Agents provocateurs, fake Trump Protesters and a disappointed bunch of attackers. How a gun fetish is a statement of movements. Plus the ongoing nightmare in texas and what were now learning about tiger woods after a horrible car accident this morning. All in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. For most of today as you might imagine, we have been following one breaking news story, The Serious Car Accident Involving Golf Legend tiger woods. According to officials, woods was involved in a single vehicle Rollover Collision around 7 00 a. M. Pacific time. He was extracted from the wreck and taken to the hospital. At a Press Conference a little while ago, the l. A. County sheriff said woods was conscious when Rescue Workers arrived and there is no evidence of impairment at this time. He said woods may have been going at a greater speed than normal. There were no skid marks. The vehicle traveled several hundred feet, making contact with the center median, went across opposing lanes, hit the curb, hit a tree and the vehicle rolled over several times. His agent said he suffered multiple leg injuries and was undergoing surgery. Were awaiting word on exactly how this happened. Obviously well keep you updated with any new details. The other major story comes to us from washington, d. C. 47 days after the insurrection on the capitol that led to the death of three police officers, we had our first Public Accounting of the Security Preparations and failures of one of the most significant historical dates in modern american history. Until this point, we had heard nothing from the people responsible for defending the capitol on that day. But today the acting chief of the metropolitan police department, former u. S. Capitol police chief of the former senate, sergeantatarms and the senate sergeantatarms all testified in a joint committee hearing. Coming to this hearing we did not have a consensus on the timeline of events and during the attack, and we do not have one still. We still do not know exactly what happened. Steven sund, who was the u. S. Capitol police chief during the attack, blamed sergeantatarms paul irving and senate sergeantatarms michael stenger. Quote, i notified the two sergeantatarms by 1 09 p. M. That i urgently needed support and asked them to declare a State Of Emergency and authorize the National Guard. Irving said he never received a text about raising it to the chain of command. Those men were apparently quite focused on saving what is left of their reputations after this catastrophic failure we all watched on national television. And speaking of reputation saving, senator ted cruz brushed off that now notorious and probably not all that relaxing trip to cancun who led a push in the senate to overturn joe bidens election, to deny him the seating of electors and voted to do that even after the attack had this to say about preventable behavior. This hearing is nonetheless productive for analyzing the Security Decisions and Law Enforcement decisions that were made realtime and for learning from them what can be done differently to ensure that an attack like that never again occurs. Yes, senator, were all trying to figure out who is responsible for this so it never happens again. His colleague, josh hawley, who was the first sitting senator to announce formally that he would object to certifying the Electoral College votes, therefore, making that day a big day a point of interest, right, the last possible stand for the trumpists . The senator what famously raised his fist in salute to the crowd the day they stormed the capitol . He was outraged today when a reporter asked if perhaps he was complicit in this attack. Senator, what do you say to your fellow senators and to americans who believe that you are complicit in this attack . Thats outrageous. I would say its absolutely out outrageous and an utter lie, and anyone who knows the facts wouldnt say that. Obviously, i am one of the people who know the facts and i do allege precisely that, senator. In fact, the idea that either of those men, cruz and hawley, who not only pushed the big lie that the election was illegitimate but acted to overturn the democratic process which made january 6 The Big Showdown Day where they could do it, where they could stop joe biden from becoming president. The fact they were allowed to participate in the hearing strikes many as outrageous. Ron johnson did vote to certify joe bidens election, but he has also been one of the chief spreaders of Conspiracy Theories of the election. He did not hold back today, bringing a factfree blog entry into the congressional record. A very few didnt share the jovial friendliness of the community. He describes four different types of people. Plainclothes militants, Agents Provocateurs, fake Trump Protesters and a disciplined uniform calm of attackers. These are the people that probably planned this. Fake Trump Protesters. He said Agents Provocateurs and fake Trump Protesters, among others, are responsible for the attack. Someone should show senator johnson the Charging Document of, for instance, this alleged insurrection, jose padilla, which was charged with felony count of obstruction to a Law Enforcement and allegedly wrote on facebook, quote, there are a lot of memes and posts flying around saying that the people who were fighting last night were all antifa