so that is our breaking news. i know people are going to be talking about this. they are talking about it now. >> it's not about football. it's about a developing aspect of our culture. >> well, let me just give you the breaking news and we can talk about it because there are multiple reports tonight, chris, that jon gruden is resigning as the las vegas -- the head of the las vegas raiders. and this is all coming in in the wake of a bombshell "new york times" report detailing how gruden used misogynistic and anti-gay language in numerous e-mails during a seven-year period. again-i think i still have chris with me. >> yeah. >> good. this is all according to the "new york times," chris. that gruden sent e-mails to bruce allen. bruce allen was then the head of the washington football team. the president. saying that the nfl commissioner -- this is what they reportedly said. should not have pressured then rams coach jeff fisher to draft queers. he was referring to michael sam. remember we covered that. he was the first gay player, openly gay player drafted. that was back in 2014. using multiple anti-gay slurs in an e-mail. but it didn't, you know, end there. he said he called someone, roger goodell, a pussy for wanting to take precautions when it comes to, you know, head injuries and what have you in football, in pro football. >> so the seminal question on gruden was not whether or not people are going to like the e-mails. they're not. they're ugly. it's that, well, he wasn't with the las vegas raiders at the time. this was years and years ago. even this new trove from the "new york times" that he this talk about is a seven-year period that ended 2018. and it's an interesting question. what is the relevance of time to what somebody did? do you give context to whether or not the mores were the same then, the sensitivities were the same? for the vegas raiders the issue was, well, it didn't happen on our watch. but at what point does the person you have now, the employer you have now, have to act on what you did in the past? >> yeah, and listen, the mores of the time, you don't say a player, his lips were like michelin tires. i don't think that that was, you know, okay at any time. it was okay to share, you know, images of cheerleaders and female reps and say you know, nice job or comment on their, you know, personal parts or what have you. but listen, i have? breaking news. i have a response. jon gruden in now. i've got to go and i've got to get to the person who actually wrote the article for the "new york times." love you, brother. i'll see you later. so again, jon gruden from the las vegas raiders, we said that it is reported that he's going to resign but we have a statement from him. here's the statement. coming in from jon gruden. he says, "i have resigned as head coach of the las vegas raiders. i love the raiders and do not want to be a distraction." he says, "thank you to all the players, the coaches and staff and fans of raider nation. i am sorry. i never meant to hurt anyone." again, that is according to jon gruden himself. a statement, the breaking news now out that jon gruden is resigning adds the coach of the las vegas raiders. and othering things about these e-mails, he admits to using a racial trope in a 2011 e-mail describing nflpa executive director demaurice smith. he apologized to smith, claims he's not a racist, joked about an nfl owner performing oral sex on him. he sent sexist memes. and again, there is more. so let's discuss all of this now, the breaking news. ken belson is here. he covers the nfl for the "new york times" and he broke tonight's story with his colleague catherine rossman. ken, i'm so grateful that you're here for this breaking news. we appreciate it. we have a statement in from the coach now. what's your response to his statement? what do you have to say? >> well, not surprising. he knew that these e-mails were out there. the nfl had found these e-mails in an investigation it did on the washington team and forwarded them to the raiders last week. only one came out about demaurice smith on friday. so he knew it was a matter of time before these would surface somehow. i suspect he hoped they never would, but they did. one thing that i think is remarkable here is that he did sort of pin -- his initial explanation was he pinned it on 2011, his state of mind at the time. but as the e-mail show, they were sort of a barrage of tirades that went on for many years, misogynistic comments, homophobic comments, criticisms of the league's anthem protest policies, concussions, issues -- the nfl policies to improve safety. and so this was sort of a whole fusillade of attacks on the nfl including the commissioner himself. >> and it's interesting his response was that he didn't -- that he had no racism within him, there wasn't a stitch of racism in him. these e-mails, again, if these e-mails are true, and it appears that they are because he is resigning, he has resigned, then it goes against everything that he said. we hear often people say i'm not racist, i'm not homophobic, i'm not misogynistic, i'm not any of these things, when their actions actually show otherwise. >> yeah, it's sort of an unvarnished view. maybe he didn't deliberately try