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tv   The Last Word With Lawrence O Donnell  MSNBC  February 2, 2022 10:00pm-11:00pm PST

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with lawrence o'donnell. >> good evening, rachel, and we're all used to it so you can drop the whole weird thing. rachel, it seems many more of us are now qualified for the supreme court than we thought because one republican senator has announced that his standard of qualification for the supreme court is that you can tell the difference between a j. crew catalog and a logbook. now, i can do that. i can do that every single time. and that is the first time i have ever heard a senator come up with qualifications for the supreme court that i meet. >> you know, there is also another thing about you that he would really like about you as a potential supreme court nominee. but i will tell you later. >> okay. i will ask our first guest
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tonight all about this. and, rachel, my patience has run out. i am going to need to know tonight who the nominee will be. so, i am just going to corner him and -- >> i'm sure he will tell you. why wouldn't he? >> joe biden is a very careful person, of course he will will choose someone who has already been confirmed by the supreme court. so, i will force him to admit that. that narrows it down. that is my plan. >> if i were him, i would come out and tell you. i'm assuming that is what he will do. >> thank you, rachel. >> thanks, lawrence. >> well, president biden's after dinner reading tonight includes briefing material on what will be the most important decision that he makes this year as president of the united states. for the next few weeks, joe biden will send some of every day reading about potential nominees of the united states
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supreme court. he is the first president who has ever had to strategize the senate confirmation of a supreme court justice in a 50/50 senate. so, this begins as the single most difficult confirmation of a supreme court justice for a president whose party, technically, controls the united states senate. joe biden is the first president of the united states who has to make this historic decision about a supreme court nominee while vladimir putin is amassing over 100,000 troops at the ukraine border. joe biden is the first president of the united states who has to make a decision about the supreme court while trying to get control of a worldwide pandemic in which the united states has fallen far behind other countries in preventative measures because the opposing political party champions resistance to basic public health measures including vaccinations. and president biden has to make
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his decision about the supreme court while trying to figure out what no president before him has ever figured out, how to control inflation in this economy. the only person who works with the president every day on every one of those issues and more is our first guest tonight, white house chief of staff, ron klain. he is the most experienced white house chief of staff in the history of that position. he has served in all three branches of government, beginning with the judiciary. in his first job after harvard law school, he went straight to the united states supreme court where he served as a law clerk for justice byron white, who was appointed to the supreme court by president john f. kennedy. ron klain then moved down the block across the avenue to serve in the united states senate as counsel to the senate judiciary committee whose chairman was senator joe biden. when bill clinton won back the
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white house for the democrats, ron klain -- where he became the resident expert on the supreme court confirmations based on his experience with the confirmation process at the senate judiciary committee. just hours ago, senate majority leader chuck schumer met with president joe biden. in a statement, the white house said, president biden -- hosted leader schumer for a conversation about the supreme court, continuing his consultations with lawmakers as he considered a wealth of deeply qualified candidates. yesterday, the president and vice president met with the democratic chairman of the senate judiciary committee, dick durbin, and the ranking member of that committee, republican chuck grassley, to discuss the confirmation process. >> the constitution says, advise and consent. and i am serious when i say that i want the advice as well
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as the consent -- who phenomenally should be. >> also, yesterday, the president called the minority leader, mitch mcconnell, about the supreme court nomination. at least one republican vote is already publicly in play. republican -- lindsey graham -- said that he supports south carolina congressman -- favorite for the supreme court, michelle childs, who is now a federal district court judge in south carolina. >> i can't think of a better person for president biden to consider to the supreme court that michelle childs. she has wide support in our state. she is considered to be a fair minded, highly gifted journalist. she is one of the most decent people i ever met. it will be good for the court to have somebody who is not at harvard or yale. she is a graduate of south