provocateurs, et cetera. I just want to say that as a first band observer of every point of last night, that it was not antifa. They were patriots who were trying to restore the republic after being attacked by the cops, who struck first. Those in support of trump with this outrageous cause are doing all the hard work blaming antifa. The fact that republicans say theyre not responsible for the attack, President Trump tried this lie out with a phone call with house leader Kevin Mccarthy as jamie butler recalled. Quote, when mccarthy finally reached the president on january 6 and asked him to publicly and forcefully call off the riot, the president initially repeated the falsehood that it was antifa that had breached the capitol. Mccarthy refuted that and told the president that these were trump supporters. He goes right from, theyre not my people to, well, maybe you should listen to him. In 1910, felicity wrote in her famous book, quote, in an everchanging, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would at the same time believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. And the profoundness of the cynicism is sort of the point of the totalitarian subject. Oh, its antifa, no, its patriots, no, its antifa. Who knows. But for a trump supporter to look and see people in maga gear and trump hats, to be like, yes, thats antifa, thats discomforting. But to see the leader of the capitol pushing that lie, and they are shocked they could be accused of such things. Jeff merkle participated in this hearing. He joins me now. No cutaway cameras, but whats it like to read in the record this nonsense, this lie about who was responsible when everyone who was around knows who did it . Chris, we had this opportunity to finally hear from some of the key managers of capitol security, the chief of police, the sergeantatarms, senate and the house. And to have these colleagues try to turn this hearing into lets perpetuate the big myth, the big myth that this had nothing to do with interrupting the vote to prevent trump from failing to become president of the united states. To make sure that joe biden didnt become president. It just its astounding. And it shows the challenge we have in america where social media and Cable Television can get stories out in kind of the trump bubble, media bubble, that is so hard to break into. Have josh hawley or ted cruz ever apologized for what they did on that day . Absolutely not, not to my knowledge. If they whispered an apology in anyones ears, it certainly isnt something that was shared in the senate community. Whats it like to have them there as the sort of ostensibly disinterested, you know, i dont know, judges in a hearing or investigators, as it were, when, you know, that date became that date. It became the site of this largely because of trump but partly because those senators announced they were going to make it a contest. They were going to force these votes, they were going to draw it out and they were going to fight. And thats what the crowd wanted them to do. Ive had echoes of the Impeachment Trial because there we had the senate as jurors, but some of the jurors were folks that who had perpetuated the big lie, let the other senators join them, and there they were in the hearing to continue providing the cover story as if they had no involvement or engagement. This is like an asteroid arriving in outer space rather than something they had prepared in trying to prevent the transfer of power to the newly elected president. It was something i could never have imagined as a young boy growing up in oregon and trying to think of how the different branches of government worked and people in a Competency Proceeding could never imagine this happening here. We just have to keep pushing back and try to put adults back in charge. I felt somewhat frustrated by todays hearing, because i feel like i dont have that much of a clear picture. There is obviously a fair amount of Blame Shifting and score settling and its a complicated situation, and im not really in a great position to sort of secondguess the judgments of these individuals. Its not my area of expertise. Did you have the same feeling, that we left with not a ton of clarity . Absolutely. The basic message that the group of them were presenting was this was an intelligence failure. We were thinking this would be like the million Maga March In November and the second one in december, and we didnt have any indication it would be any different, and those didnt become violent when they were in front of the supreme court, so why would this one become violent . And second of all, when they reached out to get approval from the pentagon to send the National Guard, the pentagon slowlocked it. Those were the two main messages they were conveying. But heres the thing. There was an fbi report the day before reporting on far right extremists, saying this is the moment to stop joe biden from being elected and ensure trump will be elected, that we will fight to the death to make that happen, that there will be blood on the ground, that we must smash windows and smash doors. And that intelligence, when i asked the chief of the capitol police, did that get into your hands, he said, no, it was delivered to a sergeant or delivered it to our intelligence unit, but it never got to me. You would think a manager, the head of the