Summary
The full House will now vote on referring Trump`s former chief of staff to the Justice Dept. for contempt of Congress. President Biden spoke with Senator Joe Manchin about his Build Back Better bill. The senator is still not on board with some elements of Biden`s agenda. And after deadly tornadoes across the Midwest, OSHA is opening an investigation into the Amazon warehouse collapse that killed 6 people.
Transcript
BRADLEY WHITFORD, EMMY AWARD-WINNING ACTOR: And the only way we`re going to get out of this.
LAWRENCE O`DONNELL, MSNBC HOST: Bradley Whitford, thank you very much for joining us tonight and delivering that message. Really, really great to see you, Brad.
WHITFORD: Great to see you, Lawrence.
O`DONNELL: Thank you.
WHITFORD: Happy holidays.
O`DONNELL: You too. Brad Whitford gets tonight`s "LAST WORD." THE 11TH HOUR starts now.
[23:00:37]
CHRIS JANSING, MSNBC HOST: Good evening, once again, I`m Chris Jansing. Day 328 of the Biden administration. And tonight we are tracking breaking news on multiple fronts. Another Trump ally could soon find himself facing criminal charges as the frantic search for more survivors of last Friday`s killer tornadoes continues.
We start tonight with that developing news from Capitol Hill. Just a few hours ago, the January 6 committee unanimously voted to refer Trump`s former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to the full house for criminal contempt.
The vote comes on the heels of the new bombshell revelations found in the very e-mails and text messages, meadows himself exchanged before and on January 6. Committee members were taking pains tonight to point out the pivotal role Meadows played.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. BENNIE THOMPSON (D) JANAURY 6 COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: Mr. Meadows put himself in this situation, he must now accept the consequences.
REP. ZOE LOFGREN (D-CA): It certainly appears that Mr. Meadows played a key role in events that culminated in the violent attack on the Capitol and on our democracy.
REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): Mark Meadows has committed a crime in this case, a premeditated one. No one is above the law, not even a former president`s chief of staff.
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): I expect the Justice Department to move as swiftly in dealing with Mr. Meadows, as it did with Mr. Bannon, and prosecute him for violating the law and his duty as a citizen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JANSING: The new information was detailed in documents that Meadows had already handed over before he decided to stop cooperating with the investigation claiming executive privilege.
Among the new revelations, we learned Mr. Meadows participated in meetings and calls during which the participants reportedly discussed the need to fight back against mounting evidence of purported voter fraud.
Meadows also sent an e-mail to an unnamed person saying the National Guard would be present to protect pro Trump people. Committee members tonight share text messages that Meadows former colleagues were sending from inside the Capitol building, pleading with the White House to intervene, please, that went ignored.
REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): For 187 minutes, President Trump refused to act when action by our president was required, essential and indeed compelled by his oath to our Constitution.
Mr. Meadows received numerous text messages, which he has produced without any privileged claim, imploring that Mr. Trump take the specific action we all knew his duty required. These text messages leave no doubt. The White House knew exactly what was happening here at the Capitol.
One text Mr. Meadows received said quote, We are under siege here at the Capitol. Another quote, they have breached the Capitol. In a third, Mark, protesters are literally storming the Capitol, breaking windows on doors rushing in. Is Trump going to say something?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JANSING: Well, it turns out that Trump`s own family and friends over at Fox News were begging the President to take the stand against the ongoing violence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHENEY: Indeed, according to the records, multiple Fox News hosts knew the president needed to act immediately. They texted Mr. Meadows, and he has turned over those texts. Quote, Mark, the President needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy, Laura Ingraham wrote. Please get him on TV, destroying everything you have accomplished, Brian Kilmeade texted. Quote, can he make a statement? Ask people to leave the Capitol, Sean Hannity urged.
As the violence continued, one of the President`s sons texted Mr. Meadows quote, he`s got to condemn this shit, ASAP. The Capitol Police tweet is not enough, Donald Trump Jr. texted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[23:05:07]
JANSING: Meadows sat down tonight with Sean Hannity who was among those urging Trump to call off his supporters. No mention of the text messages but Meadows did try to argue the committee is overstepping.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK MEADOWS, FMR. WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: If we look at, at senior officials, chiefs of staff and those senior to the president to the United States, compelling them to come in and testify and what we`re seeing now, there`s lots of jurisprudence and at least legal opinions and law that would suggest that that`s not something that should be in the purview of Congress.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JANSING: The Full House is expected to vote on the committee`s recommendation tomorrow night, should it pass. It will then be up to the Justice Department to file charges.
