reasons for optimism. plus the u.s. is implementing a new travel restriction as the omnicron covid variant emerges. and all three men were found guilty of murder in the killing of ahmaud arbery this week. i'm ayman mohyeldin. let's get started. all right. so, america, the land of the free and home of the brave. but is it also now the home of a back sliding democracy? a report this week labeled the united states as undergoing a considerably severe and deliberate form of democratic erosion. it joins other countries like india and brazil as as well as more than a quarter of the world's population who now fall under the back sliding category. unt national ideas, global state of democracy says they are seeing an increasing number of democratically elected government utilizing totalitarian tactics, taking this course of manipulating media and restricting civil liberties. authoritarianism is on the rise, pure and simple. just look at the january 6th insurrection and the partisan politics crippling our country. republicans just won a statewide election in spite of january 6th. the republican controlled gerrymandering puts them in a position to win big in the 2022 mid-terms. all indications are trump is planning a 2022 run armed by stay laws that make it easier to overturn election results. there should be no question our democracy is at risk, right? well, maybe not if you ask democratic voters. a surprising new survey on election security found that only 35% of democrats say they feel democracy in america is facing a major threat. i know what you're thinking. how can that be possible? the answer may be that they're just simply exhausted from everything we lived through after a long and arduous four years, living through political turmoil and a pandemic, the 2020 election was supposed to be a new beginning. but as new presidential approval ratings show, discontent is far from over and some voters are responding by withdrawing from the process all out. as written in the the "new york times" this week, quote, i worry about progressives retreating into private life to preserve their sanity, a retreat that will only hasten democracy's decay. in order to get people to throw themselves into the fight to save this broken country, we need leaders who can convince them they haven't already lost." it's a fine line between convincing voters that american democracy is truly at risk without also filling them with a sense of despair. however, there is some good news in all of this and some progress to spark a little bit of hope. that same state of democracy report notes that protests and civic action are still alive and well with global social movements for tackling things like climate change and fighting racial inequalities and actually coming out strong despite the u.s. joining the list of back sliding democracies, the report concludes that global democracy remains resilient. but what will it take to keep our democracy? joining me now is michelle goldberg, the "new york times" columnist and rick hassan, professor of law of political science with the u.c. irvine school of law. michelle, there seems to be as you've written a lot of despair, a sense of exhaustion and perhaps even a sense of defeat among some that things are simply not improving. you write in a piece for "the new york times" this week we need leaders who can convince voters that they haven't already lost the fight for democracy. what kind of leadership do you think we need and what are we not seeing from the leaders we currently have? >> well, so i think the problem isn't just that things aren't improving but that republicans are creating structures where even if things do improve, even if democrats win back public sentiment, that won't be enough, right? through gerrymandering and capturing all of these key electoral offices that will be necessary to throw a future presidential election into chaos, if not outright overturning the will of the voters, they're under the structures of our democracy are being rigged or disassembled. and so at some point, you know, it really will mean that if we don't act very, very soon, if this congress doesn't exact, which so far it's been unable to do because joe manchin and kirsten sinema are averse to the filibuster, republicans are locking in their advantage for the next decade at least. >> rick, to that point, just how aware are we as a country of the moment that we find ourselves in. you write and i think it's interesting, you wrote this week that you're not sure what's more troubling about the latest polling numbers, that so many republicans believe it's at risk, i believe the number is 71 to be precise or so few democrats as i mentioned close to 30% view our democracy at risk. >> i think we're in a very difficult situation. republicans -- many republicans who follow donald trump believe that the 2020 election was stolen and that means they might be willing to cut corners or do things that might lead to a stolen election in 2024. that would be payback for what they believe happened last time. and democrats seem asleep at the wheel. the fact that we're coming up to the anniversary of january 6th and this is just kind of forgotten. i don't put all the blame on democrats. it was republicans who followed trump. there were well over 100 members of congress who voted not to certify the election results out of pennsylvania after this violent insurrection but democrats have not made this a priority, it's a hard story to tell. people are exhausted. i'm worried by the time people wake up, it's going to be too late. it's going to require concerted social action, cooperation among business, among civic groups, among universities, among all people who want to have free and fair elections. >> it wasn't too long ago that we were considered a world leader in democracy. some are saying and if you watch right-wing media, you would think covid has been a triggering mechanism for authoritarianism in this country. that's the narrative that republicans are pushing out there, that it's overreach by the american government and authoritarianism creeping in. you were saying it appears to be republican-controlled state legislators trying to impede our access to polls and our ability to vote freely and overturn the results of an election. where do you see the biggest threat to our democracy at this moment? >> well, i think it's two-fold. i think it's