← The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell
The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell
Biden reflects on presidency while giving Lawrence an exclusive Oval Office tour
00:44:11
Tonight on The Last Word: Donald Trump pardons people who attacked police on January 6. Also, Trump signs a slew of executive orders after his inauguration. And former President Biden reflects on his presidency during an Oval Office tour. Andrew Weissmann, Eugene Robinson, and Norm Ornstein join Lawrence O’Donnell.
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- [00:00]
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- [00:42]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Well, thanks to Luke Russert, we are reminded of the words of President Ulysses S. Grant, who said, Luke posted this on Threads, which is where I've been spending some of my social media time before getting really straightened out with Blue sky tomorrow so I can follow Rachel and everyone else who's moved over there. Ulysses S. Grant said President Grant said, if we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's, but between patriotism and intelligence on the one side and superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other. President Ulysses S. Grant, General Grant during the Civil War, the war that he won, making that prediction to us. Well, at least civility is back in the White House press corps Tonight, the White House press corps behaved exactly the way they should always behave. But it's the way they only behave with Donald Trump. Reporters were allowed in the Oval Office while Donald Trump was signing an unconstitutional executive order, among other things, and citing pardons for his supporters who tried to beat police officers to death. And reporters asked questions while Donald Trump was doing that. The reporters never yelled. They never even slightly raised their voices. The reporters never talked over each other or interrupted Donald Trump. They allowed Donald Trump to pause as long as he wanted to before answering the question, or, in the middle of an answer of a question, just go blank for a while. Performatively, it was actually a calm conversation among adults, which is the way it always should be. It seemed perfectly okay that they took Donald Trump's personal rhythms into account while asking for the questions, and they seemed to understand that his brain wasn't frozen. He was just looking over here at this document when he was in the middle of a sentence. So he stopped talking for a second to try to figure out what he was doing. It all made sense. Stylistically, it made sense, and only stylistically. Substantively, it was completely empty. Or worse. Donald Trump signed a piece of paper right in front of them that he thinks removes this sentence from the United States Constitution. All persons born in the United States are citizens of the United States. No president has ever tried to remove a sentence from the Constitution, actual words from the Constitution, with an executive order, with the stroke of a pen. No reporter in that room had ever seen a president tried to do that. So you can imagine what an outburst would have occurred in that room if anyone other than Donald Trump were sitting at that desk.
- [04:21]
Donald Trump
This next order relates to the definition of birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment of the United States.
- [04:27]
Peter Alexander
That's a good one. Birthright. That's a big one.
- [04:32]
Lawrence O'Donnell
That was about it. No questions. No one asking about that. In the middle of Donald Trump's very pleasant, very quiet first encounter with the White House press corps tonight, he made this remark about President Biden. Sir.
- [04:53]
Peter Alexander
Does Biden ever do news conferences like this? How many news conferences, Peter, has he done like this?
- [04:59]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Like this? None.
- [05:00]
Andrew Weissman
Zero.
- [05:02]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Well, they're almost right about that. Joe Biden did do no news conferences like that. Meaning news conferences where the press doesn't yell at you, news conferences where the press doesn't scream at you. News conferences where they don't scream over each other while screaming at you. But the Fox guy said zero, knowing that he was one of the people in the Oval Office screaming at Joe Biden when Joe Biden took questions from reporters in that same room, the Oval Office.
- [05:41]
Peter Alexander
Thank you all for coming in.
- [06:19]
Lawrence O'Donnell
And here's that same White House press corps that was so polite to Donald Trump tonight across the hallway from the Oval Office in the Roosevelt Room.
- [06:44]
Donald Trump
Thank you, everyone.
