >> no, not at all. and i don't agree with that speculation whatsoever. in my experience, the justice department asked congress to wait. it doesn't itself defer to congress in terms of moving forward with investigations or potential prosecution, and i hope that it's certainly not the case. they ought to be thoroughly investigating any substantialgation of criminality surrounding the effort to overturn the election. and, look, i am very proud that he is running the department and i think we saw today there is once again a man of great integrity running that department. i would have loved to heard him say, not only is he focused on the violent attack on january 6th, but also on other efforts to potentially violate criminal

laws to subvert the election, including one that you have mentioned frequently, which is the effort in georgia. the president on the phone with the secretary of state of georgia trying to get him to stuff the ballot box effectively with 11,780 votes that don't exist. that needs to be investigated. and it can't be waiting for congress on that. they shouldn't be waiting on the fulton county d.a. on that. when i was in the u.s. attorney's office in l.a., there was a case of that kind of national significance, we would never defer to the local district attorney. so it does concern me that there was no mention of the broader multi-layered effort to subvert our constitution and our election process. that, too, needs to be investigated. >> congressman adam schiff, thank you very much for starting off our conversations tonight. >> thank you. >> coming up, harvard law professor laurence tribe has been on this program asking for

more, much more from attorney general merrick garland. he will join us with his reaction to what the attorney general had to say today. that's next. that's next. [ sneeze ] are you ok? oh, it's just a cold. if you have high blood pressure, a cold is not just a cold. unlike other cold medicines, coricidin provides powerful cold relief without raising your blood pressure be there for life's best moments with coricidin. now in sugar free liquid. for people living with h-i-v, keep being you. and ask your doctor about biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill,

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to build a future of unlimited possibilities. today attorney general merrick garland summarized the current status of the most important justice department investigation in history. >> as of today, we have arrested and charged more than 725 defendants in nearly all 50 states and the district of columbia for their roles in the january 6th attack. in charging the perpetrators, we have followed well worn pruitt oriole prak practices. they face greater charges. those who conspired with others to obstruct the vote count also face greater charges. the justice department remains committed to holding all january

6th perpetrators at any level accountable under law whether they were present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy. we will follow the facts wherever they lead. to ensure that all those criminally responsible are held accountable, we must collect the evidence. we follow the physical evidence. we follow the digital evidence. we follow the money. those involved must be held accountable and there is no higher priority for us at the department of justice. >> joining us, laurence tribe, university professor of constitutional law at harvard law professor, he has won 35 cases in the united states supreme court. professor tribe, what did you hear in that speech today? >> i heard a person of great principle and integrity, very

smart. i heard him describe one important set of investigations going from the ground up from the boots to the suits in terms of the january 6th perpetrators. it's important that he do that. but i heard absolutely nothing, nothing about the larger plot to overturn the election. that was not january 6th. january 3rd was the date on which the president, then-president, twisted the arm of raffensperger. late december he was doing things with people like jeffrey clark. that broader plot was plan a. plan b was the one they'd to resort to with the violence at the capitol. it doesn't necessarily, you know, you don't work your way up from the people who smashed windows to the arm twisting, which itself violated federal law and was part of a broader plot.

it doesn't necessarily take a long time to build a case for seditious conspiracy. in fact, i was looking it up. in march of 1954, ten puerto rican separatists stormed the capitol, but they were prosecuted not for violating the physical space. they were prosecuted for seditious conspiracy. a year later, they were sentenced to 16 to 75 years in jail. a year later. you don't have to move slowly when clock is ticking. clock is ticking here. i agree very much with adam schiff. there is no basis for the attorney general to be waiting on that broader investigation, and yet the scary thing is there is simply no indication that the department of justice is investigating that broader plot. i hope to heaven that it is.

but there is no indication of it. right now, there is reason not to be -- not to be too confident. >> and that left us hanging on every word as it were, including that phrase follow the money, which is interesting, but doesn't reveal. . then he used the phrase, among those being investigated, he said those who conspired with others to obstruct the vote. now, that's -- that group could include donald trump. but what more specifically would he be able to say within justice department policy about comment on ongoing investigations? >> well, he certainly was right not to say we are investigating donald trump. but he could have said we are investigating not only the events that occurred at the capitol and what immediately led

up to the attack on the capitol, but we are investigating the facts that bear on a broader attempt to overturn the vote, to claim that the election was stolen, and to overturn the vote and make sure that the duly elected president would not take office. we are looking at that. we are trying to figure out who was responsible for it. we are following the money. we're following the digital evidence. we're looking at all of that. but there was nothing. that wouldn't have been inappropriate. in fact, the department of justice guidelines say that it is quite appropriate in the discretion of the attorney general to give confidence to the nation that an important event is being investigated. that important event, nothing could be more important than a plot to prevent the peaceful transition of power to the duly elected president that's being investigated, it's being investigated completely in the