gerrymandering and it gives republicans such a lock on state houses that they could use in 2024. again, it's like basically all of the institutions of our government are becoming less responsive to the will of the voters. obviously i don't think that there's anything authoritarian about the government taking kind of aggressive public health measures to contain a pandemic, but where i do think that covid has contributed to this slide into authoritarianism is really by breaking people, by causing so much social pain, so much dislocation, so much fear that it's really i think fundamentally shaken people's faith in a lot of their institutions. >> rick, when we talk about what the president has delivered in his first 11 months in office, ten months in office, it's quite remarkable, record spending, some specific pieces of legislation directly impacting and helping the american people. we are doing better off than we were last year on so many different front. we're going to talk about at that later in the program. why is this in some ways not translating to a favorable polling for the president and this administration right now? >> i'm not an expert on polling but i do think there's an exhaustion and the fact that we're still living with this pandemic, even as things have gotten better, makes just the conditions in the country, people don't feel like we're moving in the right direction. that is really something that is very closely related to the president's approval. if you think that things are going the wrong way, even if they're going okay personally for you and the continued polarization and civic strife and constant bickering and polarization convinces people to tune out of politics. when they don't see things looking like they did, say, before donald trump, i think people are unhappy about that. i think that's a big part. although joe biden has delivered somewhat for his agenda, there's a lot that was promised by democrats early on that has not been delivered, including, as i michelle mentioned, voting reform, which was something that was at the top of the agenda. >> it was the top of the agenda and promised to black voters and the voters who delivered the white house to the presidency specific there doom for 2022 if they don't feel they're getting any deliverables, any meaningful way to save the democracy. the administration, perhaps the democrats broadly speaking are not meeting the moment in dealing with that threat and so they just throw their hands up and not turn out to vote? >> yeah, i think you're likely to see that on two levels. i mean, look, turnout is still likely to be high. people are highly engaged in politics because we're in a time of extreme, you know, strife and polarization. i think you could feel a falloff both among marginal voters and then among the activists and can canvassers and people involved in turning out those marginal voters. >> thank you both. i appreciate you spending your holiday weekend with us. >> a new l.a. times investigation uncovers viral disinformation. what did they know and when did they know it next. nd when did they know it next. et's wrap thi, it's walgreens season. as someone who resembles someone else, i appreciate that liberty mutual knows everyone's unique. that's why they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. 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here to discuss this and more is an infectious disease physician and msnbc medical contributor. first of all, how do you pro pronounce the omnicron variant? >> you got it right. >> let's talk a little bit about these variants and the name here for a moment. the world health organization names these variants based on the greek alphabet. there is speculation whether the latter was to avoid offense to chinese president xi jinping. the agency say nu sounded too much like the word new and xi is a common name and they didn't want to cause cultural offense to anyone with that name. tell us what in a means and why this latest strain has people so worried, based on what we know about it so far from the medical science. >> i was going to say the most important part of the story is less the name and really the concern is that because of where it was first detected, south africa has excellent genomics and researchers. they started to see a huge surge in cases when. they examined the cases, they saw this new variant, now the omnicron variant. looking at the genetic code that can give greater transmissibility, the ability for one person to pass it on much more easily to others. however, this is all observational and so the next two weeks what we're likely to see, you know, we've raised a specter of concern. the next two weeks you'll see laboratory data looking to see if it basis the way we expect it to based on its mutations and also to get a better sense of how it appears in patients. we don't currently know anything about the disease it causes, whether it's any different than delta or the initial strains that we've been dealing with. >> let's talk a little bit about the response to it based on what we know to this point. basically as you've seen, as i've just mentioned, the travel ban has been imposed on south africa. south africans and others from countries from south africa can't travel to other countries as early as monday, if not already. you've already had strains of this virus pop up in the united kingdom, in belgium, in germany, in the netherlands, in israel, none of those countries are part of a travel ban. so they could very well get on a plane with that variant and come to the united states. those in south africa with the same variant cannot travel. smart move or what do you make of it? >> yeah, i think you painted the exact picture of why travel bans have had limited use with fast-moving respiratory viruses. by the time you put a ban in place, there are probably cases in the united states we just haven't discovered yet. if these cases are now in many different places, you want to be consistent not just internationally but also domestically potentially to spread you want to put in sensible travel measures, such as making sure everybody is vaccinated and has been tested, particularly for international travel and at least vaccinated domestically. on the other hand, as you very rightly said at the very beginning, one way to stop the spread or potentially decrease new variants is to