team, would say, im supposed to make sure that the channels of communication for important facts get to me so we can make strategic decisions, and that didnt happen. And thats on me. Because i was in charge. But there was no sense of any of these individuals saying, yeah, i should have done better, we should have drilled. We should have had different strategies where we didnt drill. We should have had more training. We should have had more equipment at a certain point in time. Very little sense that any of these individuals were accepting responsibility for mistakes. And it also points to my mind a need for a larger inquisition or injury. The National Guard is still unclear. We have reports of several officers who have been suspended for actions again, none of this is in one place with information that we know of, and i thank you, jeff merkley, who was in that hearing, thank you very much. Thank you. Did you happen to see this image . This is what it looked like when republican congressman Lauren Boebert just zoomed in yesterday. Thats custom made, thats actually her background. Do you notice Something Different with the bookshelves . There is not just a Stockpile Sitting behind her, there is a deeper meaning to this image. An explicit threat, too. Ill explain right after this. Stick around. Ill explain right after this. Stick around woo you are busy. Working, parenting, problem solving. At new Chapter Vitamins weve been busy too. Innovating, sourcing organic ingredients, testing them and fermenting. Fermenting . Yeah like kombucha or yogurt. And we formulate everything so your body can really truly absorb the natural goodness. 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As weird as this is, its kind of becoming a trend on the right. Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, where guns are welcome on the premises, has built her identity around guns. She carries a glock on capitol hill and released a video to make sure we all knew it. Last week she zoomed into a congressional hearing with guns behind her, laying across a bunch of books. Boebert says theyre ready for use. Apparently she leaves them out because she fears she will need to shoot multiple rounds of ammo for someone who comes into her den . It has not a great history for those around the globe. Osama bin laden liked to pose in front of his guns. Cuba revolutionaries posed with guns all the time, too. You can see it all over the world. It is unquestionably the aesthetic of armed struggle, of revolution. Those who put guns front and center in its political aesthetic is a woman who is engaging in something that we would not call the rhetoric of politics. You cant escape the meaning of it. It communicates that theyre open to at least the possibility of violent overthrow of the government. Now in the Republican Party, it seems like its becoming common and unremarkable. Youll remember Marjorie Taylor greene posed with this gun in her campaign ads next to governmental members of congress. She wears a mask that is ancient greek for come and take them. The message appears to be, if you try to take away our guns, well start shooting. There is this idealogy of the Second Amendment frankly rooted in the fact that the u. S. Government itself denied itself of use of force because the founders had gone through it themselves. Its not true, not now and, for instance, during the Whiskey Rebellion in 1874 when president George Washington got on his horse to violently protest. They use the excuse that they can be violent at any time and theyre willing to brandish that claim as a threat in pursuit of their political aims. Its not some academic thing, right . Right now the threat of violence and menace hangs over our collective political life, from the armed protests in the Michigan State house last spring which included men who, the fbi says, plotted to kidnap and kill the democratic governor to the violent insurrectionists on january 6, some of whom vowed to kill any lawmakers who wouldnt do their bidding. Its become increasingly standard for the most Hardcore Dvts of trump and his faction to, at the very least, wink at the notion that theyre ready to hurt anyone who gets in their way. Sometimes the threat is all too real. Heres one example. Last year an antifeminist attorney who described himself as a trump volunteer murdered the son of a federal judge, esther solace. Nearly killed her. Solace was a target. They were also tracking down chief Justice Sonia sotomayor. When i think about that day, i realize i was watching my only child fade away. Shannon watts is the head of guns for america. With me is david jolley who used to be the republican head and he left office in 2018. Shannon, through my life as political reporter, they carried guns in certain ways. A lot of americans really like guns, they cherish owning them for sport. There seems to be a different thing happening in that Lauren Boebert pose that says Something Different, communicates Something Different. What do you think its doing . You know, its intimidation, pure and simple, right . Thats the point of having these guns behind them. Theyre not saying, you know, we are here to demonstrate our freedom, they are there to threaten our freedom. And thats particularly alarming given that just a month ago, we had armed Insurrectionists Storm The Capitol and they had enough live