dark, and we are left to have nightmares about the fact that by the time the attorney general gets there, it will be too late. we have midterm elections coming up. there are all kinds of reasons not to want to investigate a president too close to the next election. clock is ticking, and the stakes could not be higher. so in that way, i was disappointed by what the attorney general said, and i very much agree with adam schiff. dolby theatre adam and merrick were former students of mine at different times. it's interesting to see one commenting on the other. they are both very smart. but here i agree more with adam than i do with merrick garland. >> well, merrick garland has not finished the assignment yet. so we will watch and wait and find out more as we go. harvard law professor laurence tribe, thank you for joining us tonight. we always appreciate it. >> thank you, lawrence. coming up, montana senator jon tester, who has been in the

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competition is exploitation. >> that was president biden in a virtual meeting monday, sounding to some like he was speaking with alexandria ocasio-cortez's constituents in new york where that critique of capitalism would be very well received. let's see how it was received in that meeting. >> this was on the minds of our farmers and ranchers throughout the country, and not sense teddy

roosevelt have we had a president willing to take on this big issue. so thank you very much for that. >> not since respect pet teddy roosevelt 100 years ago. most washington pundits have told you that democrats just don't know how to talk to voters in rural farm states and most of those pundits have never been to those states and never bortered to listen to what most democrats actually say and, more importantly, do about farm policy and those same pundits will insist to you that only republicans understand the importance of agriculture. the oklahoma farmer who you just heard praising president biden had this to say about donald trump last year. ultimately, my bottom line looks about the same as it did pre-trump trade war, but much of that income came in the form of trufrm's bailout. those are subsidies that i wouldn't have needed if the

trade war hadn't happened. i am grateful for the dollars to keep my farm afloat, but i'd much rather earn those dollars than be given them. the trade wars limited my ability -- my and other farmsers' ability to earn. now, during this election year, you will have pundits describing democratic party politics and governance exclusively from the perspective of the most liberal urban democrats, which also happens to be the perspective of where those pundits actually live. and as an example of the wide range of governing issues that the president and the democratic party face every day we are focusing here tonight on the single most ignored policy issue in the washington news media. agriculture policy. and as our guide we are joined now by farmer jon, as in former jon tester, the senior center from montana, who spends some of

every day worrying about his farm and the rest of family farms from america. senator, thank you very much for joining us. really appreciate it. >> it's great to be here, lawrence. i really appreciate the topic. thank you. >> i want to go to the point the president was making at the beginning about capitalism without competition is exploitation. he was talking there about the food supply chain specifically, the meat packing, meat processing business. what is his point about that? >> his point is that whether you only have a few players in the business, there isn't real competition. and for capitalism to work, you have to v competition. for far too long we have had too much consolidation in the meat industry. and the statistics bear it out. 82, 84% of the meat, the beef, is controlled by four companies. that's not competition.

that's not how capitalism is supposed to work. so the one guy brought up teddy roosevelt. president roosevelt 100 years ago carried a big stick and beat up some of those packers. the truth is, is today the meat industry is far more consollated dan back then. who is spaying the price. >>. the cow calf operators are going broke because of this and the small to medium-sized feeders are going broke. there are some things that agreed to be done. i applaud what the president did last week. congress fleeds to step up to the plate, too, and do some things to get -- to rein this in and put competition back in the marketplace. >> what the president is doing, he has the money to do it already in the american rescue plan, he's devoting $1 billion in this arena, and one thing he is targeting is developing a

work force to help supply possibly more independent meat processing plants, and making the point that we need a well trained work force to do that. there is some reporting indicating that i have read in montana press, for example, about the lack of qualified cutters who are out there to work in these plants and how do we get a larger work force available. >> so what president biden has done is two things. i think invest from brick and mortar facilities, more meat packing plants, and invest from work force, get more folks trained up that know how to cut meat to be able to meet the needs out there. there is also something else that needs to be done, too, lawrence. we need to have teeth in the packers and stockyards act so that when these big packers lower their prices and undercut some of these meat packers out there and put them out of

business, that there has to be transparency so we can see that, so we can enforce the law so that doesn't happen. the combination of those two things i think are game changers for folks in production agriculture, and if we are able to do that, if we are able to do some things with the spot pricing bill, a bill that we have, if we can do some things with putting teeth into the packers and stockyards act with a special investigator, that's another bill we have. if we can do things with mandatory country of origin labeling, that's another bill we have. then i think -- and plus do these investments that the president is talking about, then i think we are well on our way to making sure there is competition in the marketplace and making here these cow calf operators and small to medium-size feeders don't go broke, because if they go broke, our food supply changes for the worse. our consumers are going to pay a lot more for the products out there. we are seeing it already. and so it's time for congress to act. the president has acted.