Another former Trump insider Steve Bannon already of course faces two counts of contempt of Congress, his trial scheduled to begin in July.
There is also a grim update tonight on that severe weather that devastated a huge swath of our country Friday night. Dozens of tornadoes tour across nine different states and in Kentucky alone. At least 74 people are dead, another 109 unaccounted for. Governor Andy Beshear described the frantic search for survivors earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV ANDY BESHEAR (D) KENTUCKY: We have over 300 guardsmen that are active they are out in our communities. They`re doing everything from going door to door though, in many of these communities, we don`t have doors anymore. They`re going rubble to rubble searching, hopefully for survivors, but otherwise to at least have certainty for families that we can advise them of their loss.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JANSING: President Biden is scheduled to tour the devastation on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, NBC News is reporting that several employees inside that candle factory in Mayfield, Kentucky, were warned they`d be fired if they evacuated even as tornado sirens are blaring.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIMBERLY HENDRICKSON, CANDLE FACTORY EMPLOYEE: I remember everything. Just a lot the first alarm going off, and they call us to the bat to do roll call and then they didn`t even finish it. They sent us back to work.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did anybody give you the option to go home? I think that was the alarm.
HENDRICKSON: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JANSING: The entire building was leveled. These are the before and after images of the factory. At least eight people inside lost their lives.
Company officials tonight are denying that workers were threatened and insist safety protocols were followed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TROY PROPES, CANDLE FACTORY CEO: But by the time you know that that`s going to come, you don`t -- it is such a gamble to say leave, you know, because the last thing you do is says don`t get in your car. You know, that`s what experts say.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JANSING: Finally, tonight in the seemingly endless battle against COVID, the United States has passed yet more grim milestones. The Coronavirus death toll in this country has now surpassed 800,000 Americans, more than 50 million have been infected.
And the New York Times reporting today one in 100 older Americans over the age of 65 have died from the virus.
With that, let`s bring in our leadoff guests on this Monday night. Ashley Parker, Pulitzer Prize winning White House bureau chief with the Washington Post, Sam Stein, veteran journalist and White House editor for Politico, and former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, who spent 25 years as a federal prosecutor. She hosts the podcast Sisters in law along with Kimberly Atkins Stohr, Jill Wine Banks and Barbara McQuade. Good to see all of you on this very busy Monday night.
Joyce Vance, what was your biggest takeaway from all that we heard from the committee today?
JOYCE VANCE, FMR. U.S. ATTORNEY: The biggest takeaway came during Liz Cheney statement, it was clear that she was trying to really speak to the Justice Department and explain why Meadows should be prosecuted. Many people had thought that Steve Bannon was in a category of one with his flagrant failure to comply with the subpoena.
Cheney makes a very compelling case. She says, you know, with meadows, there were some issues where he asserted privilege and didn`t turn over documents, but that`s not what this vote tonight is about. She said the vote is about areas and she defined three categories, where Meadows concedes that there is no privilege where he turned over documents, and he now simply refuses to come and testify.
So she makes this compelling case that where Trump failed to act as rioters stormed the Capitol. The efforts to change votes in states like Georgia and this plan that was apparently afoot to change DOJ, his leadership, after DOJ failed to perpetuate the big lion and agree that there was voter fraud at foot in the 2020 election.
This is the case that she`s making to DOJ telling them that they should go ahead and prosecuting, frankly Chris, it was an awfully compelling case
[23:10:04]
JANSING: And there are a lot of people on the outside clearly we know now, Ashley Parker, long list of people writing to Mark Meadows imploring him to get Trump to get control of this situation, to get the insurrectionists to stop those texts that Liz Cheney read through today. Also, more of them from these unidentified lawmakers. This is quite a trove of information released by the committee.
ASHLEY PARKER, THE WASHINGTON POST WHITE HOUSE BUREAU CHIEF: It sure is, we had a little sense of that before. But this now gives us more specifics, right, that these Fox News Channel hosts, were reaching out to meadows that Trump`s own son, Donald Trump Jr. reached out to him, which is for another issue, just a striking window in that family dynamic that the eldest son would feel like the Chief of Staff, father.