actually increase the number of, a, the amount of vaccines we get out to the world that are undervaccinated still. >> let me talk about that. the omnicron first found in south africa doesn't mean it originated there. south africa has some of the world's top epidemiologists and scientists and good a good job tracking. "excellent science should be applauded and not punished" and that the travel bans were akin to punishing south africa for its advantaged genome sequencing." messaging has been a huge hurdle this pandemic. you know that better than anyone. what kind of message, the way the u.s. has responded, send it to other countries in the fight with us in trying to detect these new genomes? will they be fearful about releasing information about a new strain if they feel they are being punished or being retaliated against just simply because they detected this new mutation? >> the irony is immense in the situation because south africa is basically being punished for being the country that actually found the strain, identified it and raised the alarm. and i completely agree with you. the issue here is going to be particularly available response to different regions of the world, even though the strain has been seen in many parts of the world. instead it makes sense to have consistent science-based approach for vaccinations and testing and we want to identify travelers who might have it. it's going to discourage other countries that potentially might discover this or might just notice that cases are going up from sharing this because they're going to be afraid to have travel bans that have an economic impact on their population as well. >> there was an interesting dynamic with south africa, south africa did not have a problem with the supply of vaccine eens but if internally within its own country or whether it's because of vaccine hesitancy or whether it did not have the ability to administer the overwhelming majority of vaccines it had. there was also the vaccine hesitancy because of the data initially involving blood clots with johnson & johnson and astrazeneca. talk to us a little bit about what needs to happen for a country like south africa to be able to administer the vaccines and make sure they have the resources they need to properly get the shots in people's arms. >> i'm going to start by saying again what you said earlier was that we don't know where this virus originated. and the concern is that again in areas that are undervaccinated, there might be higher chances of transmission. in all the countries that are undervaccinated, the challenges are different. in some it is the supply and others it's trying to get to the last mile. and then lastly just as we're dealing with here at home, vaccine hesitancy from misinformation and disinformation, the best way, the quickest way in which your countries can help is with that last mile pull back the wpo utility that's been part of that money is supposed to help with in a last mile, supposed to help with that vaccine uptake. that's the way we can most quickly help. the other is to make sure we continue to make sure the donations that are currently designated, only half donated and half of the eu donations have made it out to where they need to be so far. >> it's always good to see you, doctor. thank you for sansing some of our questions. coming up, switching gears. all three men were found guilty of murder for killing ahmad arbery this week. that's next. this week that's next. cough cough sneez. 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>> yeah, you are know, it surprised me because we never see verdicts like this. we rarely see these verdicts they're very, very rare for black men in america to have any semblance of justice when it comes to be shot in the streets by police or pedestrian folks out and about. i do have a glimmer of hope. i know the judge said he hoped this verdict would allow us to be on the path of healing. even when trials like this, the fact that we're having this trial shows there's so much much to do. this is still a huge issue we need to solve and the fact that their lawyer said after the verdict this is a really hard day for these men because they thought they were doing the right thing even after all of this evidence shows you there's still a huge gulf we need to connect here america to make people know that just because you see a black man running down the street does not mean you can kill him and get away with it. >> and the trial brought out the fault lines particularly around race. i want to play some of the arguments made by laura hogue, the defense attorney for one of the mcmichaels. watch this moment. >> turning ahmaud arbery into a victim after the choices that he made does not reflect the reality of what brought ahmaud arbery to the shores in his khaki shorts with no socks to cover his long, dirty toenails. >> so a very disturbing moment there. she was clearly playing on racist tropes. what do those type of ignorant comments say about the state of our criminal justice system? was that a dog whistle message to the mostly white jury? was she thinking that if she played this racist stereotype and played on these racist tropes she could perhaps invoke something out of this white jury, mostly white jury? >> i mean, it wasn't a dog whistle, it was a dog horn that was very loud. i heard it all the way in california. it's an awful thing she was doing there by using subtle racist tropes to subconsciously color in the mind of the jurors who were white that ahmaud deserved this because he was dirty in some way. we saw it similar with george zimmerman over a decade ago where his lawyers brought in a neighbor who was white to talk about how a black man robbed her house to had no connection to trayvon martin. we see attorneys using racism as dog whistles constantly to wink to jurors and say you know how this is, this is america and sometimes protecting white people means hurting black people. >> and speaking on what we saw earlier as well, it was last week that the kyle rittenhouse verdict came down. he was acquitted after fatally shooting two people last summer. you wrote you didn't bother watching that trial because you knew how it was going to end. tell me about that decision, how you reached that conclusion. >> yeah. so i've been covering cases like this for a long time. i was a chicago reporter for "the guardian" covering