← The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell
The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell
Lawrence: Trump’s family pardon pushes Hunter Biden pardon out the top story slot
00:34:52
Tonight on The Last Word: President Biden issues a full pardon for his son, Hunter Biden. Also, The New Yorker reports on Pete Hegseth’s alleged sexist behavior and drunkenness at previous jobs. Andrew Weissmann, Rep. Adam Smith, and Judd Devermont join Lawrence O’Donnell.
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- [00:01]
Yara Shahidi
Hey, I'm Yara Shahidi and I'm the host of the Optimist Project. This is the podcast that asks what gives you hope. Each week I sit down with change makers you may or may not know from comedy, music, academia, and more to uncover what inspires them to create a better tomorrow. Join us as we find out ways that we can cultivate optimism in our own lives. You can find the Optimist Project wherever you get your podcasts. Don't forget to follow the show so you never miss an episode.
- [00:31]
Ted Danson
Listen. Do you hear that? That's the sound of brilliant wealth management decisions being made, using thoughtful analysis and unique insights to chart a path most investors miss. It may not be loud and exciting, but that's how you build wealth over time. At PNC Private bank, our team of dedicated advisors take a steady and calculated approach to managing your wealth. Which might sound boring to some, but the outcomes are anything but. PNC Private bank brilliantly boring since 1865 PNC Bank National association member FDIC well.
- [01:03]
Yara Shahidi
It would take a lot to push the first pardon by a President of the United States to that president's son out of the top news story slot in the American news media. But Donald Trump was able to do it. He did it with his history making string of the most ridiculous presidential appointments in history this weekend, beginning with the first presidential nominee in history to have served time in federal prison, to later be pardoned by the President who is now nominating him, who, oh by the way, is a family member. Donald Trump has chosen the convicted felon Charles Kushner to be his ambassador to France. An insult to France. It is a position for which convicted federal felon Charles Kushner is uniquely unqualified. Here's what the Republican U.S. attorney who prosecuted Charles Kushner in 2004 had to say about him. It was so obvious he had to be prosecuted that I mean, if a guy hires a prostitute to seduce his brother in law and videotapes it and then sends the videotape to his sister to attempt to intimidate her from testifying before a grand jury, do I really need any more justification than that? I mean, it's one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that I prosecuted when I was U.S. attorney. Loathsome and disgusting. Now the theme of the Trump confirmation process. That is not the only loathsome and disgusting behavior that has been documented among the Trump choices for his cabinet. On the same weekend that Donald Trump chose his daughter's father in law, a convicted felon, to serve as ambassador to France. After Donald Trump pardoned him, Joe Biden chose to pardon his son for crimes that surely would not have been prosecuted if Hunter Biden's father were not the President of the United States. When Joe Biden was running for reelection and assuming he would serve another four years in office, he said he would not pardon his son. But things have changed dramatically since he said that. With Donald Trump's election and Donald Trump's public promise to use the full force of federal prosecutorial power against his political enemies, which include anyone named Biden. To carry out that promise, Donald Trump nominated the absurdly unqualified Matt Gaetz for Attorney General. That nomination went down in flames of truth in a matter of days. And then this weekend, Donald Trump nominated an equally unqualified Trump acolyte for Director of the FBI, Cash Patel, who has promised to use federal investigative power to harm Trump enemies. Donald Trump and Cash Patel have both publicly promised unfair, illegitimate use of prosecutorial power against allies of Joe Biden, which obviously include Hunter Biden. And so, with that turn of events that changed circumstances, Joe Biden obviously decided his son should not be subjected to a malicious Trump witch hunt, which Donald Trump promises will be malicious and unfair. The history of presidential pardons for family members is thin. It now includes only three presidents. Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and Bill Clinton, who on his last day in office pardoned his brother, Roger Clinton, who had pleaded guilty to trying to sell cocaine to an undercover police officer, a crime for which Roger Clinton served more than a year in prison. There is nothing in the personal history of any of the other Presidents of the United States, from George Washington forward, to indicate that any one of them would not have done exactly what Joe Biden did in pardoning his son for nonviolent crimes committed under the influence of alcohol and heavily addictive drugs, including heroin. Donald Trump has nominated another former heroin addict to his cabinet, Robert Kennedy Jr. If you ask the friends and family members of the two wives of Robert Kennedy Jr. While he was a heroin addict, they might find what Robert Kennedy Jr. Did while he was a heroin addict was much worse than anything Hunter Biden ever did. Robert Kennedy Jr. S second wife was driven to suicide, in the view of many of the people closest to her in the final year of her life by Robert Kennedy. But Donald Trump seems to think that everything Robert Kennedy Jr. Did in his self confessed heroin addiction is not just pardonable, but completely forgettable. The validity of the Biden pardon stands on its own merits. As a legal matter, it has the classic components of a legitimate pardon. Nonviolent crimes for which no one has ever been sentenced to prison time. Both of those crimes committed literally on paper and under the influence of drugs. One of the crimes is an answer on paper on a gun permit application, and the other a matter of inadequate tax filings for which Hunter Biden has paid the taxes in full. That's it. Donald Trump's selection of a new FBI director in January will of course require the firing of the first FBI director Trump appointed, Christopher Wray, FBI director who has now serve 10 year terms. And so Christopher Wray, appointed by Donald Trump, remained in office during the Biden administration. FBI directors can be fired for cause. Donald Trump's cause for firing Christopher Wray will be a lie. And on the basis of that lie, Donald Trump will send to the Senate Judiciary Committee for confirmation Cache Patel, the man who said he wants to destroy and eliminate the unit of the FBI that is tonight standing between us and the next 911 attack.
- [07:45]
Andrew Weissman
The FBI's footprint has gotten so frickin.
- [07:47]
Yara Shahidi
Big and the biggest problem the FBI.
- [07:50]
Adam Smith
Has had has come out of its intel shops.
- [07:52]
Yara Shahidi
I'd break that component out of it. I'd shut down the FBI Hoover Building.
- [07:56]
Andrew Weissman
On day one and reopening the next.
- [07:59]
Yara Shahidi
Day as a museum of the deep state and the day after that. Every terrorist in the world and in the United States now has an open invitation to try their next version of 9 11. And there won't be a single FBI agent on their trail. Not one. He wants to demolish the intelligence unit. If Cash Patel somehow survives the confirmation process, it now seems that unlikely that Donald Trump's completely unqualified choice for Secretary of Defense will be able to survive one round of questioning in a Senate confirmation hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Last week we read to you the contents of the Monterey, California police report investigation of what a woman identified in the report only as John Doe, described as a sexual assault and rape by Pete Hegseth in a California hotel room in 2017. The police report did not reach a conclusion about what happened in the hotel room after the police took statements from Jane Doe and Pete Hegseth. The police referred the matter to the District Attorney's office, which chose not to try to prosecute the case, but also did not reach a finding about the case. With Jane Mayer's important breaking news reporting today, we now know much more about what the testimony will be in the Senate Armed Services Committee where if Pete Hegseth loses even a single Republican vote in the committee, his nomination cannot get through that committee. That committee includes two Republican women Deb Fisher of Nebraska and Joni Ernst of Iowa, who will be listening to testimony about Pete Hegseth's behavior while serving as the president of a very small organization called Concerned Veterans for America, funded by rich Republican billionaires. Jane Mayer reports that Pete Hegseth was forced to resign from that group after an internal investigation described him as, quote, being repeatedly intoxicated while acting in his official capacity to the point of needing to be carried out of the organization's events. The detailed seven page report, which was compiled by multiple former Concerned Veterans of America employees and sent to the organization's Senior Management in February 2015, states that at one point Hegseth had to be he restrained while drunk from joining the dancers on the stage of a Louisiana strip club where he had brought his team. The report also says that Hegseth, who was married at the time, and other members of his management team sexually pursued the organization's female staffers, whom they divided into two groups, the party girls and the not party girls. In addition, the report asserts that under Hegseth's leadership, the organization became a hostile workplace that ignored serious accusations of impropriety, including an allegation made by a female employee that another employee on Hegseth's staff had attempted to sexually assault her at that Louisiana strip club. Jane Mayer's reporting also described Pete Hegseth as someone else and someone else drunk at a bar at a Sheraton hotel. Quote, the duo yelled kill all Muslims multiple times in what the staffer described as a drunk and violent manner. Staffer that described that behavior in an email obtained by the New Yorker concluded that email, saying, I sincerely care about the mission of CVA and the future of my kids and the country. Reached for comment, the author of the letter said, if you print that, I will deny I wrote it. So much for him caring about the future of his kids in the