>> if people actually believe that it's all political, how will we survive? how will the court survive? a surprise announcement from jeffrey clark as the january 6 committee makes a move toward a second contempt referral. the damning implications of new reports that the former president had covid way longer than we knew, including at the debate. >> tonight is an example, everybody had a test. you have had social distancing. >> why the current president has a compelling case, the economy is actually doing pretty well. "all in" starts right now. good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes. today we find ourselves in a moment in american history where it appears we about to move backwards. poised for regression on basic fundamental rights. poised to watch a space of freedom and autonomy shut down that had been protected. most of the story of american history is told as one of progress. there's a case for that. the expanding of rights that protect people in larger circle circles. of course, it's not a steady march. these moments of reaction the shutting off of rights, foreclosing of freedom has happened before. it happened after the civil war when the redemption movement of white supremacists wiped out advancements. after the war, black people registered to vote, were elected to local office. they had those rights taken away through law and force and terrorist violence. in 1882, the chinese exclusion act became law. chinese migrants had flocked to the united states in previous decades, many helping build the railroads, becoming part of american society. the government decided they didn't want them anymore. they prohibited all chinese laborers from entering the country. we had prohibition, the product of decades of organizing. americans from the countrycount inception had the right to drink alcohol. that was stripped away in what is viewed as a cataclysmic mistake. now something more fundamental, american women are at a dire risk of losing the right to an abortion. the core of the supreme court decision that enshrined that, there's a notion that there are some spheres of human activity in which no constitutionally grounded government can interfere. the idea was built up through many years, especially with the case called pierce versus society of sisters in 1925, dealing with the question of whether religious people can opt out of public schools, choose to educate their children in parochial schools instead. there was an oregon law that compelled parents to send their kids to secular schools. the court rules in favor of the parents that didn't want to do that. the government couldn't intervene in that situation. the court called that an unreasonable interference with the liberty of the parents. it violates the 14th amendment right to due process. that decision, an important one, expanded the idea that there exists a category of personal freedom so fundamental and intimate that even if not explicitly protected by the constitution it cannot be touched without violating our broader due process protections. in 1973, building off of that precedent and others rooted in privacy of couples, their rights to contraception without interference from the government, the supreme court ruled the constitution protected the incredibly intimate choice about what to do with one's own body and pregnancy. the nearly 50 years since then, they have reared an action to take that away. today, they are on the threshold of success. this morning, the supreme court hear oral arguments asking to uphold a mississippi law that would ban almost all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. if they allow it would stand, they would be overturning roe and the right to have an abortion until the point of viability, about 24 weeks of pregnancy. if the right to body autonomy, to choose to terminate a pregnancy is taken away, what comes in its absence is effectively a de facto regime of forced pregnancy. that's what conservatives have been fighting for for decades. in the past, they have been squirrely about saying it outright. there's been so much gaslighting and nonsense about claiming they were concerned about that anyone concerned about protecting abortion rights was overreacting and hysterical. they wanted to regulate hallway widths and keep women safe and listen to a heartbeat before they decide what to do. they pretended they believe roe was settled law. come on, susan collins claims that's what brett told her. nothing here but us chickens. what was striking about the arguments we heard today is that for the most part, contrary to all that gaslighting nonsense, the disingenuous misdirection that we are so used to, is that the anti-abortion side was no longer really hiding their true -- they are so confident that the three justices appointed by trump -- mississippi is confident those justice wills rule in their favor. they were clear as day. they don't just want that upheld with 16 weeks. they want roe overturned. they want to take this right away from americans who have had it for generations. they want to kill roe and they want to kill the 1992 decision that upheld it. this is a portion of the opening argument from the mississippi solicitor general, scott stewart. >> while the justices are not as open about their positiopositio brett kavanaugh did lay out a way to overrule previous settled decisions. >> justice sonia sotomayor. >> to be clear, conservatives are trying to take away a right americans have had nearly five decades. the right of body autonomy about what to do with their body. if the supreme court rules in mississippi's favor, that right to body autonomy would be wiped out for millions almost immediately. 