- [06:44]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Thank you very much. The White House press corps never dared to do that to Donald Trump the first time Donald Trump was in the White House, and they will not dare to do that to Donald Trump this time, no matter how outrageous Donald Trump is being right before their very eyes, like trying to repeal a sentence in the Constitution by himself. Donald Trump took an oath at noontime today to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. And not one reporter in that room tonight asked him if he just violated that oath by trying to remove these words from the Constitution. All persons born in the United States are citizens of the United States. So the substance of what reporters will call a press conference by Donald Trump was horrible. Horrible on both sides tonight, the Trump side and the press corps side. But stylistically, it was actually the way it always should be. It should always be a calm discussion among adults. When a president speaks to reporters in any forum anywhere, there should never be screaming. But it only Works that way, the calm, adult way, for one occupant of the White House, Donald Trump. And the White House press corps seems completely oblivious and unembarrassed by this double standard for which Donald Trump is the unique beneficiary. The next president will not get the Trump treatment by the White House press corps. Donald Trump is the only president to pardon people who publicly committed crimes for him. He did that tonight in one document that commutes the sentences of 14 people, but does not actually pardon them, just lets them out of prison. And then in the same document, Donald Trump pardons every other person who broke the law on January 6, every other person who tried to beat police officers to death, every other person who committed extreme physical violence in the pursuit of trying to kill the Vice President of the United States according to their own publicly screamed declarations of intent out of their own mouths while they were attacking police officers and trying to get to and kill Mike Pence. Quote, a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. He pardoned them all. No one working for Donald Trump examined those cases of people who tried to kill police officers to sort them out of the cases of other people who were not convicted of as a violent acts or weren't convicted of any violent acts, but were convicted of lesser crimes. He pardoned all of them and every one of them committed every one of their crimes for Donald Trump in his criminal attempt to overturn the presidential election of 2020. According to special prosecutor Jack Smith, tonight's pardons by Donald Trump are the final act in what Special prosecutor Jack Smith described as a conspiracy against the government of the United States led by Donald Trump to overturn the presidential election leading up to and on January 6th. History should take these pardons as evidence, if not the final proof that the people attacking the Capitol, the people beating police officers, the people trying to kill police officers, the people who wanted to kill Mike Pence, were all working for Donald Trump that day. Leading off our discussion tonight is Andrew Weissman, former FBI general counsel and former chief of the Criminal Division in the Eastern District of New York. He's an MSNBC legal analyst. Andrew, I want to get your reaction to this first pardon ever issued by a president who is himself a convicted felon and who was criminally charged for participation in a conspiracy that led to these crimes.
- [11:46]
Eugene Robinson
Well, first, I have some numbers for you because the Department of Justice on January 6th of this year gave numbers that I Think really help put some meat on the bones of what you exactly have been talking about. According to the department, approximately 688 people were charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement agents or officers or obstructing the officers during the January six attack. And of those, as you can see on the board, 174. 174 defendants were charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer. All of those people, all of them have been pardoned or had their sentences commuted. A small number have it commuted. And it's really hard to see this as anything but an affront on the rule of law. I should note that these defendants who went to trial and were convicted after being given all due process were sentenced by judges who are both Republicans and Democrats in Washington, D.C. judges appointed by Donald Trump himself. And all of those judges viewed this as a serious assault on democracy and said so in pointed language. So this is an assault on democracy. It's an assault on the court system. And it makes sense that it would come from somebody. As you noted, Lawrence is a convicted.
- [13:30]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Felon who is in charge in the Justice Department tonight. We know Marco Rubio was confirmed by the full United States Senate earlier this evening for Secretary of State. So we have a secretary of State. What's going on in the attorney General's office tonight?
- [13:51]
Eugene Robinson
Well, let me first say that what's really going on is in spite of what Donald Trump had said to Kristen Walker and Meet the Press, that he would leave things to the decision of his attorney general and his FBI director. That is not what happened today. He made the decision who to pardon, but he also ordered the Department of Justice to dismiss with prejudice all pending January six cases. So he made those decisions after saying on, on air on NBC that he was going to leave those kinds of decisions. So the direct answer to who is in charge of the Justice Department is Donald Trump.
- [14:36]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Yeah, Andrew, let me just read that to the audience. This is the president of the United States ordering the attorney general directly to drop cases. In case you were wondering how active he was going to be. He says, and this is part of the same pardon document of the other 1600 people, he says, I further direct the attorney general to pursue dismissal with prejudice to the government of all pending indictments against individuals for their conduct related to the events at or near the United states Capitol on January 6th. And some of those indictments have been brought very recently, including for violent behavior against police officers. So that phrase, Andrew, dismissal with prejudice to the government.
- [15:27]
Eugene Robinson
Yes. Those cases are over. Now, the court has to approve that, but they have. The court has very limited authority to withhold approval in this situation. But that case, if it's dismissed with prejudice, it cannot be rebroad.