And of course another question that I think everyone would want to know from Meadows is when he gets these texts, he`s telling the people, yes, I`m trying to get him to make a statement. I understand. But A, did Meadows actually do that, because he has a history of being fairly dishonest and telling people what they want to hear, but not actually acting on it.
And if he even did do that, which we don`t know that he necessarily needed those warnings, what did -- what was the then President`s reaction? What did Trump say when Meadows passed on some of these warnings and calls for basically desperate calls for help if indeed Meadows did do that?
So, you can see why the committee wants a lot of these questions. And that`s the (INAUDIBLE) but they also be as any questions.
JANSING: Yes, I mean, Sam Stein, meadows said that, in fact, he told Sean Hannity he had no criminal intent. But clearly what members of the committee believe that he uniquely knows is, again, what did he do with those texts? Who did he talk to? Did he go to the President? And what was the response to it?
SAM STEIN, POLITICO WHITE HOSUE EDITOR: Yes, Meadows kind of has the worst of all worlds here, right? He turned over some incriminating text messages and then asked to have his communications be privileged. I don`t know why he went happened like that. But it does paint this picture of a chief of staff who could have intervened. And the question that Ashley rightly raises, did he or did he not do it?
What stood out to me is two things. One is the journalistic malpractice of Fox News hosts privately trying to advise a person that they cover on a specific path board, and then of course, subsequently on their own programs, downplaying the severity of the night, the day I should say, even though they themselves were privately worried about it, so that`s one.
And two is just that everyone sort of recognize that Trump had a role to play in tamping down what was happening at the Capitol. Even his chief boosters, the people who are as chief apologists in the media, his own son, and his chief of staff all recognized implicitly that he had a role to play in tamping down what was going on and Trump didn`t.
I don`t know what that means from a criminal perspective or a legal perspective. But from a political perspective, that strikes me as very damaging. It`s -- it shows that all these people were waiting for the President to act and he just did not in that moment.
JANSING: So let`s look at the legality of it, Joyce Vance. Daniel Goldman tweeted this today, the time for Mark Meadows to hide behind executive privilege was before he turned over documents, the law is clear. One, he must appear to make an executive privilege claim. And two, he cannot make any executive privilege claim about the subject matter in documents he has already turned over. No backsies on EP.
Mark Meadows lawyer did argue again today he`s protected by executive privilege. Who`s right in your estimation?
VANCE: Well, you know, Dan is of course right in this one, there are no backsies on privilege. And once you`ve turned over documents saying explicitly that they`re not privileged, it`s sort of game over.
There is apparently an entire category of documents where Meadows his lawyers submitted what`s called a privilege log, they identified the documents and set forth what sort of privilege they were asserting in those documents. So let`s leave that aside for the moment and talk just about what was turned over it was turned over without an assertion of privilege.
At some point, apparently, on the same day that Meadows book is published, he decides it`s no longer a good idea for him to show up. None of this is behaving in a forthright, honest manner with the committee and that`s what`s under discussion here.
The question is whether or not Meadows is engaging in contempt of Congress. And by failing to testify about material that he himself is the one who turned over to the committee told them it wasn`t privileged. Nothing could really be clearer than those earlier statements that he`s now trying to roll back.
JANSING: And the question overall, Sam Stein, of what`s the most important thing is that upholding the Constitution? Is it backing up your friends? I mean, Mark Meadows used to be Trump`s biggest supporter in Congress we know that, but he was in Congress.
[23:10:10]
STEIN: Right.
JANSING: Having said that, you think it`s all shocking he apparently, apparently did so little to protect the institution and his former colleagues inside who seem to be begging him to get them help.
STEIN: No, it`s not shocking at all, both for people who know, Mark Meadows, but also for the current era of politics that we`re in. I mean, what I just said is, and -- is that we had a whole host of Fox News hosts, who privately clearly thought that this was a problematic moment for the Republic and wanted the president to intervene, and then in subsequent nights, downplayed the significance of it.
JANSING: And in fact, Sam, our producers viewing tonight didn`t mention any of this at all, didn`t mention their role in this at all, or any of the texts that were sent.
STEIN: Exactly. And I don`t expect them to either, because that`s just the political age rent. And Meadows, and in prior congresses with a Democratic administration surely would have taken the plate -- the position that members of Congress have a constitutional obligation to conduct oversight, as well as authority to obtain the records of the executive branch. And unless there are certain issues of privilege apply. But now of course, he`s not in that position he`s arguing the other side of the point.