ammunition to shoot every member of the house and senate five times. So this has nothing to do with selfdefense. This is a dangerous trend that really started on the internet years ago. You may remember, you had moms in action on your show in 2018, and they pulled guns out of their cars and tried to intimidate while they were having lunch, and it was an international story. Now that behavior has become mainstream in many ways because of the nra. It is at worst about owning, and its becoming more and more about causing a second civil war. The symbiotics of it, the meaning of it, to me, david, is really inexplainable. People will say, this is just what i love. This is my hobby or an object that i think is super cool. Its protected by the first amendment. I was like, if you show up at my kids Little League game and you just happen to be sporting the gun you have, were all freaking out. You cant separate the two. I say its even more dire than that. The examples you just gave is the direct correlation between the imagery and a target. Donald trump jr. Talking about teachers unions. Marjorie Taylor Greene with their image of the squad as shes holding The Automatic weapon. With laura boebert, its this battle against the big government. On january 6 we saw them tackle that government, and where theyre leading them to the Second Amendment, thats whats dangerous because it gets to the world when the Oklahoma City bombing happened. There are two deceit this they present. Laura boebert did that in her rant before the Financial Resources committee. She suggested that owning games and taking them into the capitol is an absolute right. Thats not the case. All of our fundamental actions have no cases, including. They know that there is no legislation that would pass the house from joe biden that would take gun ownership from lawabiding citizens their reability to own guns. They reworded it that donald trump has your freedom. There is sort of this idealogy that we saw in richmond. Thousands and thousands of gun owners converged on the capitol with their guns, right . Its a protest and its nonviolent, but when thousands of people carrying guns go to the courthouse, it sends a message. And we need it for selfdefense to, no, i actually want to retain the right to overthrow the government violently. That seems more like a mainstream idea of the court here. Absolutely. Little the logical outcome of allowing gun riss. Moms to action has been sounding the alarm on this. We would go to restaurants and sores and see people overcarrying. The inner a. Then they change their mind and they started to support it. Really, the nra has led us to this moment. They never miss a moment is when they say, we need to be in there. For too long, they have had so much sway in our lawmakers and our loss. David, there is a polling that shows 39 of republicans consider critical violence that there wont. Were also just letting the aftermath to try to stop the peaceful transfer of power. Chris, this is a real life danger of where the Republican Party is today. The first stem until, that the elections are not legitimate. It more easily justifies violent through the use of firearms. That is the danger in. Thank you both for your time. Thank you. You might remember senator ted cruz hopped on a plane to mexico. Beto says, gotta work, man, gotta work. He joins me, next. An, gotta work he joins me, next. He same. Were carefully designing our bottles to be one hundred percent recyclable, including the caps. Theyre collected and separated from other plastics, so they can be turned back into material that we use to make new bottles. That completes the circle, and reduces plastic waste. Please help us get every bottle back. Did you know that every single flush flings odors onto your soft surfaces . That completes the circle, and reduces plastic waste. Then they get release back into the air, so you smell them later. Ew right . Thats why febreze created small spaces. Press firmly and watch it get to work. 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Beto orourke also helped his fellow texans, raising 5 million and went door to door to check on them. I know the weather got a lot warmer, power came back, a bunch of people still with water issues or water damage. Whats it look like there . So, chris, tonight im in the rio grande valley, and i was in an Unincorporated Community called hargill. Its about a thousand residents there. They lost power for four days. Luckily they have that back on now, but theyre still under a boil water notice which means they cannot drink what comes out of the tap, so along with other volunteers we were distributing water there. Folks are recovering, theyre getting their lives back to normal, but they are deeply frustrated as are millions of texans across the state. We have been to san antonio, austin, up to the rural part of north Texas In Rains County where its eight days and counting now and some texans do not have water. Its a manmade mistake, and the men who made it are still in power and have yet to be held accountable for it, and folks want answers. You can feel, in my conversations with texans through last week, this kind of dual sense of, i have to bear down and get through this and figure out a way that my pipes dont explode through my house and make sure my elders are warm, but like a rising rage coming up