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carolina. public education background. she has been a workers comp judge. she is highly qualified, has a good character, and we will see how she does if she is nominated. i cannot say anything bad about michelle childs. she is an awesome person. >> we can hope that does not become one of those lindsey graham videos that we show you when he completely reverses his position on all of that. lindsey graham said that before donald trump started calling him a -- this week because lindsey graham said it was inappropriate for donald trump to promise to pardon the january 6th insurrectionists if he ever gets back presidential powers. and so, it remains to be seen how lindsey graham will vote in the judiciary committee or on the senate floor. republican senator kennedy of louisiana yesterday try to insult all of the women president biden is considering for the supreme court when he said this, number one, i want a nominee who knows a law book from a j. crew catalog. number two, i want a nominee
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who wants to -- rewrite the constitution every other thursday to try to advance a woke agenda. now, taken literally, as i was just saying to rachel, that means that senator kennedy will vote to confirm any nominee -- because, like me, they all meet those qualifications that he just described. the white house has announced that former democratic senator doug jones of alabama, who is a former federal prosecutor, we'll take on -- of escorting the biden nominee for the supreme court through the judicial -- with members of the united states senate. -- as ruth bader ginsburg, white house assigned guide, through the senate confirmation process in 1993. leading off our discussions tonight is, white house chief of staff, ron klain. thank you very much for joining us on what i know is a busy night as is every night in your
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job. let's begin with the supreme court. president biden said yesterday he wants the advice and consent of the senate, including the advice of the republican side of the senate. so far, there has been some bad advice coming from senators like senator kennedy. when you hear lindsey graham saying that there is the potential nominee here. who he fully supports, how important is it to you, to the president, that the nominee actually has republican support? >> first of all, lawrence, thanks for having me. it's great to be here. look, the presidents nominee -- then any president in modern times. and virtually every single one of those judges has had some number of republican votes. so, we are always hoping that our judicial nominees have bipartisan support. the vast majority of them have.
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but in the end, after he takes all the advice from the senators, legal experts, the vice president, it will be his choice, his nominee and that person will be an outstanding nominee with outstanding legal protections, -- and i hope that person will get the republican votes she deserves to get. >> joe biden, as i have watched him as a senator and president, is as careful a decision-maker in government and in governing choices as i have seen. which, by the way, is one of the reasons, during the presidential campaign, i asked him about his vice presidential choice before he made it. and i asked him if one of the important qualifications for him is that that vice presidential nominee had already been tested on the presidential debate stage, which is what had me leaning so strongly toward kamala harris, who he eventually shows -- he told me then that it was an important factor for him.
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just as apparently it must have been an important factor for barack obama to choose joe biden. it seems to me now, that same kind of care is looking at the nominees and saying, who among them has already been confirmed by the united states senate? it is hard for me to see this decision being made for someone who has never gone through the confirmation process. >> lawrence, i obviously agree that senate confirmation is a big advantage for someone. they are familiar with the process itself and they have gained, in those cases, bipartisan support. they have been confirmed in the senate. but it does not rule out candidates that have not been confirmed by the senate. candidates have outstanding achievement and character. candidates that come from other aspects of either state judiciary or the legal practice, the legal profession. as you know, president obama nominated elena kagan, who was not a judge, she was solicitor general. to be a supreme court justice -- she got a big confirmation
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vote. it is an outstanding justice. he will look a lot -- widely. certainly, being confirmed by the senate is an advantage, but it is not a precondition for being his nominee. >> with a judge ketanji brown jackson, she was confirmed by this senate and she is the only one who i see on the generally recognized shortlist who was confirmed by the senate who is being considered to be moving up to the supreme court. she got three republican votes, including lindsey graham's for the circuit court of appeals. everyone knows, those senators knew when they were voting for her, that that has been the historical launching pad for supreme court nominees. so, it seems that is a tremendous advantage going into this process. that within the last 12 months, she had the support of three republican senators. >> lawrence, you are not going to get me to handicap candidates that the president may pick. judge jackson is of course an