And so no, I`m not surprised at all. This is just the reality we are in and there`s only a few people who let principle drive them these days and Mark Meadows clearly not one of them.
JANSING: So to understate Ashley Parker, Joe Biden has a lot on his plate. He`s trying to get this agenda pass, combating inflation, he`s got a resurgent pandemic. Now you`ve got a huge portion of our country that`s coping with an unimaginable disaster.
In this moment, how was the White House responding? And it just sort of figuring out how to deal with all of these multiple challenges?
PARKER: Well, if you just take the tornadoes, this is very sort of natural way for sort of any traditional white has to respond, but especially someone like President Biden, who is sort of so empathetic, and so sort of what we think of as a solar in chief in these moments.
So I was with him on Saturday in Wilmington, when he made, you know, unscheduled remarks to talk about it. And it came through there that, you know, he really believes this is the time, this is not about Democrats or Republicans who will do absolutely anything it takes to help these communities get back feet. So that visit Wednesday in his eyes is very much an apolitical visit.
Now for the other stuff, you know, he`s doing everything he can. He has this -- he had this call with Senator Manchin. The problem is Senator -- President Biden is not an arm twister. He`s not someone to bring down the hammer and was someone like Senator Manchin, who Trump won the state by 40 points. It`s not clear that that would be particularly effective anyhow.
So he`s trying to negotiate with them in good faith on some of these other things. They`ve passed infrastructure, they pass that it was a while ago, but that big COVID relief bill, they`re working on ramping up for testing and getting the COVID pill ready and find birth for Americans to get vaccinated and get boosters.
And so some of this is trying to do what they can and also waiting for that (INAUDIBLE) what they say and what they believe they have really done which they are proud of. And the results are feeling right now because they`re not that normal with COVID. And inflation, those very tangible things that people feel is very high.
JANSING: Ashley Parker, Sam Stein, Joyce Vance, thanks to all of you.
Senate Democrats searching for a way around that obstacle from West Virginia that Ashley just mentioned as they try to wrap up the President`s Build Back Better package in time for Christmas.
Then later, why hospitals in one state are buying full page newspaper ads, and why they`re pleased may still be ignored. We`ll check back with an ER doctor on the COVID frontlines. The 11th Hour just getting underway on a Monday night.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:22:40]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOE MANCHIN, (D-WV): Whatever we`re considering doing or whatever Congress is considering doing, they should do it within the limits of what we can afford. I just don`t think that that`s a fair evaluation of saying that we`re going to spend X amount of dollars but then we`re going to have to depend on coming back finding more money.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JANSING: Earlier today, Senator Joe Manchin spoke with President Biden about His Build Back Better package. The White House called the conversation constructive, but mansion has yet to support the President`s roughly $2 trillion bill. So far, Senator Manchin remains a pivotal obstacle in advancing that legislation and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer`s deadline to pass the bill is fast approaching.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY) MAJORITY LEADER: The work is not yet finished. But we`re working hard to put the Senate in a position to get the legislation across the finish line before Christmas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JANSING: We welcome back Don Calloway, Democratic strategist and founder of the National Voter Protection Action Fund. And Michael Steele, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland. He`s also host of the Michael Steele podcast. Good to see you guys.
So Don, look, I guess the good news is Biden and Manchin are still talking. The bad news for Democrats anyway, is Manchin`s very public concerns about rising debt, about the cost of the proposal. Do you think the question now is how much are both sides willing to move on the scope of this package? Where are we?
DON CALLOWAY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I don`t think that`s the question actually, Chris. The question is not how much are Democrats or both sides willing to move? The question is when is the president and when is the Senate Majority Leader going to act like Joe Manchin? When are they going to stop Joe Manchin from this vise grip he has the entire party and frankly, the entire Congress in. They cannot let one person stymie entire progress around climate action around sustainability around gun control. And that`s effectively what Joe Manchin is doing.
And it`s so fundamentally disingenuous, he didn`t ask anything about price or CBO score or affordability when it came to a trillion dollar defense spending bill that we passed last week, which has absolutely nothing to do with things that we will currently use or in the future us to defend our country. It`s a job creation bill, just like everything else he wants to pass.
Joe Manchin is holding on to some idyllic notion of spending and not expanding the welfare state when the reality is he is hurt and falls right in Appalachian who need the help more than anybody.
[23:25:07]
So, it`s really time that Chuck Schumer and the President acted like bosses and got Joe Manchin out of the way, by using the awesome power of the incentives and the power of the purse that they have to make him fall in line with everybody else.
