Transcripts For MSNBCW The Last Word With Lawrence ODonnell 20201223

Tell someone, go murder this political opponent of mine, dont worry, ill pardon you afterwards, that would presumably bring about some reevaluati reevaluation of the pardon power. That proxy is which most of us have just spent the last several years not paying attention to the degree to which executives like to control this power and then we wonder when congress cant achieve its goals of exercising control and power where it went to, well, these are the kinds of moments that we have to keep watching for. Thats right. Were living we are living through the most extreme circumstances that should have only ever be cited as hypotheticals for what the extent of executive power should be. Thats right. Now we get to live them in real time. I think that will change the way we think about these things forever. Rachel, thank you, and we will see you tomorrow unless you have decided that two days of shows today was enough because that was a lot of tv. You have a great night, friend. Do not tempt me. Thank you, ali. All right. Well, the law and order president strikes again. Donald trump just pardoned crooked excongressmen, war criminals, and russia scandal felons. This is what american justice looks like in the final 29 days of the Trump Administration. Trump announced a wave of lame duck pardons this afternoon in what is sure to be just the beginning of a disgraceful final chapter for this disgraceful president. Theres one obvious theme with this wave of pardons. Trump helped his friends and those who remained loyal to him. He issued two muellerrelated pardons to men who stayed quiet, George Papadopoulos and the Trump Campaign stooge and alex van der zwaan, a lawyer who was part of muellers focus into illegal foreign lobbying efforts. Both papadopoulos and van der zwaan pleaded guilty to lying to investigators during the russia investigation. Neither provided mueller with any meaningful cooperation. Prosecutors did not get anything interesting from them. Trump also pardoned two former republican members of congress who were the first to endorse him during his 2016 president ial campaign. Former california congressman Duncan Hunter was sentenced early this year to 11 months in prison and 3 years of supervised release related to his misuse of more than 200,000 in Campaign Funds for personal expenses. And former new york congressman Chris Collins had been serving a 26month prison sentence since october. Last year collins pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and one count of making a false statement. But those all pale in comparison to the sickening, disgusting, pardon of four convicted war criminals. Donald trump pardoned four Blackwater Contractors who were convicted by a federal jury in 2014 after a lengthy trial that saw some 30 witnesses travel from iraq to testify against them. Prosecutors accused the men of illegally unleashing, quote, powerful sniper fire, machine guns, and grenade launchers on innocent men, women, and children. According to prosecutors, the four men were among serve blackwater employees who opened fire in the Nisour Square Traffic Circle in baghdad. They killed 17 people. Those 17 people were civilians. They werent involved in any war. An fbi investigation found that 14 of those deaths were unjustified. The white house said their pardons were supported by pete hegseth, the conservative fox news host whos an ally of trumps. Law and order, right . Doesnt matter what you do, if you have friends in the right places or youre loyal to the boss man, trump will let you get away with anything, and as rachel said, maybe even murder. In a few minutes were going to be joined by chairman adam schiff with his reaction to the pardon news, but we begin tonight with neal katyal. Former acting u. S. Solicitor general. And glenn kirchner, the former federal prosecutor. Both are msnbc legal analysts. Gentlemen, thank you for joining us tonight. Neal, im going to start with you. Rachel had made the point that there is a reason we have pardons. And it is a noble reason. And there are times when people are sentenced incorrectly or what seems to be unfairly or that they appear to have paid their time or youre righting some historical injustice. You cannot look at all of these pardons tonight and find that reason in any of them and you particularly cannot find it in the pardoning of these four convicted killers from who worked with blackwater. Thats exactly right, ali. I mean, what we see tonight is sickening. Thats the only word for it. Every other president when they dole out pardons looks to acceptance of responsibility, acts of mercy, repentance, things like that. For these folks tonight, they just meet the trump criteria which is, are you a political ally of mine, and, you know, the founders knew evil and they knew corruption and they put the pardon power in, even without that, because even despite that, because they knew how important it was to have acts of mercy by the sovereign, but they never anticipated the kind of wholesale lawlessness that were seeing with donald trump. The whole idea behind our Justice System is that justice is blind. Like, lady justice is literally blindfolded on the statue. The idea is whether youre rich or poor, man or women, democrat or republican, you get the same kind of justice. There is nothing more corrosive than the idea that if you get if youre the member of the