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outstanding jurist and lawyer. i will not sit here and comment on all the people who have been speculated on. there are a number of outstanding people. some have been confirmed by the senate. some have not. what i know is, as you said, president biden, you're talking about my experience -- there is no president who is as experienced in supreme court nominations as president biden 's. -- that any chairman of the senate judiciary committee, to being here at the white house, president -- helping president obama -- he knows how to do this. he knows what he is looking for. as you said at the onset, he has a binder, he reads judges opinions and legal writings by other people every night. he is absorbing the information, getting more information constantly. he will make a wise choice of a great new member for the supreme court. >> i think the viewers of this program probably by now
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understand the senate protocol in this white house meeting yesterday, where you bring in the democratic chairman and you bring in the ranking republican member of the committee, chuck grassley, but i do think a lot of people will wonder, why with the president even bother to call mitch mcconnell about this supreme court nomination? >> look, i think he has respect for senator mcconnell. and senator mcconnell has voted for some of our judicial nominations. we will see what happens this time. but i think it's an important thing. to really honor the constitution's advice and consent -- to get that advice from democrats and were sub bubbly guns -- it will be joe biden's decision. it is not mitch mcconnell's decision. it is the presidents decision. but he is a strong enough president that he can listen to dissenting voices. he can listen to strongly opposing voices, take that in,
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way that, and make a decision. >> you have announced that the president is ordering 3000 additional u.s. troops to eastern europe. but already with the public pledge that they will not be engaging russian troops at any point, what is the effect of that? what is the point of ordering those troops into this arena? >> as you know, we are seeing really incredible russian aggression with the deployment of 100,000 troops at the border of ukraine. we assured our nato allies in europe that we are going to meet our commitment to defend them, that they are well protected from russian aggression in case that should spread. i think it's strands a strong message to russia, their aggression it is not going to be able to break apart nato. it will not be able to splinter nato. we are going to keep our commitments to nato and defend our nato allies. >> we seem to have entered what feels like a stalemate stage.
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i don't want to try to describe it beyond that. but do you see a horizon where there won't be 100,000 troops, russian troops, on the ukraine border and a timetable for that? >> sadly, that is up to president putin. we have made very clear that we will reinforce our nato allies. we will protect them and reassure them that we are prepared to move with very severe sanctions if president putin crosses that border with these combat units and invade ukraine with these combat units. we have made it very clear with the consequences for that will be. and we are continuing to try to engage the russians and diplomacy. to de-escalate the situation. vladimir putin -- we will see what he does next. >> one more question before you go. no president in history has ever figured out how to control inflation once it is underway. however, the one thing that the government can do is not continue in any way to
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stimulated, restrain any possible inflation stimulus, does that mean that any future legislative ambitions for this year involving significantly increased spending have to be put on hold? >> no, i think it's very important that what we do in terms of spending, we pay for. our build back better plan, for actually reduces the deficit. it is anti-inflation. you probably should call it the anti inflationary act. because not only does it bring down the deficit, but it really attacked some of the key elements of inflation. it brings down the cost of health care premiums. it brings down the cost of childcare and eldercare. inflation is wet voters feel when they try to write that check for childcare, pay for groceries, pay for the care of their elderly relatives, pay for drugs at the drugs store. and the build back better plan reduces the cost of all those things. it is one important thing we can do to a packed inflation. >> thank you so much for
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joining us in what i imagine is about the 15th or 16th hour of your workday. ron klain, white house chief of staff, we really appreciate it. >> thank you for having me, lawrence. >> and coming up, donald trump considered pardons for all of january 6th attackers while he was still in the white house. chairman adam schiff is a member of the january six committee and will join us next. liberty. liberty. ♪ >> woman: what's my safelite story? liberty. liberty. ♪ i'm a photographer. and when i'm driving, i see inspiration right through my glass. so when my windshield cracked, it had to be fixed right. i scheduled with safelite autoglass. their experts replaced my windshield
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the house select committee investigating the january 6th attack on the capitol and our next guest adam schiff is a member of that committee. jeffrey clark testified to the committee today. the acting attorney general at the time, jeffrey rosen, refused to send a letter that jeffrey clark wrote to georgia officials telling the lie that the justice department was