crimes, i've been to lots of trials similar to this. i was watching it in the news but i did not want to watch the trial because it just felt very quickly how this was a trial in which we were seeing a young white boy being treated like a young white person, like a child, while black people and even the while men that were protesting that did eventually die due to rittenhouse were not given any form of grace because they believed in black reparation. the system is built for kyle rittenhouse to get off and i knew that was going to happen. for me as i said in the column, it was a fool's errand to watch it. i did watch the closing arguments. again, we're seeing a case that is incredibly bipartisan that really is its own dog whistle to the world to say we as white people that don't believe that black lives matter can be protected and that this is our right but black people don't have the right to breathe or walk down the street or jog. so the rittenhouse case in conversation with the ahmaud case is the moment to look at the symbolism to tell us about this american moment right now. >> speaking of where and how we began this, can you believe it's been nearly ten years since the killing of trayvon martin that we mentioned at the top of the segment? you can say that was the beginning of the black lives matter movement. what message do you have for people after the rittenhouse verdict and arbery's killers? are you finding any reasons for optimism? >> you know, i am honestly. i know we're having conversations like this. ten years ago we would not have had this segment back then. "the new york times" even kind of called mike brown, when was still in ferguson a thug. we're saying that ahmad was murdered, these are killers. i have hope in that. i think people should remember the march towards justice in america in the world isn't a specific point on the map you're going to reach, eight daily practice. every day i do see more and more people showing up for black life, in fighting for justice. i think the arbery family spoke about that a lot at the end of the trial, that people did show up for them. that's where i find hope that we do see people showing up and naming it. in the arbery case this was a lynching in many ways and now that justice has been found, it's great for america. >> i made the point on twitter earlier in the week when i saw the verdict wondering how many ahmaud arberys that were out there, had the district attorney been able to successfully convince the police not to make any arrest. it's a reminder of how much harder we have to work in this country to make sure things like this do not happen. i greatly appreciate your insights. coming up in this week's "that's what they said," one colorado news anchor did not mince words when it comes to the congresswoman's behavior. don't go anywhere. s behavior don't go anywhere. make your nights anything but silent. and ride in a sleigh that really slays. because in a cadillac, tradition is yours to define. so visit a cadillac showroom, and start celebrating today. ♪ ♪ people with moderate to severe psoriasis, or psoriatic arthritis, are rethinking the choices they make like the splash they create the way they exaggerate the surprises they initiate. otezla. it's a choice you can make. otezla is not an injection or a cream it's a pill that treats differently. for psoriasis, 75% clearer skin is achievable, with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. for psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. and the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. it may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. tell your doctor about your medicines and if you're pregnant or planning to be. otezla. show more of you. (vo) the more we do with our phones, the more network quality and reliability matter.egnant or planning to be. and only verizon has been the most awarded for network quality 27 times in a row. that means the best experience with calls, texts and data usage of any major carrier, according to customers. there's only one best network. the only one ranked #1 in reliability 16 times in a row. we are building 5g right. in tonight's edition of "that's what they said," colorado's 9 news anchor kyle clark tore into lauren boebert. watch. >> it's time we acknowledge something that may be obvious by now. we hold republican congresswoman lauren boebert to a different standard than every other elected official in colorado. we hold congresswoman boebert to a far lower standard. if we held her to the same standard as every other elected republican and democrat in colorado, we would be hear near night live chronicling the cruel, false and bigoted things that boebert says for attention and fund-raising. this is not about politics, assuming politics is still about things like taxes, national security, health care, jobs and public lands. this is about us as journalists, recognizing that we'll hold a politician accountable if they say something vile once but we won't do it if they do it every day. our double standard is unfair to all the elected officials in colorado, republicans and democrats, who display human decency. so boebert is in the news again this week for more controversial remarks, this time involving her colleague representative. we're going to cover all of this and much more with our saturday night panel in the next hour. you're not going to want to miss it. stick around. ♪ limu emu... & doug ♪ ♪ superpowers from a spider bite? i could use some help showing the world how liberty mutual customizes their car insurance so they only pay for what they need. (gasps) ♪ did it work? only pay for what you need ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ spider-man no way home in theaters december 17th wayfair's biggest cyber monday ever is now on. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ yes! score unbelievable savings. like area rugs up to 80% off. living room seating up to 70% off. and ge appliances up to 40% off. plus tons more limited-time deals. and free shipping on thousands of products. our cyber monday is happening now through december 3rd. shop the event of the season. only at wayfair.com ♪ wayfair you've got just what i need ♪ so earlier this year a nielsen report found latino audiences are more likely to receive, consume and share misinformation online compared to the general populations. a huge platform for that fake news-facebook. and now the l.a. teams spent months trying to set up a meeting with facebook to discuss the company's lack of action in combatting misinformation aimed at latino and spanish speaking users. when gonzalez finally had that meeting, she left with more questions than answers. she told the l.a. times she was met with a bunch of empty promises and a lack of detail. what gonzalez didn't know was that behind the scene, facebook employes had been sounding alarm bells of their own. internal documents unearthed last month by the facebook whistleblower revealed the company knew disinformation on its platform was particularly corrosive to latino communities yet they did little to stop it. jessica gonzalez, co-ceo of free press joins me now. it's great to have you with us. you had that meeting with facebook just before the 2020 election. with the release of these documents, they clearly knew more than they were letting on. do you feel you were lied to by the company at the time that you met with them? >> yes. i feel that we are repeatedly lied to by facebook or that they are failing to disclose all the information that they knew. we ask basic questions about how spanish language content moderation was working at the company. how many moderators do they have. where do they live? what do the training materials look like? we were met with utter silence on those issues. we were told they were doing their best. come to find out they knew exactly how high risk the problem was, how low their readiness was to address the problem ahead of the 2020 elections and they decided to do nothing. >> bare with me here for a second because i want to show our viewers how blatant this disparity is and we'll put this up on the screen. last year a facebook post claiming dead people voted in nevada in the 2020 election went around on the platform. those posts in english are marked as false information. the very same post in span ush spanish with hundreds of shares is still on the web site today with no label whatsoever. what kind of message does this send to latino communities? is facebook simply here saying their access to trusted information matters less if you're a latino or spanish speaking consumer of their platform? >> yes, that's what this indicates. they have serially underinvested in keeping nonenglish speakers safe on the platform. so that's true for spanish speakers but it also true for any nonenglish speaker on the platform. that's what some of the documents show, that facebook has underinvested in all nonenglish languages. it's incredibly offensive. i'm here in california. california is an extremely high population of latinos. facebook, you're headquartered here. they were on notice that this was a problem. we kept raising it to them and they just simply didn't act, despite the fact that latinos were being targeted not just in voter suppression with voter suppression campaigns but also with efforts to undermine the census. >> yeah. and speaking of that whistleblower testimony, i want to play a small section of this for our viewers. this is from last month. watch this. >> based on what i saw in terms of allocation of integrity spending, so one of the things disclosed in the wall street journal is 87% of the spending is spent on english, but only 9% of the users are. facebook invests more on users that make more money. >> i mean, that is just absolutely mind blowing. it is just staggering to think that 87% of spending is being spent on just 9% of users. and the truth is facebook is a huge company. this is not about a lack of resources in a company like facebook. why do you think they're allocating so little attention to languages outside of english. i mean, what is the danger that poses when only 9% of users are getting 87% of the spending on this kind of fact checking? >> the simple answer is they haven't been forced. they haven't been held accountable, right? in germany they passed a law required 3,000 content moderators be located in germany. i'm not saying we need much a law but we do absent more accountability. i think the danger here is there are very targeted efforts to disrupt democracy, to undermine our basic rights to vote. and facebook has not done enough to protect us here in the united states but abroad as well. the un found that facebook played a contributing role in the genocide in myanmar. that does have a lot to do with facebook's underinvestment in language. so the threats here are many. it is a threat to our democracy. it is a threat to public health and safety. covid disinformation, vaccine disinformation as ram ped in non-english languages across facebook and its other platforms. and genocide, all these other mass atrocities happening around the world. facebook has to take a really good look at what real they're underinvestment is playing in those atrocities. >> it seems like it is something congress is still struggling to grapple with. thank you so much for your time. we'll continue to follow this story as it unfolds. still ahead, less than six months before the french presidential election, one possible far right candidate is upending the race. i will discuss that next. don't go anywhere. ere. just a . unlike other cold medicines, coricidin provides powerful cold relief without raising your blood pressure be there for life's best moments with coricidin. now in sugar free liquid. bogeys on your six, limu. they need customized car insurance from liberty mutual so they only pay for what they need. woooooooooooooo... we are not getting you a helicopter. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ - [narrator] every three minutes, a child is born with a cleft condition. in the us, children are healed at birth. but in parts of the world where the right medical care doesn't exist, children like lexi struggle to speak or eat. without surgery, some will die. those who do survive face extreme challenges. together, we can change this. operation smile works to heal children born with cleft conditions. with volunteer medical teams in more than 30 countries worldwide, we need you. there are still millions in dire need of healing. go to operationsmile.org today and become a monthly supporter. help create new smiles and new futures. but act now. children are waiting. go online to operationsmile.org to give monthly or call. 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