president s political party, you get a pardon and nothing else. I mean, ive never seen anything like this. It is sickening. It may be what happens in moscow or pyongyang but it is not what happens in the United States. So the problem, glenn, is not just that it seems morally wrong and wrong in the face of justice, its what rachel was saying, that wheres the line here . Because if people who are just recently in prison on relatively short sentences are being the signal is very clear here, you do something for trump, youll be okay. Where does that line end . Because this is a guy who last week was talking about martial law with michael flynn, also a guy who was who had been convicted. You know, that line, it becomes very blurry, if everything donald trump asks you to do, he dangles the idea of youll be pardoned, see, ive done it already. Ali, is seems like there is no line donald trump wont cross. I will say to this old prosecutor it feels like what he just did was like an indiscriminate driveby on the rule of law. I mean, he pardons people who are lying to the fbi. As part of the russia probe. He pardons republicans who were either stealing from their donors, committing Campaign Finance violations, or engaged in insider training. But what galls me the most and hits home for me personally, its the blackwater pardons of these four Blackwater Contractors who slaughtered innocent, unarmed iraqi men, women, and young people. That was prosecuted. That case, three times, by my former office, the u. S. Attorneys office for the district of columbia. The lead prosecutor, a gentleman named pat martin, t. Patrick martin is somebody i tried murder cases with. He poured his heart and soul into fighting for justice for those iraqi victims and, ali, my office would bring the victims over from iraq and their surviving family members of the 17 who were murdered over and over and over again for these three trials and i can tell you that those iraqi citizens were equal parts heartened that the american criminal Justice System cared about their victimization and shocked at all of the time, energy, and effort we poured into holding those blackwater killers accountable for what they did. I consider that one of our proudest achievements at the d. C. U. S. Attorneys office, holding those men accountable for the way they ravaged, murdered, victimized, those iraqi citizens. And now donald trump has killed that justice we achieved in a very real sense. This is perhaps the single greatest affront to victims rights i saw in my 30 years as a prosecutor. Neal katyal, rachel was talking about this plenary power. Its completely within the power of the president. Theres no question about that whatsoever. The president s got 29 days left. It seems like hes basically just softening us up, letting us get this out of our system so hes got other people who can pardon who are closer to him who possibly committed yet more serious crimes. Theres nothing we can do if he does it. The question rachel asks, what do we do next . How do we think about this . This is not something regular people think about all the time. You know that the president pardons a bunch of people, maybe sometimes he pardons people, he or she will pardon people close to them. But weve never seen anything like this. Do we need to rethink this plenary power thats given to the president . This is the milliondollar question with donald trump every time. Our founders gave the president a lot of strong powers because the president needs to act with secrecy and dispatch and mercy so theres grand reasons why you want to have a pardon power as there are for other president ial powers. The worry is they never anticipated someone, frankly, as crooked and lawless as donald trump. And so you have a president who uses these powers willynilly whether its a pardon or secrecy or other things and now then the pressure is, well maybe we need to restrict the power wholesale because we dont want another president to do this. But that also has costs, ali, behind it, and so thats why every president , i mean, even nixon, for heavens sake, you know, was a little more careful in the use of his powers than what you have tonight with donald trump. And, you know, the other thing about trump thats so odd is that, you know, one of the other duties you have as a president is the duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. Thats the language in the constitution itself. You take an oath to uphold the laws and constitution of the United States. When you look to the people that hes pardoning, i mean, trumps got some sort of thing for people who lie to the fbi. I mean, first it was michael flynn, who lied twice to the fbi. Yes. And pled guilty. Now we have representative collins tonight who lied about securities fraud to the fbi. He gets a pardon. We have papadopoulos and van der zwaan, these two Mueller Probe people who lied to the federal investigators. They get pardons tonight. I mean, trump has some sort of reverence for people who lie to the fbi. I, again, that is something so fundamentally corrosive when the president , the nations chief Law Enforcement person, the president whos supposed to uphold the constitution and the laws, is essentially rewarding those who spit on it. Glenn, according to the new york times, a tabulation by the Harvard Law School professor Jack Goldsmith found that of the 45 pardons or commutations mr. Trump has granted up until tuesday, today, 