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investigating election fraud in georgia. there was a showdown in the oval office over that letter, between the acting attorney general, jeffrey rosen and justice department official jeffrey clark, who had absolutely no jurisdiction over these issues. luckily for americans, jeffrey clark lost that argument in the oval office in front of donald trump. the former acting attorney general, jeffrey rosen, has already told everything he knows to the january six committee and some reporters. today it was jeffrey clark's turn to testify under oath about what we already know were his attempts to commit election fraud for and with donald trump. we do not know whatever clark said in his hour and 40 minutes long testimony to the committee. but here is everything jeffrey clark said when he was leaving the building. >> mr. clark, did you invoke your fifth amendment rights? did you cooperate with the committee at all? >> have
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you spoken to former president trump about your meeting today? did you assert attorney client privilege? did you assert executive privilege? >> [inaudible] >> i think you are about to [inaudible] >> have you been in communication with former president trump? >> and that is what it looks like when you are absolutely terrified of federal indictments coming your way. also being questioned by the january 6th committee today was elmer rhodes, the leader of a group that he has given the ridiculous name the oath keepers. elmer rhodes lawyer
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said that he is both answering questions and taking the fifth amendment to answer other questions. today, chair benny thompson said this about under oath testimony from donald trump's daughter. >> what about ivanka trump? he said her deposition was scheduled. is that something you are still hoping for? >> yes. >> do you plan for her to appear? >> we don't know. sometimes things slide to another day or another week. [inaudible] >> today, politico is reporting that donald trump spent his final days as president of the united states considering how to pardon members of the trump mob who attacked the capitol. according to "politico", during january 6th and joe biden's inauguration on the 20th, trump made recalls saying, do you think i should pardon them? do you think it's a good idea? do
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you think i have the power to do it? trump told the person who summarize the conversations. -- is it everybody that had a trump sign or everybody who walked into the capitol that could be pardoned, trump asked, according to that advisor. he said, some people think i should pardon them. he thought, if he could do it, these people would never have to testify or be deposed. joining us now is democratic congressman adam schiff, member of the january 6th committee and chair of the house intelligence committee. thank you very much for joining us again tonight. what can you tell us about jeffrey clark's testimony today? there were speculation that because it was only an hour and 40 minutes, he must have used the fifth amendment for an awful lot of answers. >> i attended each of the depositions today. and while i cannot comment on their contents, there is a certain
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amount already in the public record on jeffrey clark, mostly through public proceedings in the senate. and in the senate proceedings it became clear that at the various very highest levels of the justice department, there was an effort spearheaded by mr. clark to miss use that department to promulgated false claims about fraud, to try to discourage georgia from sending a slate of electors or to encourage them to send an alternate slate. and to replace the leadership that resisted his efforts. and -- himself. these are shocking things. and lawrence, when we had a contempt proceeding earlier, despite him invoking the fifth, and that is specter for someone at the top of the
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justice department, as indicated previously by his attorney, who may not be able to testify him as he could be incriminated. that is pretty breathtaking when you have a former justice department official in that position. >> as you background as a former federal prosecutor, given your background, you see a scenario where this committee maybe at the end of its processes, could be making a series of referral to the justice department, drawing from people like jeffrey clark, who may use the fifth amendment as much as they can? the fifth amendment is actually used when there is a legitimate belief that the witness could be indicted by delivering answers. so, might that be one of the outcomes of this investigation? >> you know, it is certainly possible with respect to any of the evidence that we have gathered. we may make referrals and of course we have made referrals already to people who were in contempt of
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congress, for refusing to appear. but if we gather sufficient evidence of other crimes, we certainly can refer that to the justice department. but it is important for us to point out that the justice department is not waiting on us. and they should not wait on us and historically they do not wait on us. so, they ought to be investigating these issues themselves. there is some concern, as i've expressed to you before lawrence, that there are some things that i do not see much action from the justice department on. this includes the matter related to the secretary of state of georgia, to find the 11,000 votes. [inaudible] that should not wait on us, it is the kind of thing that the justice department should be looking into on its own. >> donald trump has tried publicly to influence potential witnesses against him. paul manafort, when he was facing criminal prosecution, donald trump would say kind things about him, clearly in an attempt to keep