country. The first time a President of the United States had a Cabinet nominee defeated in the Senate confirmation process was when the seemingly easy to confirm Republican Senator John Tower was nominated by George H.W. bush to the very same job that Pete Hegseth wants. Secretary of Defense John Tower was eminently qualified, having served as the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, where his nomination was expected to sail through unanimously as former Senate chairman always do sail through confirmation hearings. But it was drunkenness and what they used to call in those days womanizing that brought him down. My own review of the record, however, has led me to the firm conclusion that in three areas, the abuse of alcohol, the provision of consultation services to defense contractors on the probable outcomes of ongoing confidential arms control negotiations shortly after serving as an arms control negotiator, as well as instances of indiscreet behavior toward women. John Tower falls short of the standards, the high standards which must be demanded of those who would bear the awesome responsibilities of secretary of defense. And that was the most conservative member of the Democratic Senate at the time. Joining us now 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 begin with you on the Biden pardon. You've got experience with pardons working in the Justice Department. What is your view of it?
- [13:28]
Andrew Weissman
So I think it's really good that you put this in context of what we are living through in terms of this series of proposed nominations. You have the father pardoning his son for crimes that are not only not really serious crimes, there's no violence involved, but there is substantial, substantial reason to think that the son would not have been even investigated or charged but for the fact that he was the son of the father.
- [14:03]
Yara Shahidi
By the way, these are points you made long before the issue of pardon ever came up completely.
- [14:08]
Andrew Weissman
I remember being on set saying that in over 20 years at the Justice Department with respect to the gun charge, I had never, ever seen that kind of charge, the possession of a gun when somebody is under severe addiction. That's the kind of thing that you would seek treatment for that person. You would have maybe a deferred prosecution or it wouldn't be prosecuted at all. And so when there's a pardon that's sort of legitimate, what you're looking for is some sort of abuse in the system. Either our mores have changed or you think something was handled unfairly, that the person should receive that kind of beneficence from the White House. This falls squarely, squarely into that category. And I just feel like we've lost our moorings. When you compare this and the people who seem to be outraged by it to the fact that we have somebody who is a felon, who is about to be president, who's nominating convicted felons to be ambassadors to France, who is nominating people who are completely unqualified, who appeared to have committed all sorts of offenses, big and small, to positions that are there to secure our safety. So that the apples and oranges of this is just so dramatic, that this is one where even if people thought, you know what, this shouldn't have happened, it's just such small Potatoes. It's hard to see the outrage.
- [15:39]
Yara Shahidi
No president in history has pardoned more of his personal associates than Donald Trump, who has a long list of personal associates who he has pardoned. I want to get to quickly, by the way, people like Cash Patel going into these jobs or Pam Bondi going into attorney general, they may be, in effect demanding or expecting pardons from Donald Trump when they leave the job. It could be when I leave this job, I want a pardon from the day I entered it to the day I leave it. And so we can expect a lot more Trump pardons. But what can go wrong? What can go wrong at the top of the FBI with someone who hates the FBI, publicly hates the FBI and doesn't have the experience to do the job?
- [16:27]
Andrew Weissman
I have one word for you. Katrina. If you think Katrina was a disaster when we had somebody appointed to take care of FEMA who was not apparently qualified, that will look like child's play. The FBI is there, is the leading, preeminent law enforcement agency in this country. It is there to really make us safe for big and small crimes, starting with terrorism, that bombs do not go off.
- [17:00]
Yara Shahidi
So talk about country dismantling the entire intelligence unit. That's an open invitation for 9 11.
- [17:07]
Andrew Weissman
What I don't understand from Cash Patel is anybody who has been in the Justice Department, in the intelligence field, who has seen directly or indirectly the Presidential Daily Brief. I don't understand the irresponsible nature of that. The FBI is so central to keeping us safe. And we are really playing with fire. And it really should not take, even if you are sort of anti bureaucracy and anti government, I mean, these are people who are public servants, who are apolitical, who just do their job to keep us safe. The clip you played from Cash Patel saying that there just shouldn't be a headquarters and then thinking that the FBI is some hotbed of the deep state. It has never been run by a Democrat. It is hardly, literally never had never.