88 aided someone with a personal tie to the president or furthered his political aims. Your sense of that . It feels corrupt. It feels abusive. It feels wrong. But as neal says, how do you constrain a power granted to the president by the constitution that at least in the constitution is unconstrained . My recommendation is, you never know until you try, so we should consider legislation that doesnt run afoul of the constitution but does try to at least channel the discretion in some way. I know its hard to do, but the other thing that i hope beginning in january a lawabiding attorney general will consider, opening grand jury investigations to investigate these pardons. To see whether they were the product of corruption. If so, then we have to take it increme incrementally. Much work to be done. Thanks for helping us kick it off tonight. Neal katyal and glenn kirchner, we appreciate your time. When news of these pardons surfaced and who was pardoned, the man who led the impeachment trial against donald trump issued a fiery statement. The head of the House Intelligence Committee, adam schiff, joins me after this break. For skin that never holds you back dont settle for silver 1 for diabetic dry skin 1 for psoriasis symptom relief and 1 for eczema symptom relief gold bond champion your skin gold bond honey honey . New nyquil severe honey is maximum strength cold and flu medicine with soothing honeylicious taste. Nyquil honey. The nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever best sleep with a cold medicine. 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Stop in or book an appointment to shop safely with peace of mind at your local xfinity store. More on the breaking news of the night. Trumps audacious prechristmas pardons and commutations come as he explores how to reward friends and allies in the last month of his administration. More acts of clemency are expected. This is just the beginning. You know that. I know that. Trump has told advisers that he wants to be liberal with pardons and plans to sign many more before leaving office. The one bright spot in this mess tonight is that trump has yet to pardon figures who we all expect him to pardon in his last 29 days including his adult children, his soninlaw, and maybe himself. Joining us now, democratic congressman adam schiff of california. Hes the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Congressman schiff, your reaction, please, first to this news of these pardons this evening. Theyre grotesque. Theyre morally repugnant and exactly what you expect of donald trump. He has pardoned people who murdered innocent civilians. Men, women, and children. Corrupt republican elected officials who were early endorsers of his. He has pardoned people who lied to cover for him or for themselves as part of a probe into another nations attack on our democracy. Once again, this is what you get when you elect a corrupt president or corrupt man as president. You get corruption. And, you know, its like the old adage, garbage in garbage out. Its what weve come to expect of this president and this administration. None of these people deserve any form of clemency. I want to read your statement that you put out because theres something very important in here legally that i think is useful for people to understand. You said, trump has valued loyalty above all else, above the rule of law, above our democracy and certainly above justice. If you lie to cover up for the president , you get a pardon. If youre a corrupt politician who endorsed trump, you get a pardon. If you murder civilians while at war, you get a pardon. It goes to show if you elect a corrupt man as president of the United States you get corruption and lots of it. That middle part there, he has pardoned people who are loyal to him. He has pardoned people who are corrupt. And he has pardoned people who were adjudicated by a court in a lengthy trial to have murdered innocent people. The combination of this stuff, when you said grotesque, i dont think youve got a fundamental problem with the concept that the president has pardon power and that power is absolute. Its the way this has all come together. Well, you know, ive always maintained its not absolute. He cant pardon himself constitutionally, i dont believe. Thats permissible. He cant bestow a pardon as part of a bribery scheme. He can be prosecuted for that. Apart from those narrow limitations, its very broad. It underscores why its so important to elect people of good character because these powers are immense, because the founders did expect they would be used and utilized for good purposes, not for ill. But we need to try to constrain them as much as we can. The protecting our democracy act that i introduced along with my fellow chairs months ago tries to put some limits on the abuse of this power but, frankly, theres not much of a remedy for a president who is this corrupt. So, on june 8th of 2018, nbcs Peter Alexander asked this question to donald trump as he was getting on to marine one. Lets just play this for a moment and lets talk about it on the other side. On the pardon power, do you believe that you are above the law no, no. If you can pardon yourself . Im not above the law. I never want anybody to be above the law. The pardons are a very positive thing for a president. I think you see the way i am using them. And yes, i do have an absolute right to pardon myself. In case anybody didnt hear