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paul manafort from saying unkind things about donald trump to prosecutors. we have seen this thing now of donald trump raising pardons for the january 6th attackers that is, among other things, an attempt to influence what they may say about donald trump and the trump administration. also, we have this unprecedented lawsuit filed today by lieutenant colonel vindman, which is in effect a lawsuit about witness intimidation, against rudy giuliani, donald trump junior and others, who were trying to intimidate this witness in your first impeachment investigation. >> that is absolutely right. the president has a long history of attempts to intimidate witnesses and to reward those who agree to either be silent or to a biden cover ups for him. for example, he pardoned roger stone for lying to congress. he and his
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attorney general, bill barr, made a case about michael flynn go away completely after flynn pled guilty repeatedly to lying. and as you say, he dangled pardons in front of manafort. he also went after people who cooperated with the government, people like michael cohen and he called them a rat and went after him. his recent statements as well as recent reports about pardoning the people involved in the january 6th attack, they go to a couple of things. they go to this idea that if this was not something he condoned, why would he consider pardoning them? so it is important as the his intent. but it is also part of that broader pattern, lawrence, to influence potentially what
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witnesses have to say or whether they will say it. >> we have learned a lot since that first impeachment investigation that you conducted about donald trump's attempt to use the ukrainian president in his own reelection campaign, and to try to convince him to somehow damage joe biden, if he could in the campaign. lieutenant colonel vindman listen to that phone call as the president was making it. he stepped forward to testify about it. he now says in sworn legal documents, in this lawsuit, that there was a concerted conspiracy to intimidate him as a witness. did you sense that at the time when you were taking his testimony in that room? >> well, without a doubt, we sensed the effort by the former president and his allies, his son and
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others to smear lieutenant colonel vindman and attack him personally, to question his patriotism. sadly, i think some of the republicans during his deposition, similarly try to impugn his patriotism. he is a dedicated soldier who served and, i believe, earned a purple heart for his service. so i think that on the basis of what we have observed publicly, he has a pretty strong case to make. and i wish him every success. because no one should have gone through what he did, for doing his duty and -- a subpoena. >> before you go, i want to ask you based on your position in the intelligence committee. you certainly know more about the situation at the ukraine border right now, given your position on the intelligence committee. do you have a sense of what we can
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expect over the next few weeks, surrounding what appears to be some kind of stalemate? >> well, lawrence, it has always been unfortunately my suspicion that the [inaudible] pretext to invade. that it is possible that he rolls tanks into kyiv and that he is disappointed that his previous invasion of ukraine did not change ukraine. it continues to move towards the west philosophically and politically. it wants to be part of europe and not the eurasian union and under the thumb of putin. sadly, i think that this is likely. the
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administration is doing everything possible, i think, to deter putin by sending ukrainians, by moving u.s. troops to nato countries, by disposing intelligence about russian plans for a false provocation, and russian plans for a puppet regime, as the british have disclosed. and make it very clear to putin that we will move nato assets closer to russia, not further away, if they go through with this. all of that, i think, is exactly what the biden administration should be doing. and it may not be enough if putin has decided he will do it regardless. but they are, we have to raise the cost to russia by providing ukrainians with the weapons to defend themselves. >> house intelligence committee chairman adam schiff, thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you. >> thank you. coming up, it took the january 6th attack on the capitol to finally get trump banned from major social media platforms he used to spread lies every day of his presidential campaign and his presidency. now the congressman
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from silicon valley is taking on the tech companies who aided and abetted the rise and the sum reign of donald trump, congressman ro khanna joins us next. with a painless, one-second scan i know my glucose numbers without fingersticks. now i'm managing my diabetes better and i've lowered my a1c from 8.2 to 6.7. take the mystery out of managing your diabetes and lower your a1c. now you know. try it for free at freestylelibre.us allergies with nasal congestion overwhelming you? now you know. breathe more freely with powerful claritin-d. get fast relief of your worst allergy symptoms including nasal congestion, so you can breathe better. claritin-d. breathe better. with relapsing forms of ms... there's a lot to deal with. not just unpredictable relapses. all these other things too.