JANSING: You know, Michael Steele, that frustration that we just heard from our friend is repeated by an awful lot of Democrats. And White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked about Senator mansions inflation concerns, Look, he is the center of this conversation. Here`s how she responded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Nobel laureates who have conveyed this will help address inflation over the long term, people who are looking at planning, they`re looking at their budgets for next year, maybe the first quarter of next year, the first half of next year. And they`re trying to figure out how to pay for childcare. And they`re trying to figure out how to make sure they can put food on the table and this Build Back Better plan will help lower costs for people across the country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JANSING: Not sure though, Michael Steele, how likely those arguments are to ease mansions economic anxiety?
MICHAEL STEELE, FMR. RNC CHARIMAN: No, they`re not going to ease his economic anxiety. And they are legitimate questions and legitimate arguments to make about how much money we`ve spent since 2016, 2017. And if you go back to, you know, the early days of the Obama administration coming out of the economic downturn, and the money that was used to infuse the economy, then there`s been a lot of money that`s been spent.
The question is, OK, so what ultimately is the impact? So from a fiscal standpoint, and that`s a legitimate concern, but there`s also the political realities of what happens if you play the short game of trying to avoid taking off Manchin and trying to avoid, you know, appeasing the far extremes in your party on the left, on the left, while staring at the possibility of, you know, speaker, you know, Jim Jordan, and majority leader, you know, McConnell.
And so the reality of it is, if you don`t get something done, that latter part becomes your reality, regardless of the economics, and then you`re in a whole different space, you will have achieved nothing.
So Don is exactly right. When you look at the balance of the politics and the economics, you`re going to have the economic solutions to deal with inflation, which you know, you can deal with first quarter, second quarter next year, you`re going have the economic solutions to deal with the impact overall in the economy.
But there is no solution on the political front, if you don`t confront the reality that`s staring in front of you, with the filibuster or other measures that you have, like Don noted, to pull Manchin, rein him in to get him in line with the President`s agenda.
JANSING: But looking, Don, unrealistically where we are and leader Schumer has less than two weeks to meet his self-imposed goal to finish the legislation. Conventional wisdom is that if this gets pushed to 2020 to the midterm year, it is exponentially harder to get it done. Do you by, Don, that conventional wisdom and if so, how much harder?
CALLOWAY: 1,000 percent. Listen, if this does not happen before December 31st at midnight, or frankly, honestly, January 3rd, whenever the new congressional year begins, it does not happen because going into next year, next year is a do nothing year because neither leader in either chamber want to subject their members to the difficult boats in advance of midterm election.
And then members of going home to campaign, members are going home to make the cases for why they should be reelected. And frankly, no one wants to risk their position by giving the other side a political talking point.
So the year of the actual midterm is very much a do nothing year in Congress. And I think that`s important for people to keep in mind, as you`re looking at the cadence of how public office actually work. Next year is pretty much a do nothing year.
I would also suggest though, since we haven`t done anything to reform the filibuster, and we haven`t passed any iteration of the Voting Rights bill, next year is a year in which we can see extraordinary payoffs at the ballot box because we haven`t done anything to change this hodgepodge mismatch of voter suppression laws that have passed in multiple states throughout the union.
So we are headed towards political disaster and an actual functional do nothing Congress in 2022. And I don`t see that changing with substantive bills passing in the next 12 days, primarily because Chuck Schumer, Joe Biden and company have done nothing to rein in the clown show. That is Joe Manchin and Kristen sin.
JANSING: Don Calloway and Michael Steele have agreed to stay with us. Don, I presume is going to continue with a shout out to KSU and all the folks there in Kentucky, Kentucky State University. We`re thinking about you tonight.
[23:30:04]
Coming up. When it comes to that twice impeached former guy, who better to define the power he`s still holds over his party than the woman who was soundly defeated him in the popular vote when the 11th Hour continues.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, FMR. SECRETARY OF STATE: The one advantage Trump had and to some extent still holds is he is so outrageous in attacking our institutions in undermining our rule of law, that it`s hard for people to believe literally what they are seeing before them.
And sadly the Republican Party has gone along with him. They have hung their spines up on the wall as they walk into their offices. They have no conscience, they have no spine. And we are seeing the results of a party that has been taken over by a demagogue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JANSING: On that note, Hillary Clinton also predicted the former president will run again in 2024 and said if he wins, it may be the end of American democracy.