and hurt anybody, but he certainly made those comments in his -- >> ken, i want our audience to hear what we're talking about. i want to play what he said and then i'll get you to come back on the other side and continue what you were saying. let's play it. >> i'm not a racist. i don't -- i can't tell you how sick i am. i apologize again to d. smith. but i feel good about who i am and what i've done my entire life. and i apologize for the insensitive remarks. i had no -- you know, i had no racial intentions with those remarks at all. but yes, they can -- i'm not like that at all. but i apologize. i don't want to keep addressing it. >> so again, ken, i've heard that before. but when you say someone's lips are like michelin tires and so on, i mean, but go on. >> well, i mean, you can not intend to be offensive and still be offensive. they're not mutually exclusive. you can not know you're being racist or homophobic when you are saying things. so it's a level of awareness that's perhaps lacking in this case. the other thing is, you know, what he's saying is going against everything -- many of the things the nfl has been trying to address. the objectification of women. you know, race relations in this country. the raiders are the -- just had a player who said publicly he's gay. so here's the head coach whose past comments seem to contradict that. it's an awkward position to be in. i don't see how he could finesse out of this. maybe one comment, two comments. but there were many other e-mails. >> let me just go through some of them, okay? with you, ken, and get your response. he denounced the emergence of women as referees, the drafting of of gay players, the tolerance of players protesting during the playing of the national anthem. that's according to e-mails reviewed by the "new york times." his messages were sent to bruce allen. bruce allen was the former president of the washington football team and others while he was work forget -- this is when he was working for espn as a color analyst for "monday night football." he also said that roger goodell, he said roger goodell a faggot and a clueless anti-football pussy and said goodell should not have pressured jeff fisher, the then coach of the rams, to draft queers, a reference to michael sam, a gay player chosen by the team in 2014. again, that doesn't sound like someone who's not racist or homophobic or misogynistic. >> either that or he doesn't know the definition of it, i suppose. yeah, it's an awkward position to be in. i don't know -- it's true this all happened while he was not working at an nfl team, but he's leader of a team now and teams operate on a sort of mysterious chemistry that involves a lot of trust. and when these e-mails are introduced into that conversation it makes it a little harder, actually a lot harder to motivate players to work for you. and it's destructive to the franchise and frankly to the league. >> it's especially so when the 70% of the roster in the nfl, the players, 70% are african-american players. to that they've told the african-american players, or many of the -- some of the owners and team managers and the fans of course said we don't want politics in football. and gruden also criticized president obama during his re-election campaign in 2012 and then vice president joe biden called him a nervous clueless pussy. he said similar words to describe goo dwel and demaurice smith, the executive director of the nfl players association. >> yeah, this is a pretty -- well, as i use the word, unvarnished view of the conversations going on with bruce allen and others, mutual friends of theirs in e-mail chats. obviously, they never expected any of this to become public. but it is a window into kind of a tight circle in the nfl and the nfl itself is kind of a window into american culture. so if you think about it these conversations may be happening at many levels and many workplaces. it just so happens this is the biggest sports league in america. >> yeah. let me ask you, so allen -- bruce allen's e-mail, they have not been -- because it said allen actually initiated some of the conversations and then gruden weighed in on them. why not allen's e-mails and what he might have been initiating? is it because allen is not under an investigation here? what's going on with that? >> so allen was investigated because of the investigation of the washington football team. there was -- many women stepped forward to say there was workplace harassment at the washington football team. the team initially hired its own investigator and the league took over that investigation. that was last summer. and as part of that wide-ranging investigation they went through e-mails, including the team president, bruce allen. so this was swept up in that. that investigation is closed and bruce allen hasn't been with an nfl team since the end of 2019. so in that sense he's no longer affiliated with the nfl. whereas jon gruden is leading a prominent team. so that's why this has become a focus. >> well, it's interesting because allen's e-mail was on the official nfl team e-mail. and gruden's was not. this was his personal e-mail. i'm not sure how much of a difference that is. but they're sharing these pictures of women and