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released by -- revealed this message from a facebook employee posted on january 6th, as the violent insurrection was underway at the capitol. never forget the day that trump rode down the escalator in 2015, called for a ban on muslims entering the u.s., and we determined that it violated our policies, and yet we explicitly overrode the policy and didn't take the video down. there is a straight line that can be drawn from that date today, one of the darkest days in the history of democracy and self governance. history will not judge us kindly. joining us now, congressman
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from silicon valley, democrat ro khanna. -- author of the new book, dignity in a digital age. making tech work for all of. us thank you very much for joining us. what about that point raised in that facebook post, that the companies have these policies that they don't enforce these policies, that particular facebook worker could see a straight line from the way facebook treated donald trump's campaign, to the january 6th attack. >> he's right, the story gets worse. before january 6th, facebook knew that there were specific threats, for a specific time in place against lawmakers on january six. they decided to sit on that information, private security said, -- they decided not to inform law enforcement, and they didn't take it down. -- allowing them to sit on that
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information. then qanon, who has grown, because facebook collects peoples data, construct social pro virus, and encourages the growth of qanon groups on their platforms. it is out of control -- it's time to have rules in regulations for social media. >> but, is all of that actually protected by the first amendment? >> fair question, lawrence. it's not, as you know, -- you can not have incitement to violence. it's pretty specific. you can just have a vague threat, but if you have people say i am going to assassinate a political leader, on a specific day, that doesn't pass. a lot of the speech isn't incitement to illegal conduct. also, the first amendment doesn't protect you from collecting data, and targeting
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the most vulnerable people with information. it's not a celebration of the first of edmonton have instagram feeding things to teenagers that is causing them depression rings i achieved, because they have a eating disorder, or maybe spoils conscious. there's a lot that can be reformed. >> you are the congressman from silicon valley, you know these people. you know the way these companies work. why can they not do the basic human really decent thing, in the way they run their companies. >> i have one piece of advice, hire hundreds of philosophers, humanists, people in ethics for these companies. they can see that if you just have a -- that somehow that would be good for the public's sphere. well they've been doing, maximizing engagements in
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profits. they are commercial entities, but they have to recognize that they have this stakeholders to a democracy, the part of the new public sphere they, have an ethical responsibility, just like journalist, just like people on television or radio. that's really what i call for in the book, and i've been trying to do legislatively. >> the january six committee is also looking at these companies influence, and what happened on january 6th. do you expect will we get out of that investigation to create yet more momentum -- at minimum pressuring these companies to do the right thing? >> i do. i think, also for legislation. some of these companies came out and said they had nothing to do with january 6th, and it was all parlor. that is just factually false. we know that there was coordination for january six on the sites. the sites would be better
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served if companies come clean, accept responsibility, and talk about actions that will be taken going forward. especially that the misinformation threat is there, with covid, in the anti-vaccine information, there's climate disinformation, and if donald trump runs again, we're going to have the whole dilemma again. so, we have to take action to prevent the future. it's not just about accountability for the past. >> congressman ro khanna, thank you very much. >> thank you, lawrence. >> we will next consider the very long and very slow journey of black women through the american judicial system, to the point where only now, in 2022, will the first black woman take her seat on the united states supreme court. we have extraordinary news that is actually 194 years old, about a courtroom miracle, of sorts, achieved by the former slave, sojourner truth.