- [15:43]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Sorry, Andrew. Does the court have discretion as to whether to dismiss with or without prejudice?
- [15:50]
Eugene Robinson
It has limited authority. We saw that happen in cases during the Mueller investigation where the department tried to dismiss a case, but that was a case where there had already been a guilty plea and that was a big issue on appeal. As to what the authority is, you're correct to focus on this issue of with or without prejudice. You can imagine some judges would ask for briefing, but the court has very limited authority here. Just to get back to your main question, Emile Beauvais, who is one of Donald Trump's personal attorneys and represented him in the Manhattan criminal case, has been appointed the acting deputy attorney general. So the acting number two position. And he will then Todd Blanche has confirmed, slide back one level to be the sort of main assistant to Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general. There also is an acting attorney general who is, I think, very much a placeholder pending the confirmation of Pan Bondi.
- [17:06]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Andrew Weissman, thank you very much for starting off our discussions. Appreciate it. You're welcome. Donald Trump, with great flourish and to the general light hearted amusement of the White House press corps, signed a bunch of executive orders tonight, many of which have pretty big holes in them, like the one about forcing all federal workers to show up at their workplace full time five days a week. Seems clear, but here's what it actually says. Heads of all departments and agencies in the executive branch of government shall, as soon as practicable, meaning whenever you want, take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in person at their respective duty stations on a full time basis, provided that the department and agency heads shall make exemptions they deem necessary. In other words, you have to show up for work. Absolutely. Every day unless some Trump guy says you don't. Joining us now is congressional historian Norm Ornstein. He's an emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Also with us, Eugene Robinson. He's an associate editor and Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for the Washington Post and an MSNBC political analyst. Gene, let me begin with you on this collision of Martin Luther King Day with Inauguration Day as it happens, and your reflections on that intersection.
- [18:45]
Andrew Weissman
Wow. Well, it gave all of us something to commemorate today. And I thought a lot about Dr. King and his perseverance and the fact that, as Reverend Jackson always says, that he kept hope alive And I think that's the spirit with which we all to go into this second Trump administration, which is clearly going to be worse than the first Trump administration. This flurry of executive orders was partly just about, you know, the flurry flooding the zone. But there were outrages. There was another violation of the Constitution, by the way, that you did that you didn't mention, along with birthright citizenship. The Constitution says the president shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed. The TikTok ban is a law. It was passed by Congress and signed by the president. It is a law. And President Trump issued an executive order telling the Justice Department not to take care that that law be executed at all, just to not to enforce the law. So that's another. Now, this is day one, and I don't think we should expect day two, day three, day four, to be any more in conformity with the Constitution, with our laws, with what we thought of as our democratic system. This is what voters voted for and this is what they got.
- [20:28]
Lawrence O'Donnell
You mentioned Reverend Jesse Jackson. He invited me actually to join him at his annual Martin Luther King Day breakfast in Chicago this morning, which I could not attend because of duties here, unfortunately. I'm going to talk about that a little bit later in the hour. Norm, your reaction to where we stand at 10.24pm on day one.
- [20:51]
Donald Trump
So a couple of larger points. Lawrence Dean mentioned flooding zone. Donald Trump in his first campaign, in his first administration, had scandal after scandal after scandal. And they wash over each other so that they become almost meaningless, certainly in the coverage of them, the lies, 30,000 in the first term, all the lies today and otherwise so many of them that they get lost in the shovel. And the same is true of these executive orders. There are many of them that are going to get very little attention but have a profound impact. I'll mention a couple we are now withdrawn from the World Health Organization. When you consider who he's going to put in place to deal with health care, with pandemics, sharing information across countries, we are in big trouble. And that is going to wash over us, at least for a long time. The withdrawal from the Paris climate accords. And then we've got, of course, all of the ones that are related to immigration, some of which we have to remember. When he says that cartels are now a terrorist organization, it is giving him free reign to invade Mexico and bomb it or send troops in, along with what is the absurd process of saying that people who want to come here have to stay in Mexico. Mexico doesn't have to go along with that, we're declaring war on Mexico, not to mention the terrorists, as he said today he would declare war on Panama. And then we have all of the other actions, some of which are just simply not even going to be registering. How many can you put on the front page of the paper? And I want to mention one thing related to the last discussion. All of these people, the 1600 who were pardoned, and I haven't seen a single police organization step up and say how horrible this is. But watch out for having a vigilante force. These people will become a private army for Donald Trump. And the pardon power that has already been exercised could be used again. He is immune. He can tell all of these others, the proud boys, the Oath Keepers, the others who are engaged in this and more, do whatever you want. I'll pardon you. So we're headed, I think, for even worse times than we imagined, even with that pretty shocking inaugural address and the conversations he had after the.