what have you and these horrible e-mails on work e-mails, at least allen was. thank you, ken. i appreciate you joining. and good job on writing that story and breaking this. i want to bring in now cnn contributor bob costas. bob, good evening to you. he's resigning. my first question i want to get to you, though, ask you, the players, some of the players who he offended, jon gruden, actually stood by him. i wonder how those players feel now after all this trove of e-mails have been uncovered. >> yeah, i guess the first, which was the insulting comment about demaurice smith with obvious racial implications, maybe some players who know gruden in a different context and in a different way were inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt, say that was ten years ago, trying to be funny, it was awkward, however they want to rationalize it. but i think it's important in any of these situations that come up now where we look for a pattern of of behavior rather than something that might have been a mistake or might have been out of context or might have been unintended and is wholly inconsistent with the person's body of work or everything we know about that person. this is a pattern of retrograde notions, not confined to race, not confined to sexual orientation. all of that is in there. retrograde notions about the nature of football. all of it obviously reaches critical mass very quickly, to the point where either gruden decided himself that there's no way out of this and has to resign or he was pressured to resign, but the key difference here, don, is we're not talking about a one-off situation or one thing that happened ten years ago, 30 years ago, happened in the past to someone who's dead and now we're trying to cancel that person and disregarding the context of their time and of their entire life and existence. this is a pattern of behavior apparently. i defer to ken belson. he has reported the story. and quite honestly, i've been watching a lot of baseball tonight and i'm trying to play catch-up. so i don't want to venture into an area where i'm not on firm ground. but from what i've been able to determine and what i've heard on your show and what i read in ken's piece in the "new york times," there's a lot here and it can't be rationalized. >> listen, i saw the apology last night as i was watching the game, and yesterday gruden told the world that he doesn't have -- and the exact quote is, bob, "an ounce of racism" in him. but i want to read part of what demaurice smith said on twitter today. he said that the e-mail from jon gruden and some of the reaction to it "confirms that the fight against racism, racist troepz and intolerance is not over. this is not about an e-mail as much as it's about a pervasive belief by some that people who look like me can be treated as less." and then he goes on to say, "i appreciate that he reached out to me, and i told him that we will connect soon. but make no mistake, the news is not about what is said in our private conversation but what else is said by people who never thought they would be exposed and how they are going to be held to account." that is a very powerful and true statement, at least it rings true for me. your reaction, bob. >> i think it's very reasoned. i know demaurice smith fairly well. i like him and i respect him. i think what he said was thoughtful. it's important even as we rightly condemn statements like this that a couple of words that matter in demaurice smith's statement by some, not by everybody, i've had this conversation with you before, don, no one's trying to soft-pedal the existence of things like this or say oh, that's just an aberration, that's one in a million. we know that these attitudes exist, even if they're whispered behind closed doors because they're not socially acceptable anymore, we know that these attitudes exist and they've been fired up and affirmed by some quarters of the internet, by some people in our politics, where people feel emboldened. that's not necessarily true of jon gruden. it's a whole witch's brew of stuff that's out there. but at the same time it isn't just members of marginalized groups who are offended by this. i'd like to believe that it's the majority of white americans who do not feel this way and do not want this to be the tone of our sports or of our culture. i like that demaurice said by some. now, we can guess as to what some means, 10%, 20%. i don't know. but it sure as hell isn't everybody and i sure as hell hope it isn't the majority. >> listen, but sports, especially football, it runs deep in our culture. someone from the s.e.c. from down south, lsu, we groom people to become college and nfl football players there. it is a whole culture. and so it is -- i mean, this runs deep in the culture and it is reflective i think in many ways of what's happening in our culture and in our politics. i mean, listen, i just want to play this. we don't have to play sound up but i just want to put this up and ask bob the question here. this is the nfl players, this video they put out. i'll just run the video. but they put out this video and you saw what happened in the league, you know, over the past, what, five, four, three years or so on, colin kaepernick