- [18:00]
Yara Shahidi
Anything but Republican directors of the FBI.
- [18:02]
Andrew Weissman
Exactly. And it is hardly a liberal bastion of the FBI. That is not what it's known for. It is really an apolitical organization. Sure. Does it make mistakes? Absolutely. You know what people are? They're humans. Humans make mistakes. That is no reason to throw everything aside at the risk of our safety.
- [18:23]
Yara Shahidi
Andrew Weissman, thank you very much for joining us. We're going to need you through this confirmation process. Coming up, the top Democrat on the House committee with jurisdiction over the Department of Defense, which Donald Trump wants Pete Hegseth to be in charge of Congressman Adam Smith joins us next.
- [18:45]
Ted Danson
Hey, friends, Ted Danson here and I want to let you know about my new podcast. It's called Where Everybody Knows yous Name with me, Ted Danson, and Woody Harrelson. Sometimes doing this podcast is a chance for me and my good bud Woody to reconnect after Cheers wrap 30 years ago. Plus, we're introducing each other to the friends we've met since since like Jane Fonda, Conan O'Brien, Eric Andre, Mary Steenbergen, my wife, and Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And trust me, it's always a great hang when Woody's there, so why wait? Listen to where everybody knows your name. Wherever you get your podcasts.
- [19:25]
Listen. Do you hear that? That's the sound of brilliant wealth management decisions being made, using thoughtful analysis and unique insights to chart a path most investors miss. It may not be loud and exciting, but that's how you build wealth over time. At PNC Private bank, our team of dedicated advisors take a steady and calculated approach to managing your wealth. Which might sound boring to some, but the outcomes are anything but. PNC Private bank brilliantly boring since 1865. PNC Bank National association member FDIC hey guys, have you heard of Gold Belly? It's this amazing site where they ship the most iconic, famous foods from restaurants across the country anywhere nationwide. I've never found a more perfect gift than food. They ship Chicago deep dish pizza, New York bagels, Maine lobster rolls, and even Ina Garten's famous cakes. So if you're looking for a gift for the food lover in your Life, head to goldbelly.com and get 20% off.
- [20:24]
Adam Smith
Your first order with promo code gift.
- [20:31]
Yara Shahidi
On Friday, the New York Times published an email that Pete Hegseth's mother wrote to him. The email was written in April of 2018, during Pete Hegseth's divorce from his second wife while he was involved with another woman who already had a baby out of wedlock with him. In the email, his mother writes, you are an abuser of women. That is the ugly truth. And I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man and have been for years. And as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that. But it is the sad, sad truth. Your abuse over the years to women, dishonesty, sleeping around, betrayal, debasing, belittling needs to be called out on behalf of all the women. And I know it's many. You have abused in some way, I say get some help and take an honest look at yourself. You are an abuser of women. When asked for comment, his mother told the New York Times that she disavows the sentiments in that email and apologized in a follow up email to her son. Joining our discussion now is Democratic Congressman Adam Smith of Washington. He is the top Democratic member of the House Armed Services Committee. Thank you very much for joining us tonight. The Senate Armed Services Committee of course, has the duty of the confirmation process, but you, you have jurisdiction over that very same department. You will be hearing testimony from the next Secretary of Defense repeatedly. What are the issues that you see in this confirmation?
- [22:29]
Adam Smith
Well, number one, completely, he lacks credibility for the job right now based on all of these reports. I mean, his mother wrote that email in 2018. So it was six years ago. It wasn't like he was a 19 year old college student. A clear pattern of behavior had been developed. And we've seen the stories throughout that certainly drinking too much, treating women horribly, that just undercuts your credibility to run the Pentagon as a starting point. So that's a big one. And he refuses to address these issues. So we have to hear from him what was going on. You have all of these credible accusations against you, what was happening. He needs to address that. I don't know how he could address it that would make it better, but he can't simply ignore. Also, he's never run anything remotely close to the size of the Pentagon, never worked at the Pentagon. So issue two is, is he qualified to run the world's largest bureaucracy? And number three is the larger issue that you've hit on so effectively, and that's who Trump is appointing, not just at the Defense Department, but FBI and elsewhere that seems focused on doing Donald Trump's bidding and not the country. And that's the larger issue that we need to really press.