- [23:20]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Gentlemen, I have to interrupt for our traditional camera cut on inauguration night to the president arriving at the inaugural ball in Washington, where this is normally about the time that this kind of thing happens. The, the dance of the presidential couple. Jane, as we go forward with this day one, what are you anticipating?
- [23:56]
Andrew Weissman
Well, I guess more of the same. I mean, you know, there are, in this flurry of executive orders, there's like, backup for some of these things. So Norm was talking about the border in Mexico. There's an executive order directing the US Military to develop a plan to militarize the border, which is astounding. Yet there it is. It's signed, it's, it's gone into effect. We are, we are going to see in the next few days, I think, an exercise of, of executive power that far overreaches what, where executive power really stops. And that goes in all sorts of dangerous and toxic directions. And again, this is what he said he was going to do. So I don't think we should be surprised. I think we should go back and listen to what Donald Trump said he would do in a second term as president. And we should expect all of that, all of that and more. We wait until his cabinet gets in, in office and see what RFK Jr does if he gets confirmed, see what Pam Bondi does when she gets confirmed, see what Pete Hegseth does. He cleared committee today, so presumably he's on the way to confirmation as well as Secretary of Defense. This, this will be incredibly damaging, not just to the federal government, but, but to the nation, I fear. And again, this is what he said he was gonna do. This is people voted for him and this is what we're gonna deal with the next four years.
- [25:55]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Melania Trump has finished dancing, but Donald Trump has not. We left him on the stage dancing with someone else at that point. Norm, one of the very politely asked questions in the Oval Office tonight was, will you, based on your point about the drug cartels or terrorist organizations, he was then asked, therefore, would you send special Forces into Mexico to get them? And he basically said, maybe. He did that thing where he left it open as a possibility, which is the kind of thing he likes to do.
- [26:28]
Donald Trump
To those questions, we're gonna see, I think some pretty awful things happen in our international relations. But we also have to keep in mind that all of the discussion of Panama, the lie after lie after lie about 38,000Americans being killed in the building of the canal was 5600. About the Chinese running it, about charging Americans more about threatening to go into Panama. Remember that Donald Trump has business interests in Panama and they're being investigated for a grab for other kinds of issues, for taxes. And this is an administration of grift, the bitcoins, the attempt to gain. Talking about Gaza as a place where he can now dream of putting up hotels. He is going to operate in a different way because he's going to demand people pay him so that he can change some of that behavior. But the recklessness and what Gene talked about, what we have to keep in mind, Pete Hegseth is being put in. Forget about the personal reasons why he should not be near any office. He's there because when Donald Trump says, send the military in to round up immigrants, send the military down to bomb in Mexico, he'll say, yes, sir, there will be no pushback whatsoever. They removed Mark Milley's picture from the Defense Department today, and that is a signal of where we're headed. And Susie Wiles aside, there's going to be nobody there that will tell Donald Trump, no, you can't do this. No, you shouldn't do this. That's the one lesson he picked up from his first term.
- [28:13]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Laura Ornstein and Eugene Robinson, thank you both very much for joining us on Day One. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Coming up, we'll show you some of President Biden's last half day in the presidency and will show you some remarkable video of President Biden in the Oval Office. After our interview on Thursday, when he described his memories about some of the things in the office and his experiences in the Oval Office with other presidents, you don't want to miss that. That's next.
- [28:47]
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- [30:06]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Tell me about this photo.
- [30:08]
Peter Alexander
Well, this photo, my mom is 92 years old and my mom was one of those women who all my friends kind of wish that she was their mother. I'm serious. Yeah, I know.
- [30:21]
Lawrence O'Donnell
We had mothers like that in my neighborhood.
- [30:23]
Peter Alexander
That's right.