Still with us Don Calloway and Michael Steele. I mean, Michael, to the former Secretary of State`s point, how do you get the American people to take seriously the attacks by Trump against our institutions? I mean, maybe in the beginning it was you could hardly believe what you`re hearing. Then the concern was, well, everyone Just too exhausted to even think about it or talk about it.
[23:35:05]
How do you get them to react to what they`re seeing before it`s too late?
STEELE: You know, that`s been the challenge from the very, very beginning across the board. But then when you begin to look at it, I think Mrs. Clinton has her finger on an important pulse. And that is the leadership within the Republican ranks, that have appeased, and explained and excused and all of this behavior we`re watching right now, you know, just prime example of it by Mark Meadows, who writes this book. And he in it, you know, exposes Trump and the threat he was to the health of those around him by his recklessness with COVID.
And then when Trump calls him out about having printed that in the book, he goes out and says, yes, my book is basically fake news. I mean, you just sit there and you just go, OK, this is the level that we`re dealing with.
So it`s hard when you need both parties, because that`s all we`ve got, right? Not unfortunately, just two parties, right, that are pulling in different directions, one pulling towards democracy, the other pulling away from it. It is hard to move the American people in large swaths and that`s the difficulty right now.
In the past, despite our political disagreements, you know, this, you`ve covered it as a journalist and talk about it on your shows you, you know, in the past, we all pulled in the same direction, because we believe fundamentally in this this experiment, and the founding institutions that help us govern it. That`s the long it takes.
JANSING: Well, and you could follow it, right, Michael. I mean, now you`re in a situation --
STEELE: Yes.
JANSING: -- where, I mean, everything changes every minute. It isn`t just that, you know, Mark Meadows decided that he was going to disavow his own book --
STEELE: That`s right.
JANSING: -- then he follows that up with deciding he`s not going to cooperate with a committee after giving them all that paperwork, right. So look, Don, I`m sure you saw this. What I thought was an alarming headline from Charles Blow in his New York Times column. This is his latest column, we`re edging closer to civil war. And as an example, he drew parallels between the abortion fight and slavery 200 years ago, and that they`re both about subjugation and he goes on to write this quote, all of us should be very worried about what we see happening with these abortion cases, not just women who might need abortions or relatives and friends of women who might need them. We should worry about whether or not we are at an inflection point for an age of regression. Don, you think that maybe we`re already at that point?
CALLOWAY: Oh, we very much are. Brother Blow is correct. And he`s saying some uncomfortable phrase, particularly two words, which we don`t want to use lightly Civil War because we`ve been through that in this country. But unfortunately, that`s pretty much where we are.
Listen, let`s have a serious talk about root cause analysis, politics society. There is a woman in two black men on this panel. This country was founded upon an idea in which neither of the three of us would have been able to participate in open dialogue, let alone governance and leadership in this country.
And we are moving to a place where actuarially, the science of data and population has been showing us for some time, and we`re moving to a place where we will be a majority non-white country in a very short period of time, and we are already there in many places in this country.
So the question is, are the institutions that set up this country willing to fight to preserve a space in which neither of the three of us are fundamentally allowed to participate? What we saw on January 6 is the extent to which people are willing to go to preserve a white male heterosexism patriarchy, a Gemini that this country was built upon. It has never been a fair and fundamentally equitable place.
And what are we going to do? Are we going to embrace the concept of a multiracial, multicultural democracy? Or are we going to fight to preserve a place in which everyone is not allowed to fundamentally equally participate? That`s what we saw on January 6. We see one party pushing for the multiracial democracy of inclusion. We see another party pushing for the preservation of white male supremacist heterosexism. patriarchy.
And, you know, I think that Civil War is a jarring term to hear. But right now, we are definitely at an inflection point at that fork in the road. And I don`t have a whole lot of faith that within the two party system we`re all pushing in the same direction.
JANSING: Yes. And Charles acknowledges that and I encourage people to read the entire column and get the context but Thank you, Don Calloway, Michael Steele, appreciate seeing both of you tonight.
And coming up we`re going to get an update from an Indiana ER doc on the situation in his hospital and states all around the country report an alarming increase in COVID hospitalizations when the 11th Hour continues.
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[23:43:11]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: No one should be in any doubt there is a tidal wave of Omicron coming. And I`m afraid it is now clear that two doses of vaccine are simply not enough.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JANSING: That tidal wave of Omicron cases coming to the UK is likely in our future too, even as hospitals here are already dealing with spiking Delta cases and a likely holiday surge.