this, the pardons are a very positive thing for a president , and, yes, i do have an absolute right to pardon myself. What do we do in this instance, how do we deal with that . He thinks he does. Well, the way it would be tested is if he attempted to give himself a pardon and even the language of the constitution that talks about granting a pardon. The words themselves dont lend themselves to an interpretation where you can grant yourself something. But should he try and pronounce the words but later be indicted, lets say, by the Southern District of new york in that campaign fraud scheme in which he is identified as individual number 1, well, then his defense would raise this purported pardon to defend himself and it would be litigated through the courts and i think ultimately he would lose because the consequence of a president who can pardon themselves is just too much of a body blow to the rest of the constitution. You dont interpret one provision as negating all others. If a president can instruct people to violate the law, if he can instruct them to impose martial law and seize Voting Machines and do all kinds of other crazy and desperate things, and say if you violate the law in doing so, i will pardon you then ill pardon myself, you are no longer a nation of laws. And i dont think any court would interpret the pardon power to negate the requirement that he faithfully execute the laws but thats how it would be tested. Congressman, i want to ask you about another topic because weve got about 12 different breaking news topics tonight. Including the fact that we were the president was supposed to be signing this bill that took months to arrive at. You in the house had finished in this bill on october 1st. Finally got a deal with the senate. 600 payments to individuals. The president apparently doesnt like that idea. Hes calling for 2,000 payments to individuals and 4,000 to a married couple. We dont know what this means. We dont know whether that means hes not signing the bill or got to get back to the drawing board, but nancy pelosi has said bring it, were ready to do 2,000 a person and vote on this on thursday. What are you hearing about this . Well, look, we wanted larger checks all along. We wanted a larger package all along. We recognize the immense need in the country. People are lining up in food lines miles long. But, you know, the republicans wouldnt go along with it. Mitch mcconnell wouldnt take it up. Kevin mccarthy wouldnt support it. And donald trump was missing in action. He delegated to mnuchin to be his negotiator. Well, we hammered out a deal. The most that we could get out of Mitch Mcconnell. And now after its passed, the president suddenly takes an interest . You know, its just appalling because people are counting on that money right now but we will take up a bill by unanimous consent, the speaker has announced, that will put them to the test. You want larger checks, so do we. Lets see the proof that youre serious about this, this is not just some gimmick. I never asked you a question that youve been stumped on, but i dont know if you have any idea as to whats going on in the president s head, what this is all about. Youre right, he did have Steve Mnuchin there involved in the negotiations the whole time. None of this came as a secret to the president or as a surprise to the president. What on earth do you think is happening . Well, i think the president is in a downward mental spiral in these last few weeks of his presidency. Hes desperately worried about his liability, his debt, his exposure to the criminal laws when he leaves office. He is worried about being labeled a loser and leaving behind the power and the perks of his office and i think we can expect his conduct to continue to degenerate, even the lies that hes telling and the one he told today about, you know, the democrats throwing out, you know, tons of ballots or whatever it was. Even his lies are becoming more unhinged and larger in scope and more a graver departure from reality, so i think were going to continue to see the degradation of donald trump. Its going to be a rocky few weeks until hes gone. It cant come fast enough. 29 days but i guess thats the problem with normalizing little lies. Right . They started with how big the inauguration crowd was and now he lies about about having won the election and election fraud. Thank you for joining us, sir. Adam schiff is the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a democratic representative from california. We always appreciate your time. All right. Up next, more on the breaking news coming out of the white house tonight. The president s overtime offer to dramatically increase the covid aid thats going to americans after the bill has been passed by the house and the senate. Whats going on . Were going to Ask White House reporter Yamiche Alcindor who joins us next. Sanctuary music kids laughing dog barking sanctuary music its the final days of the wish list sales event sign and drive off in a new lincoln with zero down, zero due at signing, and a complimentary first months payment. Charmin ultra soft is so soft much are you, hon . Youll have to remind your family they can use less. Charmin ultra soft is twice as absorbent so you can use less. Enjoy the go with charmin. Coto build a house, you need ary ststrong foundation. [music playing throughout] the same is true for building a business. Blackowned businesses are an integral part of americas foundation. 