did i embellish my resume yes, i did and i m sorry. and it shouldn t be done but i m still the same guy i m not a fraud. i m not a cartoon character. i m not some mythical creature that was invented. republican congressman elect george santos admits much of the life story that helpedget him elected was fiction. but there s a very good reason kevin mccarthy will do nothing about it also tonight, what to expect when donald trump s tax returns are finally released we already know that some years he paid nothing in federal taxes. and if you missed it over the holidays, we ll dig into the january 6th committee report plus, christmas cruelty governor greg abbott dumps hundreds of migrants into the bitter cold of washington, d.c. on christmas eve, as the supreme court keeps title 42 in place. good evening, everyone. i m jonathan capehart in for joy reid and we begin the reidout with the bewildering tale of george santos. the incoming republican congressman from long isla
joining me now, charles coleman, civil rights attorney, msnbc legal analyst, and host of the charles coleman podcast. and tim o brien, senior executive editor at bloomberg opinion and an msnbc political analyst. thank you both very much for coming to the reidout. tim, i think it s interesting that we have now, we saw reporting in real time, but now we have it in the report, of blanket pardon trump wanted a blanket pardon for people who were involved in january 6th. you are an attorney. you know that, you hear that, it s an official government report what do you think that does over at doj well, people don t seek pardons unless they think they have committed a crime and if the president of the united states is seeking a pardon for several to a multitude of people in his own administration, it suggests he was worried he committed a crime or the people around him may have committed a crime or the
say is also problematic for trump and his advisers because if you think back to november, december 2020 what was going on, you know, he was taking these meetings especially in mid to late december with members of congress. and we have january 6th rally organizers later in january. there are key lead ups to january 6th whether it s the december 18 meeting with rudy giuliani and, you know, michael flynn and kind of the other cookie lawyers like sydney powell and you get to members of congress and pence and trump obstructing the investigation on january 6th. the fact these meetings was starting to be kept off the books again suggests there s a level of consciousness of wrongdoing. you know there s a kind of consciousness of intent here if came out would look exemlael bad. i think this speaks to how
that george santos has not been forthcoming. he s lied about or he s given inconsistent accounts about where the money has come from over the past few years. and now this week when he claims to be telling his full story, he s not telling the full truth about the money. quickly, david, before i have to let you go realistically how much longer can the leaders of the gop avoid dealing with this santos scandal? you ve been here for the last seven years, right? all the ways they avoided talking about trump and dealing with his lies and his insurrection, you know, i think it would be easy for them tado the same with someone like george santos. they just don t have to say anything. mccarthy certainly is not going to say anything until santos votes for him as speaker. so this is where the republican party is now. they will stand with santos or more or less they ll stand in silence or sit in silence or duck in silence because they,
only explanation for him not being indicted to my satisfaction is because he must already be cooperating with federal prosecutors. we don t know that for a fact, but it feels like that may be where the smart money is arriving. let s talk about not having criminal exposure. what about those blanket pardon trump was considering including one for mark meadows. how would this factor into the federal probe situation? you know, the supreme court has said that if you request a pardon that carries with it some imputation of guilt, and if you accept a pardon, that carries with it at least some admission of guilt. now, they said it back in 1915 in the verdict case but it remains at minimum good advice from the supreme court about how we should look at pardons.