i applauded his actions a couple days ago. now congress needs to step up and meet our end of the bargain, too, so we can keep our food chain secure. this is about national security, rural economy, about a lot of things and it's all very important. >> when you made the point there about meat packers lowering their prices, i want to make sure, for the audience that i grew up with in cities like boston who didn't flow where the fleer exist farm was, you are talking about the prices that the meat packers pay to the farmer. not what the meat packers then turn around and charge as that food moves its way through the food chain? >> i am actually talking about both. i am talking about the prices they pay to the farmer that puts them out of business, the cow calf producer that puts them out of business, and also talking about on the competition side of things, this is where the packers and stockyard act can be

enforced, on the competition side of thing the big packers have the financial ability to sell at a loss. they can undercut some of these small processors for long enough that it puts him out of business. that's illegal. it shouldn't be allowed to happen. if we put more transparency and teeth into pack ards and stockyards, we can make sure that doesn't happen. who is the inner? not only the cow calf guys, not only the guys in rural america, it's also the consumer. everybody wins. and right now we are beholden to four companies on the beef side of things that is going to ruin rural america and going to ruin food security for this country. and that's not an overstatement. that's a fact. so we need to act. >> and as we're watching prices go up, meat prices go up this year, the price to the producer, to the actual farmer, who produced this, has gone down. when we look at that number that we're looking at in the super

market on that package of meat and how much it costs, the actual farmer's share of that number we see has been going down? >> absolutely correct. and it's gone down to the point now where it's just the profit margin isn't there to stay in business. it's why you are seeing people who have been in the business for generations going, look, i don't think we can move this farm on to the next generation or this ranch on to the next generation because there just isn't -- there is not enough money to pay the bills any more. these folks are getting squeezed out of business by a very consolidated marketplace. it can change, but laws have to be enforced. and in order for laws to be enforced, we have to do what the president announced a couple days ago and we need to get some of the bills passed into the president's desk that i just talked about. and if we're able to do that, i think it will create a situation where rural america won't

continue to dry up and there will be a future for our next generation of farmers and ranchers on the land. but i think that's really important for this country. >> senator, you are one of plaerk's political wizards flash flood to being the policy leader in this area. and your political wizardry is such that you are able to get elected as a democratic in the state of montana, which increasingly has become kind of a magic act. that also allows you to have a unique perspective on the challenges facing someone like joe manchin, elected as a democratic in a trump supporting state like west virginia. you have been in conversations with senator manchin. you know a lot of his thinking. as we approach this vote that senator schumer promised on voting rights, which could require a vote on changing a senate rule to remove a 60-vote threshold to get to a vote on voting rights, what do you believe is going to happen when

senator schumer brings this to the senate floor? >> i hope it passes. fair and secure elections, free elections are fund pledge to our democracy. and i hope it passes. and i think what we've seen in many of the state legislatures around this country is to try to prohibit certain groups of people from voting by making it miserable to vote or purging them off the rolls. i don't think we can stand for that at the federal level. i think this democracy is based on people who are able to go to the polls and vote and, hopefully, this bill will pass when schumer brings it up because i think it's really fundamentally important if our democracy is going to move forward for generations to come. i think it's a bedrock principle. >> do you have a sense of how senator manchin, senator sinema are going to vote? >> look, i think that's a better

question for them. i know there is conversations going on between myself and others with sinema and manchin. they are friends of mine. and, hopefully, we can get them to a point where threl see this is really important if we are going to have a democracy in this country. the right to vote is fundamental to that and they will support it. i don't know that they are there yet, but there is still time to talk. >> senator manchin stresses the importance of bipartisan support in this area. but you demonstrate what bipartisan legislation looks like in agriculture and you have done that repeatedly. >> look, i think that the bipartisanship is good. i think, you know, remember from your days here on the hill, lawrence, things have changed. they have changed a lot. the filibuster has been weaponized where you can have one person have veto power over the entire united states senate. that's not what the forefathers had in mind. going back to the day where

minority rights are protected but we have a talking filibuster i think would be beneficial to the minority and majority and bring people together in a bipartisan way if we present these rules in a way that forces people to be on the floor, if you want to stop a bill, you can, but you have to be on the floor to do it. you can't just put a hold, walk off the floor and go home. and i think that's really what we're looking at. and in the case of voting rights, i think that, you know, free, fair elections are very, very important to this democracy. i think we've seen since january 6th, since a year ago tomorrow, we've seen state legislatures do their darned exist to keep people from voting. i don't think that's what americans want to see. if we are able to get a good voting bill passed, if we are able to do some things with the filibuster that protects minority rights, yet forces

participation, i think that's all positive for our democracy and i think it's a positive for bringing this country together so they can see how a senate is supposed to work. what they have seen the last 15 years is a senate that doesn't work very well at all. it's one of the reasons our ratings are in the tank. >> senator jon tester, thank you very much for joining us tonight. always appreciate it. >> thank you, lawrence. appreciate it. thank you. coming up, on this night one year ago the voters of georgia saved the biden presidency before it began by delivering control to the united states senate to the democrats. the white house announced today that president biden and vice president harris are going to georgia next week to talk about voting rights. t voting rights.