and so on. what does this say about the culture and time we're in? players are starting to feel empowered and some autonomy. and then you have this. does this show that the players are right to be doing what they were doing or are doing now? >> well, they're right to be concerned. we can certainly talk about how typical this is and how far-reaching it is. but it exists. and it needs to be confronted and called out and eliminated where it exists. we're not talking about normal political differences. there are reasonable political differences across the spectrum. but when it comes to bigotry or feelings toward people that just have no compassion, no enlightenment connected to them, i would think all reasonable people can say we don't want this to be part of the culture, we don't want this to be part of our discussions and part of what surrounds the games that we follow and the teams that we care about. and as i said earlier, it's one thing to say hey, a guy made a mistake, a slip of the tongue or he reformed his attitudes, he raised his consciousness and eyre we're not going to hold him to account for one thing that happened ten years ago. but if there's a pattern of behavior, that's a different thing. and of course, you know as a fan the majority of players on s.e.c. teams and the overwhelming majority of players in the nfl are african-american. >> right. >> so even if you say starting today i've learned my lesson and going forward i'll never do this, how do you win the trust of the people in that locker room? you're their leader. how do you win their trust? and it isn't just the black players. the majority of white players regard the black players and the black players regard the white players as their brothers in arms, their teammates. you see the way these people feel about each other. players in every sport. whatever their background and cultural differences may be, when they come together as a team they begin to see each other as teammates and also as vijds, not as representatives of a group but as individuals. and they create bonds of affection and connection and respect. you can't have someone at the top of that organization that doesn't reflect those values. >> yeah. the fallout from this is remains to be seen and we're going to watch it play out live. thank you. the legendary bob costas joining us. >> it up, don. >> here's our breaking news. coach of the las vegas raiders jon gruden resigning tonight, in a statement saying "i have resigned as head coach of the las vegas raiders. i love the raiders and do not want to be a distraction. thank you to all the players, coaches, staff and fans of raider nation. i'm sorry. i never meant to hurt anyone. jon gruden." the lasting ramifications of this, what happens next as it comes to nfl and professional sports in general. also tonight on this program, who is afraid of the former president? apparently most elected republicans. and it's putting our democracy in peril. that is next. ♪ your new pharmacy is here. to make sure you don't run out of meds here. and with amazon prime, get refills and free two-day shipping. who knew it could be this easy? your new pharmacy is amazon pharmacy. - [narrator] as 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say former president trump. a litmus test for the gop. either you're with him or you're against him. and it seems even long-time establishment republicans are getting in line for the former president and for his big lie as well. stuart stevens is here. he is the former chief strategist for the romney presidential campaign and the senior adviser to the lincoln project. so good to have you back on, stuart. good evening. >> thanks, don. appreciate it. >> you say for those who believe president biden wasn't legally elected that means that they believe that we live in an occupied country and america is not a democracy, and you say that the official position, that is the official position of the republican party. did i get that correct? >> yeah, you got it absolutely right. that's the position of the republican party, that joe biden is not a legally elected president, and that that means we don't live in a democracy, which means we live in an occupied country. and when you take that position, this really hasn't happened since probably 1860 would be the closest analogy, that one of the major parties doesn't believe america's a democracy. >> how do you explain what's happening in the republican party right now, stuart? it is -- i sit here every night for years and i've watched the republican party just embarrass themselves, or members of the republican party i should say embarrass themselves with their fealty to the former guy and apologizing for him. what is happening? >> listen, this is why i wrote this book, "it was all a lie," because i asked myself after 2016 how did this happen? i think that there were sort of two strands to the republican party in post-world war ii america. there was an eisenhower strand. that was like i anormal governing boring strand. and a joe mccarthy strand that was racist, conspiratorial, paranoid, non-governing. and a lot of us in the party, i'd like to think, particularly those of us that were involved in george bush's compassionate