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It took Congress Nine months to come to an agreement on a second Coronavirus Relief bill. And it took less than 24 hours after that bill passed both chambers of congress for donald trump to threaten to blow it all up. I am asking congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low 600 to 2,000 or 4,000 for a couple. Im also asking congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation and to send me a suitable bill or else the next administration will have to deliver a covid relief package and maybe that administration will be me and we will get it done. All right. So the treasury secretary who represented the president in the negotiations had actually said that the checks for those 600 checks are going to go out this week. Thats obviously not going to happen because the president hasnt signed this bill. Joining us is Yamiche Alcindor, White House Correspondent for the pbs newshour. And an msnbc political analyst. Right now, yamiche, were not drawing on your high level journalistic and interpretation skills. We need very basic translation of what on earth happened here because democrats have been trying for months to get more than that 600, for the last three days all ive had are democrats on tv saying that this is an insult, a slap in the face, its ridiculous. They never said what the president would accept. They got to 600 bucks and not the president is torpedoing this. What is going on, as far as you understand . Whats going on is the president of the United States checked out of covid relief negotiations for months. For months he let the white house chief of staff mark meadows and the treasury secretary take the lead and say they were the representatives of the white house at the table with Democratic Leaders including, of course, nancy pelosi. Then the president , it seems, woke up today and said, actually, i want to be part of these negotiations except that the bill has already been passed. By the way, it was passed by vetoproof majorities. Were also seeing in this video that it seems as though the president doesnt understand what this bill is. Not only, of course, is it the covid relief package and those checks people so badly need, its also that its coupled with the omnibus bill which is government funding yes. Which is supposed to run out and is going to run out in seven days. Hes saying all the stuff thats not related to covid when, in fact, it was two bills meshed into one. The president seems not to be paying attention because he was too busy, of course, talking about his own political futures trying to spread disinformation and thinking about trying to steal back an election that he lost several weeks ago. Which to be clear, he also did in this video. He released this video on twitter, much of which was devoted to voter fraud and the same things hed been talking about. So this was just one part of the president s announcement today. Thats right. I started watching that video thats about 13 minutes long. What you see is really the president repeating again and again these false claims. These claims that have been thrown out by republican and democratically nominated judges. These claims that have gotten him nowhere in the last few weeks. Claims that the Supreme Court threw out and said this is nothing. Theres no evidence here. The president is trying to check back into what hes doing in his job. Im wondering if the president is going to check back in when it comes to the russia hack thats been happening. The president , other trying to tamp it down, hasnt given us a clear vision of how hes going to respond to russia. Here we are with the covid relief bill with the president waking up and saying, hey, by the way, while i was off doing my own thing, some critics would say kind of being a mad president , acting like a mad king, i need to actually be focused on the legislation coming in front of my desk. So its no telling what actually happens now. As you noted, as chairman schiff told you, democrats are happy to up the numbers. It was republicans yeah. Including republican senators didnt want to have extra money here. I want to weve had tweets from everybody on the democratic side. This one from nancy pelosi is probably clearer. She said, republicans repeatedly refused to say what amount the president wanted for direct checks. At last, the president has agreed to 2,000. Democrats are ready to bring this to the floor this week by unanimous consent. Lets do it. She subsequently suggested that this could happen on thursday, that they will vote on it, they will pass it. Theyre all for this idea. Now, where does this put Senate Republicans because Mitch Mcconnell was in on these discussions. As you said, mark meadows was in on the discussions. Chief of staff, the treasury secretary. So what happens now . You got democrats and the president apparently both wanting bigger checks and republicans whove been recalcitrant on this since october who didnt want to do that. Exactly. And now what you have is Senate Republicans having to go back and decide whether or not they want to give more checks. They at all steps of this said they didnt want the checks to be too big, quote unquote. They said they were worried that americans were going to, at least based on my sourcing, americans were going to take the checks and not want to work, be too much support for the american people. Were, of