- [30:24]
Lawrence O'Donnell
That was President Biden showing me around the Oval Office Thursday evening after our interview. We'll show you more of that video in just a moment. After President Biden's last half day in the presidency, he spoke to the White House staff before boarding the presidential aircraft known as Air Force One. Only when the president is on the plane for his final flight out of Washington.
- [30:51]
Peter Alexander
Wow. Folks, came to thank you. You know, I don't think we could have done anything. I know we couldn't have done anything we did without you, Kamala and Doug and members of the Cabinet. All the staff is here, all across all the agencies and friends, supporters. Joel and I are forever grateful to you. I mean that. We're genuinely grateful. And we chose the best damn team in the world. You are.
- [31:27]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Here's more of my chat with President Biden in the Oval Office on his last Thursday. In that office last Week, that's election night. 2008.
- [31:40]
Peter Alexander
That's 2008. So my mom, she grabs his. Look at the smile on his face.
- [31:44]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Oh yeah, she's holding the president elect's hand. And the vice president elect, we were.
- [31:49]
Peter Alexander
I forget the hotel, but we were on the 23rd floor and his kids were on the 24th floor waiting for the results, whatever it was one floor apart. And my number two and three granddaughter are his number one and two daughters, best buddies. They went to school from fourth grade on and they still see each other a lot. And so anyways, what happened was that my. I had gotten a call when Barack beat me like a, like a, like a broom when I tried to get the nominees in the primaries, in the primary. So I'm riding home one night, going home, I'm getting through the Baltimore tunnel, going out back to Delaware. My phone rings at Barack and to paraphrase him, he said, joe, I want to do a background check on you. Said Brock, I don't want to be vice president. I don't want to be vice president. And he said, well, it's only. And he finally said, that's only you. And I said, brock, I don't want to. He said, go home and talk over your family. He knew my family. And so my mother, we sat down and my dad had passed away. My mom had moved in with us by then. And we're sitting on the back porch and it's in the middle of August and I turned to Joe, I said, what do you think I should do? She said, I think you should do it. I said, really? She said, if you don't, he'll ask you to be secretary of state. And he'll be away all the time, I'm sure to God. And then my two sons gave me the lecture about why I had to my daughter and went all through it and I still didn't want to do it. The only non family member there was Ted Kaufman, who's a great friend and a real fine man. Anyway, so my mom's sitting on the back porch with an oval and there's a wrought iron railing and it drops off about 10ft. And about 20 yards on, there's a pond that's not ours, but it's a pond. And so my mom's sitting there, she hadn't said a word. I walked over and I said, what do you think I should do, honey? Everybody here. She said, jo, remember when you were 14 years old and they were desegregating Linfield in a suburban neighborhood and I told you not to go down there because people were protesting. You went down and they brought you back because you were standing on the porch with a black family. Yeah, Mom, I remember that. But what I said, boy, show me. Because they're worried about you. I said, yeah. So then you had that job as that country club, as a lifeguard. It really wasn't a country club. It was a private swimming club. And I said, yeah, Mom. She said, you decided you wanted to be the only white guy to work on the projects, and you were the only white guy that worked as a lifeguard with 12 of them for a couple years. Yeah, Mom, I just wanted to get to know what's going on. She said, let me get this straight. She goes like this. The first black man has a chance to be president. I asked you. You told me he's really smart, honorable and tough, and he needs you to help him win. And you told him no. Swear to God. That's what that picture. So now they say, the next president and vice president of the United States. And my mom grabs his hand and look at his face. She says, come on, honey. He's going to be okay. You might even be supposed to go out.
- [34:49]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Oh, that's.
- [34:49]
Peter Alexander
That's right.
- [34:50]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Yeah.
- [34:50]
Peter Alexander
You weren't any part of that.
- [34:52]
Lawrence O'Donnell
My mom, I remember her. Do you remember your first time in this room? I think Carter administration.
- [34:59]
Peter Alexander
I came in here. I think the first time I came in this room was. I guess it was. Maybe it was. Nixon had been gone, but I came in here. I can't remember why, but I came through the White House when he was president. But then I think maybe the first time I was in here was many times. The time was Ford, but I came in here. By the time Reagan was president, I was here. Matter of fact, Reagan was supposed to have been losing it. You know, at the end, we beat a Supreme Court nominee. It was very controversial. And I led the fight to defeat him and Bork. And so I got a phone call from Reagan, said, can you come down and talk about what you want to do, what we're going to do on.