in everyones throats really across the political spectrum of, how in gods name is this the situation in texas . Its interesting. We were in a small Community Called point, Texas In Rains County in the northern part of the state yesterday. I think its pretty reliably red. One of the people who volunteered with us had a trump make America Great again mask on as we were distributing water. But its interesting, his dad lives on a property that doesnt have Running Water anymore because of the power outage and the failure of the local water utility, and theyre drawing water from the pond on their property to drink. And he said, i used to be concerned about covid, now im concerned about cholera. And this is happening in the 21st century in the wealthiest country on the face of the planet in the Energy Capital of north america. A government has completely failed us. More than ten years of deregulation, decisions made not to weatherize or provide for excess capacity or connect us to the rest of the Electrical Grid has left people out and on their own and has accounted for at least 30 deaths just in the greater houston area, and as you know, an 11yearold boy who died in his trailer home, an eightyearold girl who died next to her mother of Carbon Monoxide poisoning and probably many more deaths you will never know about, and none of them, but none of them, had to happen. As you said in the introduction, folks want to blame ercot and think that if the Board Members resigned, then this is over. It is not. The folks responsible are still in power, and we need to have new people in the positions of public trust to make them, if were not going to have this again, and because of climate change, these incidents will be more severe going forward. We have to change course. What do you see as the fallout politically . Youre saying there is anger and there are Policy Decisions made at the state level. What does that look like and how do you ensure that people dont look at it and move on to other things . I think because of the great reporting youre seeing in texas and because of National Outlets such as yourself, they recognize Governor Abbott appoints to the Public Utility Commission that has the Regulatory Oversight responsibility and power when it comes to ercot. They realize that every member of the Texas Railroad commission which regulates not railroads but the oil, gas and Energy Industry in texas have responsibility for the development and transmission of our Energy Resources that were completely stalled out over the course of the storm. People want answers and they want accountability, and they want to know that this is not going to happen to them again. The worst part about this, of course, has been the loss of life. But you mentioned the broken pipes, which have been produced flooding in peoples homes, mold on the drywall that has to be pulled out. So far the most expensive storm in texas history. Then to add insult to injury, you have people who got bills for 17,000, schools with a 10,000 onemonth Electricity Bill that is in no way her fault. She shouldnt have to pay that. Thats up to the State Government to pay that. We should know the president is going down to houston on friday to survey the aftermath. Former congressman beto orourke in the rio grande valley, thanks for making some time for us tonight. Ahead the cultural counterculture wars are on America Uncancelled it would be a shame if they had to cancel cpac because of some tweets, wouldnt it . Thats next. Tweets, wouldnt it . Thats next. Or it isnt. For those who never settle, its either mercedesbenz certified preowned. Or it isnt. The mercedesbenz certified preowned sales event. Now through march 1st. Shop online or drop by your local dealer today. As carla wonders if she can retire sooner, shell revisit her plan with fidelity. And with a scenario that makes it a possibility, shell enjoy her dream right now. Thats the planning effect, from fidelity. Woo you are busy. Working, parenting, problem solving. Right now. At new Chapter Vitamins weve been busy too. Innovating, sourcing organic ingredients, testing them and fermenting. Fermenting . Yeah like kombucha or yogurt. And we formulate everything so your body can really truly absorb the natural goodness. Thats what we do, so you can do you. New chapter wellness, well done. Theres half a million dead from the pandemic and millions hungry, President Trump focused in on counterculture. We understand theyre cancelling culture. Were not letting them cancel counterculture. Were witnessing the Counterculture Purge being kicked into overdrive here. Counterculture is real. Its very dangerous. This is the number one issue for the country to address today. The number one issue for the country to address today. He said that like a week ago. The menace of counterculture is so important, its felt so intensely, that the whole theme of this years conservative cpac conference, the event is america even activists have some lines about what kinds of speech are acceptable and what just arent. Mostly conservatives are mad that nonconservatives are drawing lines they just dont agree with. You can probably see where this is going. How long do you think it took the America Uncanceled conference to themselves cancel someone . Cpac tweeted, we have just learned that someone we invited to cpac has expressed reprehensible