course, in the middle of the pandemic where people are struggling to survive, struggling to not be evicted from their homes. Republicans said they didnt want people to get too much support. Now its going to be up to Mitch Mcconnell to decide whether or not he can rally the votes in the senate to get this passed. We also saw aoc and other members of the squad saying, hey, our bill has 2,000 for americans, wed be happy to have the president support that and get this passed. But now republicans are in the tough position to figure out whether or not theyre going to back the president as they have been on so many other issues when it comes to President Trump. But the interesting part, for a long time when asked why they wont do this, Mitch Mcconnell kept on talking about an unnamed contingent in his Republican Senatorial Congress Caucus who could not accept larger numbers. They would not accept the consequences of an increase in debt. They would not accept the moral implications of apparently giving people money for staying home. That sounded like a pretty Firm Position by some particularly conservative members of the republican caucus. Are they movable . Its now anyones guess. It sounds like theyre not movable. Senate majority leader Mitch Mcconnell has made it pretty clear that senators, republican senators, didnt want to do this. Didnt want to up the checks. We saw senator ron johnson talk about the deficit. Now, of course, republicans have not been talking about the deficit for years and years now under the Trump Administration where they cut taxes and increased the deficit. Somehow they all kind of rediscovered their interest in the deficit when it came to handing out checks, badly needed checks to americans. Im just not seeing where this is going to actually go and how republicans are going to pass this except for the fact the president has a little bit more Political Capital. He is still fundraising boatloads of money to try to steal back the election so there are republicans who still see the president as a major player in the republican party. Maybe he can use that sort of Political Capital to try to get them to get higher checks and maybe that will be the thing that President Trump will do that maybe makes people feel like, okay, President Trump at least in his last waning days was trying to do something for the american people. This is some weird stuff, yamiche. This is just some weird stuff. We will continue to cover it all week. Thank you, as always, for giving us a little clarity on a thing that is just kind of muddy. Yamiche alcindor. White house correspondent for pbs newshour and an msnbc political analyst. The president is triggering chaos on so many fronts, the covid crisis continues unabated. Were going to talk to a nurse in california about what its like on the front lines. On the. Yeah . I respect that. But that cough looks pretty bad. Try this new robitussin honey severe. The real honey you love. Plus, the powerful cough relief you need. Mind if i root through your trash . New robitussin honey severe. 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Patients lined the walls of the hospitals lobby, waiting rooms, lobbies, even its entrance. Look at this. This is what the country could soon look like after the Holiday Season when another surge is expected. Heres mendy hickey, a nurse at st. Marys Medical Center. This time is most crucial. Its been the entire year. In the spring, it was not that bad here. We had covid cases, but it wasnt like you saw pictures of new york. Today we have 140 Covid Patients in a 213bed hospital. We had this built on friday in anticipation of the surge continuing to peak, which on sunday it got there. Our icu is overwhelmed with patients. Were going to double bunk them in here. Okay. Normally these patients would be in the icu upstairs, but all of those beds are full. We created an additional ten bed outside of the icu. Those are all full. We have six more patients in the operating room. We can hold up to 24 more patients in this area. It is completely full right now. As soon as one goes out, another one comes in. So many people come in and keep coming in like this, it worries me that were not going to be able to keep you or any of your loved ones safe any longer. Joining us now is the nurse you just heard, mendy hickey, quality director for st. Marys. Thank you for being with us. I cannot imagine how you are operating on an ongoing basis like this. I saw your notes in which you said some people wait seven to ten days for a bed. Theyre people who have covid, there are people who need icus without covid. To know there is no icu capability in Southern California boggles the mind. Yeah, its scary, it really is. How are you handling this, yourself . I mean, i ask you this, really, its a question for every nurse and every doctor and every Health Care Provider in the country. This has got to take a toll on you. It is emotionally and physically draining. Going in every day, seeing how heartbroken the staff is for the patients in the hospital, how frustrated they are with the situation thats going on, its really hard to see, its hard to take. Yeah. It is. So, you know, there are days that i need to take a walk outside for a little bit before i go back into the hospital and keep things going and put a smile on my face and support the staff and let them know that were going to get through it together but, yeah, its rough. What