- [23:44]
Yara Shahidi
Is it possible, in your view, to have a completely unqualified person in the position of Secretary of Defense who also has a big drinking problem, but have people right there around the top of the secretariat, Deputy Secretary, Assistant Secretary, others who then basically make that person irrelevant and actually run the place?
- [24:13]
Adam Smith
No, I don't. I mean, you know, I was kind of with you on that sentence if you were going to say is it possible for the country and the Pentagon to survive in that situation? Maybe, if you have really good people around the SecDef. But there's no way for the Pentagon to do its job effectively in that scenario. And by the way, we have to see who Donald Trump picks to fill those other positions. I don't think the current record shows that President Elect Trump is going to pick the type of people who would hold the Secretary of Defense accountable. They don't want that sort of accountability. So it is deeply, deeply troubling. And look, running the Department of Defense is a complicated job. Forget for the moment what your policy is on what we ought to do in Ukraine or what we ought to do in the Middle east or are we too woke or are we not woke enough, whatever. Just the basic nuts and bolts of managing millions of people who serve in the Defense Department, either active duty or as civilians. It's a really complicated job that requires a certain dedication and understanding of that high level of management. It's very clear that Pete Hegseth does not have that ability at this point.
- [25:22]
Yara Shahidi
Congressman Adam Smith of the House Armed Services Committee, thank you very much for joining our discussion tonight.
- [25:28]
Adam Smith
Thank you, Lawrence.
- [25:30]
Yara Shahidi
Coming up, President Biden is in Africa tonight on an important foreign policy mission that is scheduled to be his last foreign trip as president. That's next.
- [25:46]
Ted Danson
Hey, friends, Ted Danson here, and I want to let you know about my new podcast. It's called Where Everybody Knows yous Name with me, Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson. Sometimes doing this podcast is a chance for me and my good bud Woody to reconnect after cheers wrapped 30 years ago. Plus, we're introducing each other to the friends we've met since, like Jane Fonda, Conan O'Brien, Eric Andre, Mary Steenbergen, my wife, and Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And trust me, it's always a great hang when Woody's there, so why wait? Listen to where everybody knows your name. Wherever you get your podcasts.
- [26:26]
Listen. Do you hear that? That's the sound of brilliant wealth management decisions being made, using thoughtful analysis and unique insights to chart a path most investors miss. It may not be loud and exciting, but that's how you build wealth over time. At PNC Private bank, our team of dedicated advisors take a steady and calculated approach to managing your wealth. Which might sound boring to some, but the outcomes are anything but. PNC Private bank brilliantly boring since 1865. PNC Bank National Association Member, FDIC oh my God.
- [26:58]
Yara Shahidi
It's the coolest thing ever. Hey, guys, have you heard of Goldbelly? Well, check this out. It's this amazing site where they ship the most iconic famous foods from restaurants across the country, anywhere nationwide. I've never found a more perfect gift than food. They ship Chicago deep dish pizza, New York bagels, Maine lobster rolls and even Ina Garten's famous cakes. Seriously. So if you're looking for a gift for the food lover in your Life, head to goldbelly.com and get 20% off your first order with promo code gift. Today, President Biden was greeted in Luanda, the capital of Angola, on Africa's southwestern coast. It is President Biden's first trip to Africa as President of the United States and is scheduled to be the president's last foreign trip while in office. The New York Times reports President Biden's trip is, quote, to promote the lobito Corridor, an 800 mile railway project funded in part by the United States that is meant to be his signature initiative on the continent and an answer to China's outsized influence across many African nations. The Times also reports historians believe that people from the southern African nation of Angola accounted for one of the largest numbers of enslaved Africans shipped to the United States, including the first to arrive at Point comfort, Virginia in 1619. Speaking with reporters on Air Force One, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said this. It's a historic visit, not just because it's the first time a US President.
- [28:35]
Adam Smith
Has visited Angola, but because it's really.