views that have no home with our conference or our organization. The individual will not be participating in our conference. With them going unnamed there, that could have referred to many Cpac Speakers that express different views. Thats sort of the whole point of cpac. They canceled a rapper named young pharaoh. He is push to go his social media with posts saying judaism is not real along with antisemitic views. He had been asked to speak on sunday afternoon before the keynote speaker, a man who was canceled by america who said he would only appear if the pharaoh didnt. The man who helped with the insurrection in the capitol . He gets a keynote. How many would still be with us if it werent for the failures of President Trump. Thats next. Failures of President Trump. Thats next. For People Living with hiv, keep being you. And ask your doctor about biktarvy. Biktarvy is a complete, onepill, onceaday treatment used for hiv in certain adults. Its not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights hiv to help you get to and stay undetectable. Thats when the amount of virus is so low it cannot be measured by a lab test. Research shows people who take hiv treatment every day and get to and stay undetectable can no longer transmit hiv through sex. Serious side effects can occur, including Kidney Problems and kidney failure. Rare, lifethreatening side effects include a buildup of lactic acid and liver problems. Do not take biktarvy if you take dofetilide or rifampin. Tell your doctor about all the medicines and supplements you take, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, or if you have kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis. If you have hepatitis b, do not stop taking biktarvy without talking to your doctor. Common side effects were diarrhea, nausea, and headache. If youre living with hiv, keep loving who you are. And ask your doctor if biktarvy is right for you. I took out this personal loan with sofi and it significantly helped me lower the amount of interest i was paying. Sofi helped me pay off 23,000 of credit card debt. And i just couldnt have done it without them. Sofi helped me pay off 23,000 of credit card debt. My hygienist cleans with a round head, so does my oralb. My hygienist personalizes my cleaning, so does my oralb. My hygienist uses just the right pressure, and so does my oralb. Oralb combines a dentistinspired brush head with the gentle energy of microvibrations for the wow of a professional clean feel every day. My mouth says wow and so does my oralb. Covids still a threat. And on reopening schools, we know what happens when we dont put safety first. Ignore proper ventilation or rates of community spread, and the virus worsens. Fail to provide masks or class sizes that allow for social distancing, and classrooms close back down. A successful reopening requires real safety and accountability measures. Including prioritizing vaccines for educators. Parents and educators agree reopen schools. Putting safety first. Tonight congressional leaders gathered at the steps of the capitol to commemorate the half million americans who have now died from covid19. Cases are now trending down. Were still losing over 1,000 People Per Day on a weekly average. 2,000 just recorded today. And it is always worth remembering, important to remember, it did not have to be this way. Two examples, the u. S. And south korea both recorded their first covid cases on the same day at the end of january last year. South korea immediately rolled out large scale testing, masks, the u. S. Did not. Theres a chart. The blue line is the united states, soaring, peaking throughout the year. The bottom line is south korea. If the u. S. Had followed the same trajectory, if we had the same number of deaths per cam at a, we would have lost about 10,000 Americans Inted of five him,000. While it is possible to know how many would have been saved if the Previous Administration had taken it seriously, it is pretty cheer their actions caused irreparable harmful. The people who wanted to deny that this is something that was serious, when you get a signal from above that it might not be, then you dont do the kinds of things you need to do. I still have flashing in my mind those scenes when we were trying to tell people to really be careful, and what you see on television at night, people crowded at bars, inside, no masks. It was just asking for trouble. And in fact, thats what we got. A lot of trouble. President joe biden trying to undo the damage to bring the pandemic to a close by vaccinating the population, but basically doing everything the last administration didnt. Like setting an example, wearing a mask, asking americans to social distance. Not listening to junk science. I think theres a growing awareness that Injecting Bleach into your system doesnt do it for you. Im being serious. Think about all the ridiculous things. There is online still, there are those who are the vaccine deniers. Yes. And telling all these stories that arent true. It will take a lot to change the trajectory that has unfolded in america over the last year. To talk about what is so wrong, what needs to be done to make it right. One of joe bidens advisers of the Global Health council, its great to have you. We talked about south korea in the intro. They were an a plus student. They had one of the best responses in the world. Throughout the pacific, across governments and with different forums and institutions, vietnam, hong kong, china, new zealand, they all did a good job. Even if you compare us to the European Union or canada, where do we stack up . Where is the u. S. In our response if you just look at these atlantic countries. I can appreciate the laundry list of countries that were ahead of us in their own response. And i think it is important to step back and not just look at the 500 the milestone that we hit yesterday with 500,000 deaths, which is Heart Breaking and infuriating, but even thinking about what that means in the scope of the rest of the world. The u. S. Is taking up, or counting for 20 of global deaths. 