do you have in terms of ppe . We know that thats been a problem, but the problems different now. Right now, you just dont even have beds and the people to work with them, but do you have the equipment you need . We do, actually. So in the spring the struggle was this new onset of covid19, you know, we were struggling for supplies like the rest of the nation. Now were stocked up on supplies but are struggling for staff like the rest of the nation. So we have an overwhelming amount of patients. One of the things that youre dealing with sorry, mendy. Im sorry. We just had a little technical glitch. Please, go ahead. So nurses are going out as well as the rest of the hospital staff with covid as well. So we already have more patients than we normally take care of and then were dealing with less staff than we usually have. So staffing is the biggest challenge right now. Equipment, honestly yeah. Were part of Providence Health system which has been a blessing to us because theyve been instrumental in helping to make sure that we have the ventilators we need, we have the respiratory equipment and all of that. So thats secure in place right now. Yeah, back in april and may and june, there were some areas of the country that didnt have surges and so there were people traveling around the country and relocating to help. Thats a problem that weve got now with a shortage of people. What do you want people to know . Youre dealing with patients. What do you want the public to understand about this spike and what they need to do about it . I really i think theres a lack of understanding that covid sees no person, no color, no political party. It really is a very strange virus and it definitely acts different with every person that it comes in contact with. And so while you hear your neighbor got it, maybe, and they werent very sick, so you think it might not be that bad for, you know, yourself, thats not necessarily true. Everyone needs to take it really seriously. Wear a mask. Social distance. Be smart about things, where youre going, who youre going to be around. And definitely wash your hands. Thats the biggest thing that i can really get across to folks. Its i know here, locally, you know, we had some cases in the spring but it wasnt that many. Its like i said on the video, you know, you see these videos from new york city and we were just like, oh, my gosh right. That would never happen here, i cant even imagine it. Well, were living it now, you know, so i think theres been such a big span of time from the beginning until now that there are folks here in the area that really just think, like, oh, its not that big of a deal, and it is definitely overwhelming our hospital, yes. Yeah, and i think your point is really valid, for many, Many Americans it doesnt end up being a big deal and thats fantastic, but you get to see all of them for whom its a really big deal and could end up being fatal. I think thats the problem, that if youre not exposed to what you see every day, i dont know how ten months in people still dont really believe this is serious, but you are a testament to the fact that it is serious. Thank you for all the work that you do, to nurses and doctors and hospitals around this country that are keeping us healthy and well get through this soon. Mendy hickey, head of quality control, quality director for st. Marys Medical Center in apple valley. Shes a registered nurse. Coming up, the very latest on the chilling raid in florida carried out against a whistleblower who was trying to keep the residents of that state informed about the covid crisis there. Rebekah jones has fueled a suit against the state. Shell get tonights last word. For bathroom odors that linger try febreze small spaces. Just press firmly and it continuously eliminates odors in the air and on soft surfaces. For 45 days. Research shows people remember so to help you remember that Liberty Mutual customizes your Home Insurance, heres one thatll really take you back. Wow whatd you get, ryan . Its customized Home Insurance from Liberty Mutual what does it do bud . It customizes our Home Insurance so we only pay for what we need and what did you get, mike . I got a bike. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. When it comes to damage, my hair has immunity. Strengthening lipids and antioxidants, in pantenes nutrientrich formulas, are like superfood for your hair. 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The former Florida Department of Health Employee built her States Coronavirus tracking website, and then she says she was fired for refusing to manipulate covid data on that site. Earlier this month rebekahs home was raided by armed state police officers. The officers weapons you can see here were drawn, and they seized a computer and cellphone rebekah used to update her own coronavirus dashboard. Now Rebekah Jones is fighting back. She sued the Florida Department of Law Enforcement alleging in a 19page complaint that the search warrant officers had was a sham used to, quote, punish her for speaking out against Florida Republican Governor Ron Desantis mishandling of his states covid response. In other words, rebecca says she was punished for telling the truth. Her lawsuit states, quote, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement seeking to ingratiate itself to desantis sought to silence plaintiffs online speech by confiscating her computer and to discover her Confidential Sources