- [28:37]
Yara Shahidi
Emblematic of President Biden's priority to strengthen global alliances and partnerships and really of our strategic approach when it comes to US Africa policy. As we're looking forward, we see this Trans Africa libido, Trans Africa Corridor project as a real game changer for US Engagement in Africa. And that's why on Wednesday, he's going to have a chance to go see for himself, talk to leaders of the countries situated along that corridor, Angola, the drc, Zambia, Tanzania. Enduring those conversations, he'll underscore his ambition for stronger US Africa relationships and greater opportunities. On his way across the South Atlantic to Angola, President Biden stopped in the island nation of Cape Verde for a private meeting with the prime Minister there. Joining us now is former special assistant to President Biden, Judge Devermont, who served as President Biden's senior director for African affairs at the National Security Council. He's now a senior advisor to the center for Strategic and International Studies Africa Program. Thank you very much for joining us tonight. This sounds like the kind of trip that you would have been urging the president to make.
- [29:44]
Adam Smith
Well, I'm just thrilled that he's doing it. It's hugely important. You know, from day one, we talked about why it was critical to have partnerships that actually deliver for Africans and Americans. Our policy had been in kind of a rut. It was disconnected from why Africa is strategically important for the United States. And so President Biden has from day one been engaging more, doing more trade investment, particularly in strategic sectors, and consulting with African leaders on global affairs. And I think that's why this trip to Angola is so critically important.
- [30:18]
Yara Shahidi
As you know, you can travel throughout Africa and not be able to point to anything depending on where you are to say America did that or America helped do that. Whereas pretty much everywhere you can point to something and say China did that, China built that.
- [30:37]
Adam Smith
Well, what we have been doing over the last 30 years is development and health. And yes, there's not as many things that you can point to. We've also been helping on security. Those are critical. And I think Africans really value what we are doing and have been doing in those sectors. But it's also true the continent has the lowest road and rail density in the world. The Chinese have been working in that space, we haven't. President Biden had a vision. We mobilized almost $5 billion to invest in this rail. Refurbishing a rail and then new an extension that goes from Angola to DRC to Zambia. And doing so much more than just port to pit rail, which is what the Chinese do. We are doing desalination plants and bridges and solar energy and agriculture and telecommunications. This full package that is going to connect this part of the continent to global markets, make sure critical minerals are not just in the hands of China and bring prosperity and close relations between us and our African partners.
- [31:39]
Yara Shahidi
Judd Devermont, thank you very much for joining us tonight.
- [31:42]
Adam Smith
Thank you.
- [31:44]
Yara Shahidi
One year ago tonight, I introduced you to a very special friend of ours who you will hear from once again after this break. Giving Tuesday starts at midnight tonight. And every year on the night before Giving Tuesday, we remind you of the Kind Fund Kids in Need of desks, a partnership that I created with MSNBC and UNICEF to deliver desks to schools in Malawi where the students at those schools schools have never seen desks. We also provide scholarships for girls to attend high school in Malawi, where public high school is not free and the girls high school graduation rate is less than half the boys graduation rate on this very night. A year ago, we introduced you to Chisomo Daimon, who was then in her last year of high school on a Kind fund scholarship and hoping to attend college.
- [32:44]
Chisomo Daimon
I want to study pharmacy. I want to become a pharmacist in College of Medicine. That's what I hope to do after that.
- [32:51]
Yara Shahidi
Why do you want to be a pharmacist?
- [32:54]
Chisomo Daimon
It's just, it's like My ambition. I really want to do that.
- [32:58]
Yara Shahidi
When did you decide? When did you think, oh, pharmacist, that's what I want to do.
- [33:03]
Chisomo Daimon
When I was inform one.
- [33:05]
Yara Shahidi
Really?
- [33:05]
Chisomo Daimon
Yes.
- [33:06]
Yara Shahidi
Were you in a pharmacy one day and thought, oh, I want to work here?
- [33:10]
Chisomo Daimon
Yes.
- [33:11]
Yara Shahidi
Really? Was that the first time you saw a pharmacy?
- [33:16]
Chisomo Daimon
Yes, it was the first time.