In Minnesota, hospitals have published a full page ad in newspapers across the state saying they`re heartbroken and overwhelmed. The ad warns their ability to provide timely care is threatened and urges Minnesotans to get vaccinated, wear a mask and encourage loved ones to do the same.
Minnesota is hardly alone, the U.S. officially hit 50 million cases and 800,000 deaths today with more than 100,000 new cases reported each day. Back with us tonight, Dr. Stephen Sample. He`s an ER physician at Memorial Hospital and Health Care in Jasper, Indiana. He is also a volunteer clinical faculty member at Indiana University School of Medicine.
It`s good to have you back a lot to talk about. But let`s start with what we always ask. What are you seeing in your hospital right now?
DR. STEPHEN SAMPLE, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN IN JASPER, INDIANA: Good evening, Chris. Thanks for having me. It`s awful right now. It -- there`s no other word for it. This sucks. This is not fun. It`s not funny. We are shot. We`re exhausted. Our numbers are higher than they`ve ever been consistently higher than there they have ever been. And there seems to be no light at the end of this tunnel. These waves are coming back to back to back and you just see a whole lot of staff and all the associated people in the hospital just sort of melting right before your eyes, you know, the case are up, the admissions are up, the hospitals are full.
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Most every hospital in this country is going through some sort of an internal disaster at this point, whether they call it that, or they`re paying super-duper triple, quadruple overtime to the nursing staff begging them to work 80 hours a week. Everybody is underwater. There`s no room at the end. And it`s no good.
JANSING: Yes, we thought those days of, you know, doctors and nurses crying in their hospitals, because they just can`t take it anymore. We`re over. And clearly they`re not. And then, you know, I open the Atlantic, and they have two stories today about COVID denial, one is called Gen Z is done with COVID. And then the other one, which the headline is Where I Live, No One Cares About COVID, the author writes this from Southwest Michigan, outside the world inhabited by the professional and managerial classes in a handful of major metropolitan areas, many, if not most Americans are living their lives as if COVID is over. And they have been for a long while. Does that sound accurate to you?
SAMPLE: For sure, yes, that`s been the case for a lot of our population from the jump, right. And it`s really difficult because, you know, pandemic fatigue has set in 18 months ago, right, and we`re still doing this. And it`s setting in for me, it`s setting in for my family. And you know, this - - the adjustment of risk is not a zero sum game, right?
So these Gen Z kids, they know they can look at the statistics, they`re not stupid, and they see hey, you know, in general, we do pretty well. And they`re electing to manage their risk as they do.
The problem becomes is we have a lot of 60, 70-year-old people who both don`t get vaccinated, continue to deny that COVID is a real thing, until they land in my emergency departments sucking wind, and looking surprised.
JANSING: I mean when you see a number like, one out of every 100 Americans over 65 has been killed by COVID, you just wonder -- what is it going to make take to make people sit up and take notice? I mean, at Time magazine called vaccine scientists that 2021 Heroes of the Year, I`m not disputing that, but, you know, they and you have to be looking at it and saying, yes, but if people still refuse to get vaccinated and wear masks, where does that leave us?
SAMPLE: Right. You know, evolutionarily, this virus was perfect, it kills a whole lot of people, but it doesn`t kill most of the people. And so it`s very easy when most of us go through life without somebody very close to us who has died or come close to dying. It`s easy for us to just say, you know, my friend had it, it was a bad cold until it strikes them.
And this virus, you know, we know some risk factors, but it is so wacky, how it will just reach out and it will smack the hell out of a healthy 32- year-old kid. And they come in and they look at me, and they`re like, it`s this bad. And at that point, you know, it`s too late for them, right. So we just have to hope that their youth and their strength gets them through. But it takes touching the individual person, or somebody they really love before people start to change their minds. It`s just -- yes.
JANSING: I do want to give you an opportunity. And I think it`s important for us to acknowledge a lot of people out there are exhausted by this, right? But maybe they just need a little push to do the right thing. And so in that spirit as a public service, I will ask you a question we have asked so many times before, what is your advice for people still planning to get together for the holidays?
SAMPLE: So this is really hard. You know, as a doctor, as the only doc in my family, I`m the guy who people call when they`re --
JANSING: I can only imagine.