25 of cases, that makes month sense given we arent even 5 of the worlds population. So in addition to the countries you mentioned, you have a host of others that have demonstrated that leadership matters. It is critically important that no matter what you know, you have to do right by the people youre serving. And thats frankly what we didnt see in this past year with this pandemic. How much should we think about this . There are a few things that make america exceptional, distinct here. One is donald trump was president. Then theres the nature of americas general baseline health, particularly Health Inequities that there there before donald trump, and the degree on which murks Public Health infrastructure is not that good. Where do you apportion the blame . I wonder if it is across equally across each of those. It was certainly a probable before 2020. We knew Health Disparities were a thing regardless of the last year. So youre right. Our solution has to be focused on not only correcting mistakes, placing blame, we have to go back and dig into the roots of this problem and understand how we ended up with rates of hospitalizations and deaths two to three times in certain communities, particularly in black, brown, indigenous communities. Thats unconscionable and we see the trend worldwide. Where black and brown both are suffering with the impact of this. I want to ask you, is that a sociological fact . Or a Policy Leadership Fact . I think it is absolutely tied to policy. We know that Public Health is of course scientifically based on its own, in its own right but we are powerless without the policy. And without political leadership. I guess i mean, do you think it is policy specific to the u. S. Covid response . I agree with you, it is clearly policy. We make choices to have racial inequities. We make them every day. But those racial inequities, that they put people on the front line in so many ways. Whether it was the work they do or the comorbidities that were produced by the environments in which they live and the access to health care they had before, or it was like the guy at the top was Injecting Bleach was the solution, and telling people to get out there like they were warriors. Yeah. And i think it is both and. Not either or. It is hard to choose one or the other. The leadership or the lack there of was not helpful. Lets be clear. Right . We really needed our government and people from the very top on down to step up. And im grateful for the career staff and others who really held the line. Who really ensured that people still had correct information. Because it is a very real thing were fighting against and it is harder to catch up when all of that is out there. It is critical that now there is a plan for not just Vaccine Distribution but testing and tracing. This is what other countries did right as well. You had even in the u. K. Which struggled in its response when these variants emerged. The fact that they were able to identify them and address them is critical. Those are the types of systems we didnt have in place and were just playing catch up. Right. And i think those systems, we will get to a point where we have vaccination, suppression, at some point this season. But there will be next fall and winter, there will be ways in which we have to battle it and well need the systems in place then particularly. Absolutely. And i would even say, we dont really quite understand the virus fully to know that we have even that long to wait. So were still saying it is critically important to practice the Public Health measures, regardless. Where we are in the calendar. Until we can catch up, it will continue to beat us. Yeah. Thats an important point. Like weve got it, hold on. It is the end of a car ride where youve been fine for the nine hours and now the last 10, 15, 20 minutes just seem unbearable. I think a lot of people, with just a certain. A consistent messaging we all need. Yeah. And i understand that people are tired, too. I mean, i do this for a living and i am exhausted. Not just because of getting up every day trying to fight this thing because i too miss my friends and family and i too wish this was all over. It just isnt. And we do have a ways to go. I have faith that we can continue to stand strong and understand that we made it through tough times before, frankly, as a country. We pride ourselves only and it sounds rather cliche. We can do it. Hang in there. Thank you for making time. Thats all for this evening. Rachel maddow starts now. Good evening, my friend. Much appreciated. Thank you for joining thus hour. A lot to get to this hour after what has been a rll