- [33:18]
Yara Shahidi
That's the way life is in Malawi. There are many ways to describe the limits of experience growing up in Malawi and the deprivations, including the simple visual fact that so many of the kids in elementary school do not own shoes. And another hint at what so many people in Malawi do not have and do not experience is that simple fact that Gissomo never saw a pharmacy until she was in her first year of high school. None of us remember things like the first time we were in a supermarket or a restaurant or a pharmacy. But if you've never been in a supermarket or a restaurant or a pharmacy until you were in high school or later, you'd remember that first time. When I met Gissomo at her high school, she had received the highest scores on her exams of anyone in her school. She was the top testing student in her high school, but she almost didn't make it through high school because her father struggled to pay the school fees.
- [34:32]
Chisomo Daimon
When I was secondary school, I was sent back home on Riwansi because of the school fees. So by that time we had to stay at home for most one week and my father had to take a loan from a businessman to pay the school fees.
- [34:49]
Yara Shahidi
The next year, thanks to your generosity, Chisoma received a Kind Fund scholarship.
- [34:57]
Chisomo Daimon
I started receiving Kind fund scholarship in 2021 when I was Inform3 festival. The kind fund scholarship was so important to me because it provided me with many basic needs such as school bags, school uniforms, school shoes and exercise books. And also the Kanfan scholarship paid my school fees throughout.
- [35:22]
Yara Shahidi
You could help students like Chisomo by going to lastworddesks.msnbc.com you can make a contribution in any amount to the scholarship fund or you can designate that your contribution is for desks and you can make that gift in the name of anyone on your holiday gift list and UNICEF will send them a notification of your gift and your gift to them and your gift to the children of Malawi. Gissomo's test scores on her final exams called the Malawi School Certificate of Education exams, the MSCE exams that all the kids worried about. Her test scores guaranteed her a place at Mizuzu University in Malawi.
- [36:06]
Chisomo Daimon
If Kind Fund did not support me with school fees, then by that time I would have been sent back home from school and I could also have failed my musc exams because of that.
- [36:24]
Yara Shahidi
College tuition in Malawi is not tens of thousands of dollars, it's hundreds of dollars. But still, for most families and students in Malawi, hundreds of dollars is as unaffordable as hundreds of thousands of dollars of college tuition can be in the United States. A few weeks ago, I recorded an iPhone video message for Chisomo about college that a UNICEF official in Malawi was able to get to her and show her. Hi Cisomo, it's Lawrence O'Donnell here in the United States. I'm at my workplace and I know when we talked when I was last in Malawi, you had just finished your exams and you were hoping to go to university. And UNICEF tells me that you have been accepted at Misuzu University and you'll be going there. And I know it costs a lot of money to go to university and it is difficult for you and your family to pay for that. And I want you to not even think about it it anymore because I'm going to make sure that your school fees are paid and you will be able to go to university and not worry about that. Don't even think about that. And I'm very happy to make sure that your school fees will be paid at university. And I'm so very proud of all the hard work you have done and I know you're going to to do very well when you get to university and I hope you really love it when you're there and I hope I can see you the next time I'm in Malawi and just enjoy everything about university. I'm so proud of you and I hope to see you soon. Chusomo was literally speechless. That is the face of a girl whose life just changed and she knows it. You changed her life with your generous contributions to the kind fund that enabled her to finish high school.
- [38:49]
Chisomo Daimon
And I will be forever indebted to kind fund a scholarship for that. I can hope that I can do well in that Zusu University so that at the end I may get a degree, get a job so that this kind fund scholarship should be proud of me for their support.
- [39:13]
Yara Shahidi
We couldn't be more proud of Chisomo Damon. Chisomo Damon gets tonight's last word.
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Ted Danson
Hey friends, Ted Danson here and I want to let you know about my new podcast. It's called Where Everybody Knows yous Name with Me, Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson. Sometimes doing this podcast is a chance for me and my good bud Woody to reconnect after cheers wrapped 30 years ago. Plus, we're introducing each other to the friends we've met since, like Jane Fonda, Conan O'Brien, Eric Andre, Mary Steenburgen, my wife, and flee from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And trust me, it's always a great hang when Woody's there, so why wait? Listen to where everybody knows your name, wherever you get your podcasts.