- [35:49]
Lawrence O'Donnell
The Supreme Court after you beat him?
- [35:52]
Peter Alexander
After we beat him. Okay. So I came down and remember, Howard Baker was a good friend, and he was his chief of staff. And so Reagan always sat in the chair on that side. Most presidents sit in the chair on this side. So I'm sitting in the chair on that side, and the Chief of staff's on the couch there. And he said, who do you want, Joe? I said, Mr. President, ours isn't proposed Ours isn't supposed. You tell me, and I'll tell you what the honest chances are. And so he. Long story, but about five minutes later, he takes that card out of his pocket and he has ten names on it, and he reads off the five for the first three or four most conservative members. I said, I think they'd have real trouble, Mr. President. And he gets down to the fourth or fifth one. He said, and he said, so? And so, Supreme Court, California. And I said, well, based on what I know about him, he's a pretty mainstream guy. I think he'd have a shot. He said, meet your form, Mr. President. I don't know that. And he kept saying that. So I kidded with Howard, I said, howard, tell him. And so next thing you know, Reagan says, you got a minute, Joe? And I kiddingly said, I'm really busy, Mr. President. He takes me by the hand, walks me. There's a coffee table usually there. Walks me to that door, opens the door, and he said, he's with you? And he's just standing there the whole time.
- [37:15]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Wow, that's amazing. You know, my first time in this room was with President Clinton when we were working on a tax bill. I was up here with Chairman Moynihan, and we were struggling with a piece that we couldn't get. And so it was the most difficult kind of meeting because it was reporting to him, we don't have the votes. He's gonna. Basically, he's gonna have to change his mind. Which he did and did very smoothly. It's the kind of. Most difficult kind of session you could imagine having or I could imagine having in here. But I remember every time I've walked through a door into this room, every time. It absolutely never gets old. I'm obviously going to remember this for you. Did this become the place you go to work? Did you get to sit down here and just feel.
- [37:57]
Peter Alexander
Well, I guess because I had been here so many times as Chairman of Foreign Relations and Chairman of Judiciary, but it still kind of blows you away. Come in here. It's, you know, like, for example, when I walked in the first time, the incoming president never. You're supposed to be out here by 10 or 11 on the 20th when you're the incumbent leaving and you're not able. You're not supposed to come in until 3 or 4 or whatever. And so. But he never was around, so it didn't matter what time. Anyway, we came in and so I knew we were going to be backed up. I asked, my brother Jim has better taste than I do. I said, look, the only thing I know I want is a Resolute desk and a blue rug. And I want a bust of the two heroes I had as a kid, as a young elected. And that was with Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King said, I want to be able to see them. That was it. So I come walking in the day we're gonna become, you know, to take the. Take over the office. I'm standing by the desk and John Meacham was my brother, called John for advice on. And so we're standing. I said, Roosevelt. I said, I admire him, but why Roosevelt? Meacham spoke up and said, because no one, paraphrasing, no one has ever inherited an economy more out of shape than he did than you. That's wonderful.
- [39:26]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Yeah.
- [39:27]
Peter Alexander
And I said, and over there is Lincoln. So why Lincoln? He said, because the nation's never been as divided since the Civil War. I said, I'm getting the hell out of here. Anyway, that was the first time I was in here.
- [39:39]
Lawrence O'Donnell
Mr. President, I'm getting the signal to get out of here. Thank you very, very much for every minute of this. Really appreciate it.
- [39:46]
Peter Alexander
Thank you.
- [39:48]
Lawrence O'Donnell
And coming up, a question we should all ask ourselves on January 20th, Martin Luther King Day, but especially this January 20th. That's next.
- [39:58]
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- [41:17]
Martin Luther King Jr.
It'S much easier to integrate a lunch counter than it is to guarantee an annual income. For instance, to get rid of poverty for Negroes and all poor people. It's much easier to integrate a bus than it is to make genuine integration a reality and quality education a reality in our schools. It's much easier to integrate even a public park than it is to get rid of slums. And I think we are in a new era, a new phase of the struggle, where we have moved from a struggle for decency, which characterized our struggle for 10 or 12 years, to a struggle for genuine equality.