and other information by seizing her cellphone. Joining us now Rebekah Jones, a former manager of data and surveillance for covid19 at the Florida Department of health. Thank you for joining us tonight. Your complaint raises an interesting First Amendment issue. I want to read a line from it in which it says on december 3rd, 2020, the day the judge signed the search warrant, the south florida sun sentinel published the most detailed expose yet of the concealment, manipulation, falsification, and delay in reporting covid19 data under the desantis regime. It was easier to contrive an excuse to raid the home of a solo publisher like plaintiff than to raid the offices of a major newspaper or tv network. Tell me about that. Youre making the case that they were able to silence you, so they tried to. Yeah, i think my lawyers kind of laid it out that its not just about taking my equipment which shut me down for all of a day before i was able to get new stuff, but its also about finding out whos been talking to me. A lot of the press thats been generated in this state over the last seven months now has come through me. People trust me and inside the state at all agencies they give me reports, give me tips, tell me where to look. And ive been a part of those investigative pieces. And, yeah, the morning that the warrant was signed, the first warrant that that judge has ever signed, the big sun sentinel piece came out. And it also sends a really threatening message to other wouldbe whistleblowers, hey, if youre thinking about speaking out well come with guns into your home, well take all of your equipment and well point guns at your children. And im not going to just lie down and accept that thats something that people like me have to suffer through just for really doing what the bare minimum of what any person would do in that situation. Yeah, youve made the best case ive yet seen for having a camera inside your house because the police were not entirely forthcoming what actually went down in your house. I cannot get over the story. You and i have talked before. I dont know your politics at all, but i cannot get over the story where you are out there providing a Service First as a Government Employee and then not, and they just apparently didnt like it. I mean, what allegation is there of a law that you broke that would have justified armed officers of the law coming into your house and dealing with your entire family with their guns drawn like youre a criminal . None. Supposedly there was a message sent from an internal system that the user name and password for was made public by that agency in seven different places on its website. That said, essentially speak up and tell the truth before a lot more people are killed. And that was the message that they were looking for evidence of at my house, and thats it. Kind of amazing because this is what you are trying to bring to everybodys attention and youre still trying to bring to everybodys attention is the thing you were talking about, the way in which ron desantis has mismanaged covid in florida is ongoing. It is still causing people to get sick. It is still causing deaths, and you were a source of information to people. Are you back up and running at the rate you were before they intercepted you . I was back up and running the next day, but i did take a few days to get everything on my new system setup, download everything from the cloud that i had backed up and running again. But we are back up and running. The covid monitor is never took a break. And we are nearing half a million k through 12 cases in students and staff in this country as we update case data from last week. Unbelievable that they raided your house for giving people those statistics. That as youre looking at the monitor right now, 1,318,356 cases in florida. 21,052 deaths. Thank you, its always a pleasure to talk to you. Rebekah jones was the former manager of data and surveillance for covid19 at the Florida Department of health. And that is tonights last word. The 11th hour with Brian Williams begins now. Well, good evening once again. Day 1,433 of the Trump Administration, 29 days until the inauguration of joe biden as our 46th president. With his time in Office Running out donald trump has issued his first big wave of pardons and commutations. The list includes convicted liars, murderers, and corrupt politicians in what appears to be a move to chip away at the Mueller Investigation trump has given full pardons to George Papadopoulos, a Foreign Policy adviser to the trump 2016 campaign, who by the way pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi. He also gave a full pardon to alex van der zwaan, who worked with the Trump Campaign chairman paul manafort. Also pleaded guilty to lying to also pleaded guilty to lying to muellers team. Then there are three crooked former members of the republican congress, all three of whom were put away by trumps own justice department. Steve stockman of texas convicted on charges of fraud and money laundering. Duncan hunter of california who pleaded guilty to misusing Campaign Funds. And Chris Collins of up state new york, the first trump supporter in congress who pleaded to lying to the fbi and conspiring to commit securities fraud. He was the one who as a guest at the annual congressional picnic summer of 2017 was caught on camera phoning insider stock tips to his son from the south lawn of the white house according to