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two united states senators, chuck schumer was in hiding the next day during the attack on the capitol whether he got the word he would become the next majority leader of the united states senate thanks to the senate in georgia by jon ossoff and raphael warnock. without those senate victories in georgia instead of confirming a record number of judges in the first year of his presidency joe biden might have zero confirmed federal judges as of tonight. everything president biden and the democrats have accomplished in congress is thanks entirely to the voters of georgia delivering two democrats to the united states senate. today the white house announced on tuesday january 11th, president biden and vice president harris will travel to atlanta, georgia, to speak to the american people about the urgent need to pass legislation to protect the constitutional

right to vote and the integrity of our elections from corrupt attempts to strip law-abiding citizens of their fundamental freedoms and allow partisan state officials to undermine vote counting processes. joining us now is lauren, manager of stacey abrams, current campaign for governor of georgia. thank you very much for joining us tonight. and the president is going to georgia next week to talk about these legislative attacks on the right to vote and the right to have your vote counted accurately. and we're getting reports now from atlanta saying that the republicans in georgia are at it again. they actually want to add this year more voting restrictions and more control over the counting of votes in georgia. >> yes. the president is coming next week tuesday, the second day of the georgia state legislative

session, which is a lot of poetry coming the week after our anniversary of the big georgia runoff wins merchandise and i'm really thrilled to be here with you during this international georgia blue holiday anniversary. we're going to make it an international holiday and recognize all the good work that has been done over the past year as you mentioned. and yes, in georgia and all over the country state legislative sessions are starting back up in the coming weeks, many next week right here in georgia. and they are redoubling their efforts. right, they are committed to voter fraud lies and conspiracy theories and, you know, at the expense of any other policy, platform or movement. so we're going to continue to see these attacks over the coming months in the state legislatures around the country. and we know in georgia it's a whole big legislative agenda not focused on peoples need during this crisis but rather all this political posturing and harm and

racist babying to try to meet political ends on voter suppression. here's the good news, lawrence. that wouldn't have happened if georgia voters didn't elect warnock and ossoff to the u.s. senate so those funds would be available. so brian kemp gets to give out that money. brian kemp would have no money to give out without those democratic successes. and across the country democratic and republican governors have some tools for this huge massive wave. brian kemp and others aren't doing what they need to do and could do much more, but i want folks as we get into the next week and coming months to really think about the hope we have here in georgia and around the country that we can see victories even with these

insurmountable challenges -- seemingly insurmountable challenges. >> raphael warnock has become the conscience of the senate on voting rights and voting rights legislation. we now know senator schumer has now been public about it. he was public about it with rachel maddow tonight. he as of tonight only has 48 votes in the senate for the possible rules change that would be necessary on the 60-vote threshold in order to get voting rights through. joe manchin and kyrsten sinema have not come around yet. what could be said to them to make them know what's at stake in georgia and around the country? >> look, this is the most fundamental right in our country and our democracy. and so as senator tester and many others have said, the right to vote and the way the senate works, these are not in conflict. and many times over the course

of history, the rules have changed. and there has been very good protections for simple majority votes to pass legislation on issue after issue. what i would say to them is set that aside for a moment and think about the future of this country. think about the fact that elections workers are being threatened, voters are being purged from the rolls. what kind of country do we want to leave for the next generation? and what is our duty as americans in this moment of crisis to do the right thing? this is about patriotism. this is not about politics. this is about our democracy. this is about people and our hopes and dreams. republicans and democrats, new citizens to this country being able to express their hopes and dreams. here in atlanta as we march onto the mlk holiday and more, we demand that our senators take action. >> thank you very much for

joining us on this very important one-year anniversary night for you and for stacey abrams and the political organization that you've built in georgia. thank you very much. >> thank you, sir. >> tonight's "last word" is next. , sir. >> tonight's "last word" is next just an investor, you're an owner with access to financial advice, tools and a personalized plan that helps you build a future for those you love. vanguard. become an owner. hello?

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tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. president biden and vice president kamala harris will speak at the capitol exactly one year after donald trump's supporters attacked and invaded the capitol in an insurrection hoping to hold the presidency illegally for donald trump. that is tonight's "last word." "the 11th hour" starts now. good evening once again. i'm ali velshi. day 351 of the biden administration. just under an hour from now it will be exactly one year from the day we all watched in realtime as a mob