conservatism, we felt that we were the dominant gene and that this dark side was the recesssive gene. but i don't know any conclusion to come to but that was wrong and the republican party is what the republican party wants to be. it's very comfortable becoming an autocratic white grievance party. there is no platform. let's don't forget that. we've kind of like glossed over that. the first time in modern politics a party's platform was whatever donald trump wanted it to be. and that's how autocracies work. that's how it works in russia. it's not a democratic institution. >> in the vein of talking about -- my question about people making excuses for him and the fealty to him. chuck grassley appeared with the former president at a campaign-like rally this weekend. listen to it. >> if i didn't accept the endorsement of a person that's got 91% of the republican voters in iowa, i wouldn't be too smart. i'm smart enough to accept that endorsement. >> it's funny. i hate actually running those rallies. but i mean, it's important to hear from the people who are actually in power right now. you used to make campaign ads for chuck grassley. this is him now, 88 years old, running for his eight-year term. do you recognize the chuck grassley that now pays fealty to trump? >> no. it's so heartbreaking -- >> his eighth term. excuse me. i think i said something wrong. go on. >> it's so heartbreaking to see chuck grassley, who was an interesting guy, he got involved in politics because he was involved in a union movement. he was always a quirky guy, really sort of spoke his mind. and to see him -- for what? what do you get out of this? why do you support donald trump, who doesn't believe that joe biden is president? that says this incredible racist stuff. it's just -- this is how his career's going to end. this is what he's going to be remembered for. and that's really -- the greatest danger is not to recognize the greatest danger, don. and i think the problem we have now is it kind of looks like a normal moment, we have a normal president. it's not a normal moment. and we've got to realize that what happened on january 6th was not a freak accident or just the end of something. it really is the beginning of something. and there's a coordinated effort now among these people, you see it in these legislations that they're trying to pass and have passed in a lot of these states, that change the way democracy works. this is why republicans are going to -- looking to viktor orban in hungary as their new model. and you know, there's a lot of buffoonish ridiculous people that represent that part of the country, that movement. i mean, matt gaetz and marjorie taylor greene. but the core of that is not a buffoonish movement. these serious, organized, well-funded people who are very patient, who have worked at this for years, and they think they're going to win. >> hmm. then what do we do in order to get people's attention? we have been sounding the alarm. many people 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moving her xfinity internet and tv services. it only takes about a minute. wait, a minute? but what have you been doing for the last two hours? ...delegating? oh, good one. move your xfinity services without breaking a sweat. xfinity makes moving easy. go online to transfer your services in about a minute. get started today. at the end of the day are we going to follow what the constitution says or not? i hope we get back to what the constitution says. but clearly in a number of states they didn't follow those legislative -- >> so you think the election was stoleen? >> what i said is there are states that didn't follow their legislatively set rules. that's what the united states constitution says. >> last time, i promise. do you think the election was stolen or not? i understand you think there were irregularities and things that need to be fixed. do you think the election was stolen? >> and it's not just irregularities. it's states that did not follow the laws set which the constitution says they're supposed to follow. >> okay. back now with stuart stevens. that's the minority whip steve scalise. i mean, he can't bring himself to call the -- call out the election lie and say that joe biden is the duly elected president. at least that the election wasn't stolen. let's put it that way. >> this is basically russian propaganda. i mean, for decades the soviet union and now russia has attacked the concept that the united states was a democracy. they've challenged that. and what these republicans are doing is just playing into the hands of those that are our enemies. i mean, look, don, i worked for republicans for a long time. i pointed out a lot of flaws in the democratic party. but there are really two parties in america now. there's a party that's for democracy. and there's a party that's trying to change democracy in a way we won't recognize it. and the democratic party is really -- it's up to the democratic party to save democracy here. we have to accept that. there's not going to be a third party. there are two parties here. and it is critical the democratic party continue to control congress in 2022, which is very difficult but it's doable. and what democrats need to do is