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nominating the first black woman to the united states supreme court, consider how long the journey has been for black women and the unique american judicial system to the point that finally, one of them will reach the top of the judicial mountain in 2022. in 1828, former slave and abolitionist, sojourner truth, sued in new york state supreme court to free her son from slavery. the albany times union is now reporting that the new york state archives has discovered documents, legal documents, quote, detailing how sojourner truth became the first black woman to successfully sue white men to get her son released from slavery. the records also show that despite a literacy, sojourner truth was able to go to court
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to sue solomon -- and make her mark to start the path to securing her son's freedom after he was sold south to slave owners in alabama. and joining us now is nell irvin painter, professor of american history at princeton university. professor, thank you very much for joining us tonight. she is the author of sojourner truth. sojourner truth, a life a symbol. i want to get the full title in there of your wonderful book. and when we are learning today, i suppose, for you, is relatively little. but small pieces of the legal records have emerged in these archives that we have not seen before. what is your reaction to what they have discovered? >> yes. you are right, absolutely, lawrence, that this does not come as news to me.
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i wrote about it in my biography. what is news is that it is news. this is something that hasn't happened before. we have known, at least those of us in history, have known about sojourner truth and isabella, because this is before she changed her name and started her new career. we have known that she went to -- county court in kingston, in -- county. she was from the hudson river valley. she was not a southerner, she was a proud new yorker. and she did not read and write. she never learned to read and write. but she was well enough known as a person of ethics, as an upstanding person, an important person, even though she was very much a working class person. she was able to find the strength, and she took the strength from a source that black women and women and
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people who seem not to have any power, the source is jesus or the power of the holy spirit. something that we call religion. i, myself, am not a religious person, but i really deeply respect that source of power. >> and she was using a new york state law that said that enslaved people born after 1799, after reaching their 20's, could -- had to then be released. and her son qualified under that. but the challenge was, how does she enforce this law? >> how did she get him out of alabama? that was the issue. he had been sold illegally into perpetual slavery in alabama. it was a long complicated
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family story there. she had worked with parts of the family and the part of the family that lives in alabama, she knew. so, she was able to use her standing, locally, to find allies, to go to court. this is absolutely extraordinary. i don't know if it was the first time. i know that at least one other black woman who was enslaved before the civil war managed also to use the law and to free her -- members of her family. but isabella, sojourner truth, used the law to get her son back. if you can imagine what it would be like, little peter was five or six years old, illegally sold to alabama into perpetual slavery. she was able to get him back by going up against the very important elite of -- county.
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>> you can read the full story in sojourner truth, a life, a symbol, by professor nell irvin painter. professor, thank you very much for joining us tonight. we really appreciate it. >> you are welcome. >> thank you. and tonight's last word is next. bucks rewards each year just for filling at cvs pharmacy. woman: i have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now, there's skyrizi. with skyrizi, 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months after just two doses. skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, such as fevers, sweats, chills, muscle aches, or coughs or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine. ♪ nothing is everything. ♪ woman: talk to your dermatologist about skyrizi.
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>> the president bears responsibility for wednesday's attack by mob rioters. he should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw was unfolding. these facts require immediate action there from president trump. except his share of responsibility, quell the brewing unrest and
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ensure that president biden is able to successfully begin his term. there is no question, none, that president biden is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. there is no question about that. the people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president. i'm >> never forget. that is tonight's last word. "the 11th hour" starts now. now. >> good evening once, again i'm chris jansing, day 379 to the biden administration. tonight, the latest reporting from the new york times reveals how it just two weeks after election day, 2020, lawyers for trump's campaign began working to buy
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more time to overturn joe biden's win. the times says that the plan revolves around alternate slates of elections in states that trump lost and that, quote, on november 18th memo and another three weeks later are among the earliest known efforts to put on paper proposals for preparing alternate electors. at the heart of the strategy was the idea that they are real deadline was not december 14th, when official electors would be chosen to reflect the outcome any state. but rather january 6th, when congress would meet to certify the results. -- led to the effort to pressure mike pence to overturn the election and ultimately fueled the riot at the capitol. two of pence's most senior aides, former chief of staff mark shorts and council greg jacob have already spoken to the select committee. and today, the national archives said that it would turn over some of pence's records by march 3rd. the