- [41:57]
Lawrence O'Donnell
On this Martin Luther King Day, the Reverend Jesse Jackson invited me to join him this morning in Chicago for the annual push for excellence Dr. King Breakfast. But since I had to be here in our New York headquarters for our Inauguration Day coverage, I couldn't join Reverend Jackson, who honored me with an award today at the breakfast for the work that I do with the Kind Fund, a partnership I created with MSNBC and unicef, to deliver desks to schools in Malawi and provide scholarships for girls to attend high school in Malawi. The Kind Fund does have a personal linkage to Martin Luther King through a dear friend of mine who was a dear friend of Dr. King. It was Dr. King's friend, NBA legend Bill Russell, who inspired the work I do in Africa that so many of you have generously supported through your contributions. I got to call Bill Russell a friend and accompanied him to the White House when President Obama gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Thanks entirely to my long friendship with his daughter, Karen Russell, who Bill Russell always introduced as my daughter, the Harvard Law School graduate. Bill wasn't saying that to boast the way some parents might. He said it to honor the road the Russell family traveled to Harvard Law School, beginning with Bill Russell's grandfather, who was not allowed to spend one day of his life in school because there was no school for black children then in Monroe, Louisiana. And Bill's father, who only made it to sixth grade, but watched his son Bill graduate from college and become an NBA champion. And so when Bill Russell told you that his daughter graduated from Harvard Law School, he always had his grandfather and father in mind. When I began doing my program here at MSNBC 14 years ago, it was Karen Russell who delivered the Russell family message to me. She asked, what are you going to do with the show? And I started talking about the guests I hoped to get on the show, like Reverend Jackson. And she stopped me and she said, she wasn't asking about a TV show. She explained that her father always asked newly arrived NBA stars, what are you going to do with it? Meaning what are you going to do with all the attention you can now command? What are you going to do with it? What Bill Russell did with it was March with his friend Martin Luther King Jr. And so much more for the rest of his long life. I understood exactly what Karen Russell was asking me, but I didn't have an answer and I didn't look for an answer. But an answer came to me a few weeks later. Another dear friend, Meg Campbell, a school teacher in Boston, told me about her recent trip to Malawi where she visited her niece, a doctor who was working in Malawi as an educator. Meg visited as many schools in Malawi as she could. She asked teachers what they needed and they all said the same thing and it was just one word, desks. When I heard that, I surprised myself a bit by immediately saying, well, we should be able to get them desks. By we I meant me. And to this day I don't know what I would have said if Karen Russell hadn't opened my mind and my heart a bit with the Bill Russell question, what are you going to do with it? And the next day I started planning my first trip to Malawi and I found my answer to the Bill Russell question, what are you going to do with it? January 20, Martin Luther King Day is the day every year when we should ask ourselves our version of what are we going to do with it? What are we going to do with whatever ability we have to honor Dr. King's memory and his example. At the breakfast in Chicago this morning, 8 year old Bradley Holt recited presidential candidate Jesse Jackson's speech to the Democratic convention of 1988.
- [46:10]
Peter Alexander
Tonight we pause and give praise and honor to God for being good enough to allow us to be at this place at this time.
- [46:29]
Lawrence O'Donnell
We are the ones who are now at this place at this time in American history. And what the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Would ask you tonight is what are you going to do about it? A last word about the extraordinary life of Cecile Richards is next at 9:44am today, the family of Cecile Richards, the longtime Planned Parenthood president and a frequent guest on this program, released this announcement saying, this morning our beloved Cecile passed away at home surrounded by her family and her ever loyal dog, Ollie. Our hearts are broken today, but no words can do justice to the joy she brought to our lives. Cecile Richards was 67 years old. She suffered from glioblastoma the aggressive brain cancer that took President Biden's son, Beau. That is tonight's last word.
- [47:27]
Greenlight Representative
Latte, anyone? We all have those little everyday expenses, right? But what if you could get something really valuable for the cost of your daily coffee? Greenlight's Money app for families helps teach your kids about money, savings, chores and allowance, even investing, starting at just $5.99 a month. That's even cheaper than coffee these days. Energize your whole family with a subscription that unlocks lifelong money lessons. Try Greenlight risk free@greenlight.com podcast that's greenlight.com podcast to try greenlight.