nationalize this race. they need to make it a referendum on democracy. and not get caught in these culture wars, not get caught up in, you know, whether or not it's 3.5 or 2.5 trillion. >> exactly. >> ultimately that's not going to be remembered. and democrats have to basically save democracy here. >> they've got to win the war, not just the battle. thank you very much. stuart stevens. an anti-vaxx republican who is a texas gubernatorial candidate gets covid. and as the current governor of texas goes against president biden's vaccine mandates. we've got a lot more to come. stay with us. as your broker, i've solved it. that's great, carl. but we need something better. that's easily adjustable has no penalties or advisory fee. and we can monitor to see that we're on 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(upbeat pop music throughout) - that moment you walk in the office and people are wearing the same gear, you feel a sense of connectedness and belonging right away. and our shirts from custom ink help bring us together. - [narrator] custom ink has hundreds of products to help you feel connected. upload your logo or start your design today at customink.com working at recology is more than a job for jesus. it's a family tradition. jesus took over his dad's roue when he retired after 47 year. now he's showing a new generation what recology is all about. as an employee-owned company, recology provides good-paying local jobs for san franciscans. we're proud to have built the city's recycling system from the ground up, helping to make san francisco the greenest big city in america. let's keep making a differene together. texas governor greg abbott issuing an executive order banning any private employers from mandating vaccines. abbott says that the covid-19 vaccine is safe. he says it's effective and our best defense against the virus, but should remain voluntary and never forced. well, that's happening as texas republican gubernatorial candidate alan west, known for being an anti-vaxxer, comes down with covid. cnn's ed lavandera is here. ed, good evening to you. so abbott is really flying right in the face of president biden. and it's not the first time. talk to me about the governor's decision. >> well, i think everybody here in texas is looking at the governor's decisions really through very much a political lens. the governor is facing two primary opponents in the republican race for governor. that election is next year. both of those candidates running to the right of him and pushing against vaccine mandates and that sort of thing. so a lot of people here looking at the governor's actions simply as politically motivated. and also remember, the governor has issued bans on entities, local entities issuing mask mandates. and many of those -- many school districts and cities and counties across the state defied the governor's executive order on that as well. so it's not really clear whether anyone is going to pay attention to the executive order the governor has issued here tonight in texas. especially as you've seen so many major hospital chains in texas and major corporations that have already issued vaccine mandates for their employees. >> ed, what about an update on alan west? do you have one? >> he did, alan west announced this evening, released a video through social media that he is home out of the hospital. he went in on saturday and said that he had been receiving a litany of medications to treat his covid symptoms and that he is waiting to receive a negative test before he resumes campaigning for governor. he's one of the people running against governor abbott. and it was allen west from the hospital bed essentially saying this experience has made him more convinced to be against vaccine man ydates. it's also really interesting to see governor abbott's announcement tonight just coming the day after allen west was railing against vaccine mandates. >> ed lavandera, thank you, sir. i appreciate you joining us. i want to bring in now cnn medical analyst dr. jonathan reiner. doctor, good evening to you. we know that vaccines work, right? how do you explain the ongoing republican resistance to life-saving public health measures while we are in the middle of a pandemic still? >> it's almost like these politicians are trying to sabotage our recovery. there are some interesting stats that relate -- that i think answer some of these questions. on april 19th vaccines were made available for all americans. and on that date texas and new york had very similar numbers of deaths. new york had about 52,000 deaths. texas had i believe around 49,000 deaths. and since that time, since vaccines were available to all adults in the united states, new york has had an additional 3,000 deaths and texas has had almost 20,000 additional deaths. and the big difference is that new york has fully vaccinated 72% of its population and florida only 60%. and now what we see is the -- excuse me, texas. and now what we see is the texas governor really trying to prevent these mandates, which have been shown to increase vaccination uptake in the united states. it's almost as if he's trying to sabotage the vaccine effort in his home state. and people are dying as a result. almost every