SAMPLE: You know, their daughters, cousins, dad`s grandma had an exposure at work and they were at soccer practice together three weeks ago. What do we do? I don`t know. I don`t know. Nobody knows. It`s too complicated.
So, what I`m doing is I`m protecting me in mind. We are not isolating for Christmas, we are getting together. However, every single person in my family who is going to be with us, who is of age is going to be fully vaccinated. And by fully vaccinated, I mean three doses, not two of the mRNA vaccine, or two doses of the J&J or the AstraZeneca. That is the new definition of fully vaccinated whether it`s official or not, I don`t know, I don`t care. Because we know that that`s the case. And we`re getting together with those people.
And here`s what I recommend to people as well. Don`t be bullied this Christmas. There`s a lot of pressure. You know, don`t let your family bully you into having, you know, unvaccinated cousin Eddie and his four kids over to hug on your (INAUDIBLE) for Christmas, either he goes or you go. But I`m not going to those gatherings. I`m just not doing it. Because we know the risks.
Now, so I`m mitigating mine. Your family is going to be a little different based on who`s in your household, who`s going to be around what they have, but I am surrounding myself with vaccinated people.
JANSING: Yes.
SAMPE: And that is all stuff.
JANSING: People who watch this program know, we all know what we have to do. It`s a matter of again finding the well to do it. Dr. Stephen Sample, thank you. And coming up --
SAMPLE: Thank you.
JANSING: -- more on the destruction left behind by Friday`s tornadoes and whether some of the loss of life could have been prevented when the 11th Hour continues.
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JANSING: The government agency in charge of worker safety is now investigating one of the deadly incidents linked to Friday`s deadly tornado outbreak. At least six people were killed when an Amazon warehouse in Illinois suddenly collapsed. NBC News correspondent Morgan Chesky is in Edwardsville with more on the OSHA investigation.
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MORGAN CHESKY, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the Koch family the pain too much to bear. Father Lin unable to put his son Clay`s loss into words. The-29-year old inside the Amazon warehouse Friday when the store moved in. Over the phone the Navy vet told his mom he was helping co- workers to shelter just minutes before the twister struck.
(on camera): Knowing that Clay told others to get to safety?
CARLA COPE, MOTHER OF CLAYTON COPE: It doesn`t surprise me, not at all.
CHESKY: That`s how he was/
COPE: It was who he was.
CHESKY (voice-over): Cope one of six workers killed ranging in age from 26 to 62. The EF three tornado nearly cut the football field sized warehouse in half 40 foot concrete walls collapsed causing the roof to cave in. Amazon telling NBC News all 46 workers inside were instructed to move to a protected sheltered area as soon as sirens went off. But not everyone made it there.
KELLY NANTEL, AMAZON NATIONAL MEDIA RELATIONS DIRECTOR: And our leaders on the site really immediately began to shelter people in place and getting people to move into the sheltered areas.
CHESKY: Tonight, Amazon ads it welcomes a newly announced investigation from OSHA, which investigates all workplace deaths. The agency says they`ve had staff on site since Saturday, inspecting safety code compliance.
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CHESKY: And Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also facing criticism over the weekend for posting about his Blue Origin spaceflight as crews searched for bodies here at the scene. Bezos has since said that he is heartbroken over the loss of Amazon teammates, Chris.
JANSING: Morgan Chesky, thank you for that. And coming up the annual lightshow worth staying up for even later than this when the 11th Hour continues.
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JANSING: The last thing before we go tonight, you may want to head outside for one of the most active meteor showers of the year which peaks tonight. The Washington Post points out that Geminid meteor shower is expected to produce dozens of shooting stars every hour.
Geminid meteors are named after the constellation Gemini and are known for their glowing long tails appearing green purple and amber. The Post explains quote, despite how bright they appear, most meteors are no larger than the size of a grain of puffed rice. They formed from debris left in the wake of since departed comets or asteroids which Earth ploughs through at the same time every year on its annual orbit around the sun.
In the case of Geminids, the source of the debris is a 3.6 mile wide asteroid known as 3200 Phaethon. Picture driving through a swarm of bugs, that`s sort of how Earth`s sweeps through the debris fields.
So bundle up if you need to and head on outside to catch the show, but if you don`t get a chance to see it tonight, don`t worry, you should still be able to catch them tomorrow night as well.
That is our broadcast for this Monday night with our thanks for being with us. On behalf of all my colleagues at the networks of NBC News, good night.