that saw the highest number of votes in u.s. history. we re also following the latest on the capitol riots. two men now facing charges of assault in connection with the death of capitol police officer brian sicknick. why did it take more than two months to arrest these guys? and why aren t they charged with murder? we ll have more on that in just a minute plus, the latest on the covid pandemic. numbers continue to go down in the u.s. but they re spiking over in europe, leading to tighter restrictions in several countries. to make matters worse, the vaccine rollout is on hold in several places in europe after officials stopped using one of the approved vaccines. we re going to dig into all of that. but we have to start with breaking news connected to one of the big of the trials in recent memory, the trial of former minneapolis police officer derek chauvin. as we speak, the judge is gaveling in and he s got a big question on his plate, whether to even move forward or put t
hostage. for the record, the doj says more than 1200 people have been charged in connection with the violence of the capitol. more than 700 pleaded guilty and more than 100 have been convicted at trial. with that, let s get smarter. tonight with the help of our leadoff panel. it is a good one. jon allen is here, senior national politics reporter for nbc news. jason johnson, politics and journalist professor at morgan state university and an msnbc political contributor. and michael steele, former chairman of the republican national committee, former lieutenant governor of maryland and new host of the msnbc show, the weekend, which kicks off this saturday. jason, i turn to you first. how effective was president biden s speech today? he s trying to link our nations troubled past to the fight for democracy and january 6th. it was a nice speech for people who pay attention. look, i take any event that takes place at mother emmanuel
anniversary of the attack on the u.s. capitol, we also heard trump say this about those rioters that were convicted. you know what they ought to do? they ought to release the j six hostages. they suffered enough. release them. i call them hostages. some people call them prisoners. i call them hostages. release the j six hostages, joe. at least from, joe. you can do it really easy, joe. going to talk call them pardoned. but he didn t. he never helped them. for facts sake, not one single j6 rider is a hostage. those people kidnapped and being held by hamas, they are hostages. a person convicted of a crime, who is serving time, is not a hostage. for the record, the doj says more than 1200 people have been charged in connection with the violence of the capitol. more than 700 pleaded guilty and more than 100 have been convicted at trial. with that, let s get smarter.
house lawyer commented on the indictment. i think it was important to georgia and, certainly important to her, to have trump as a defendant. the core of this against trump and the significant defendants is a. very, very strong case. very, very strong case. those are the words of trump s old lawyer. one of trump s codefendants has already taken steps to separate himself from the case. former trump white house chief of staff mark meadows has filed to have the charges against him moved to federal court. meanwhile, some legal experts think that the georgia case could take a long time, because a number of the defendants and the complex racketeering charges. that s where donald trump himself, this, of course, is his fourth indictment since april. he is now facing a total of 91 felony charges. with that, let s get smarter, with the help of our leadoff panel tonight greg bluestein, who, i assure you, has been working overtime,
meanwhile, some legal experts think that the georgia case could take a long time, because a number of the defendants and the complex racketeering charges. that s where donald trump himself, this, of course, is his fourth indictment since april. he is now facing a total of 91 felony charges. with that, let s get smarter, with the help of our leadoff panel tonight greg bluestein, who, i assure you, has been working overtime, a political reporter reporter for the atlanta journal-constitution, an msnbc legal contributor. former missouri senator and msnbc political analyst claire mccaskill, and kristy greenberg, a former federal prosecutor and former sdny criminal division deputy chief. claire, i turn to you first. you are also a former prosecutor. you know the law. mark meadows is now saying he wants a federal trial, because he was acting as a white house official. this guy gave up a safe and a very influential seat in the