one of those 20,000 texans who have died in the last five months have died a needless death, a preventable death. >> allen west, he's used all the buzz words and all the treatments, right? except for vaccine. he said he's taken monoclonal antibodies, hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, right? all the anti-vaxx buzzwords treatments, so-called treatments. neither of those last two are approved for covid, by the way. can you just set the record straight again for us on these medicines? on monoclonal antibodies, on hydroxychloroquine, on ivermectin. >> so hydroxychloroquine has been studied now in many trials. it does not work to prevent either hospitalization or death in folks with covid-19. ivermectin, which can be used in humans for treatment of some parasitic diseases, does not work for prevention of serious illness, hospitalization or death in people with covid-19. monoclonal antibodies do work. it's an infusion. costs about $1,500. and it can lessen the severity of disease. >> early, right? >> i encourage anyone -- >> you've got to get it early? >> get it early. and i encourage everyone who is sick to check with their doctor and see if they are a candidate for monoclonal antibodies. that therapy -- those therapies -- that therapy works. hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin does not. and what's interesting is that allen west has said that he doesn't want to be injected with spike proteins. well, first of all, the vaccines don't inject him with spike proteins. they inject him with rna. but yet being infected by the virus, the virus is multiplying billions of copies of its spike protein in hits lungs and elsewhere in his body. it's silly. it's ill-informed. and it's dangerous to people who follow him. >> i've got to get this in because it's important. it's about merck, asking the fda to authorize its new covid treatment pill. what does it actually do? what should people expect? >> so malnuvipir is an anti-viral agent which basically causes the virus to make mistakes in replication. so it interferes with viral replication. and in a very well-run trial it shows that it reduces the risk of either hospitalization or death by 50%. and what's great about this therapy is that it's oral. it's a five-day course, oral course of medicine. so if one were to contract covid, your doctor could prescribe this. you could get it at the pharmacy. you could take it at home. and it appears to be very effective in preventing severe illness. and i expect that in just a few weeks this will be available for americans, a nice big step forward. >> doctor, thank you. appreciate you and the information. thanks. >> my pleasure. thank you. >> it is national coming out day. and take this. superman's coming out as bisexual. ♪ ♪ ♪ hey google. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ your new pharmacy is here. to help you compare prices, and save on your medication. amazon prime members get select meds as low as $1 a month. who knew it could be this easy? 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[ marcia ] clearchoice dental implants gave me the ability to take on the world. i feel so much better, and i think that that is the key. zb so take this. today is national coming out day and in the comic book city of metropolis, superman is coming out as bisexual. that's right, the new superman. his name is john kent. he's fallen for another male character in the dc comics and let's just be real. coming out gives us all in the lgbtq community the superpower, the power to be ourselves. president biden commemorated the day by saying this. today and every day i want every member of the lgbtq+ community to know that you are loved and accepted just the way you are regardless of whether or not you've come out. he added the country still has a lot of work to do to achieve equality for all americans. listen, coming out is very personal. it is very complicated. for many people, it might even be unsafe. it's one of the most important milestones in an lgbtq person's life. to anyone at home who may be thinking about coming out, it doesn't have to be today. it should be when you are ready, when it feels right for you. so just so you know, a decade ago, ten years ago, i came out. i was worried about being shunned or ostracized. i wrote about it in my book "transparent," and i talked about it on-air. >> i cared yesterday before it happened, and i don't know if care is the right word for today because i feel like whatever happens from this point on, what will be will be. and if the broadcast -- if there's not enough room for a gay anchor, gay black anchor or whatever it is, then my career will transform into something else. i will be successful, and i will prosper at something else. and i think that's the lesson in this, especially to young people, is that all you have to do is just keep moving. just stay in the game. >> it's always my motto. just one foot in front of the other and remain positive and optimistic. on this national coming out day, keep moving and know that there is a community of people who love and support you. up next, in a rut. the biden presidency totally stalled. what's the holdup? 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