22 states have laws that would outlaw abortion. most of the so-called trigger laws are designed to go into affect if roe is gutted. we are looking at a situation in which next summer when the decision is expected, overnight tens of millions of americans could be under forced pregnancy regimes. erin and melissa are here. there's so much to sift through here. i want to segregate out a few different issues. let's start with the arguments themselves on the legal ground of roe and whether roe should stand or fall. the main takeaway of people was like, yeah, they are ready to do this. i'm curious, melissa, if that was your takeaway. >> i think i was a little surprised by how willing and open they seem to be about their appetite to overrule roe. as i have said before on this and other programs, this decision is likely to come out within months of the midterm elections. typically, that might give the court pause. the prospect of american women going to the polls with roe's death on their lips would concern among others the chief justice. it seemed like there was uniform glee, appetite, zeal to actually go whole hog for the nuclear option. even the chief justice, the institutional justice, said he was ready to take the final step. >> what was your takeaway? >> the conservative legal movement made a deal on the theory it would get them closer to imposing traditional gender roles by forcing pregnancy and birth. they were right. the deal that they made was in 2016. that was the election that decided the course of american women and pregnant people's lives. that was the decision that allowed them to get these three justices. when chief justice john roberts talked about compromise, something the media ran with today, despite the fact it didn't look like he had any company there, he sounded like he was a man from another time. there was a point where the conservative legal movement for the first few decades realized that they risked backlash on the court and with the public if they went too far too fast. today made it clear that they no longer believe that. they believe they have the votes to brazenly go for the entire thing and witness even justice john roberts pointed out mississippi changed its request when amy coney barrett joined the court from sort of undoing roe v. wade to openly undoing it. it's a bleak day for people who want dominion over their own bodies. >> there was nothing more -- at the time, it was comically disingenuous all the voices saying, you don't know what amy coney barrett thinks about abortion. it's offensive to say you do. she's just a judge. >> and brett kavanaugh supposed moderate bush republican, went for it today. brett kavanaugh is interested in overturning this despite everything he said to susan collins and others. >> it was lying for the lord. it's real. it doesn't matter how many hundreds of thousands of bodies are piled up because of donald trump's mismanagement of covid and the super spreader event for the pro life justice that came this close maybe to killing off chris christie, managed to make it through the icu. >> i want to respond to what melissa said about the legitimate concern that you think the republican appointed justices would have with respect to the midterms. the reality is people who are going to be most affected are the most disenfranchised from the political process. they will be -- women of color, immigrants who may not have status to vote or what be blocked from voting. that, of course, is a project of this court as well. they believe that they are insulated from democratic accountability as a result of the broader picture that the court has held to draw. >> when they talk about states, look at triger laws, there's state supremacy. they played around at the edges with the idea that the constitution says only state legislatures can choose the president. the state legislator can say, no, no, no. you don't get to vote for joe biden. we give our electors to donald trump. when you look at the gerrymandering in wisconsin, which has a super majority on a split state, it makes sense from a conservative perspective to be like, yes, give this to the state legislatures and call that democratic knowing full well how insulated it can be from democratic accountability. >> this has been a long game of the conservative legal movement for some years. the idea that this game was going to be won on local turf. this was not about federal politics. it was state and local government, school boards, county commissions. they have done it tremendously well. here is the thing. brett kavanaugh talked about some neutral settlement whereby we simply overrule roe, send this back to the states for democratic deliberation. send it back to the states. we have never allowed fundamental rights to be subject to the whims of the democratic process, to be subject to the whims of the majority. if we did, we would not have had a decision in 1954 to de-segregate the south. because that's not what the democratic majority in the south wanted at that time. we would not have 2015 -- if you think gay marriage is not on deck after a day like this, then you are frankly completely delusional. yes, they are coming for that, too. >> that seemed to be -- that was the other part of this. melissa, on the podcast you have, you say jokingly -- >> it's not a joke anymore. >> no. it's not. that's how the conservatives on the court view it. sonia sotomayor's point that, look, mississippi changed the filing when they could count to five. this is all just -- we're a super body of legislators who donald trump picked us and we got you bro and we got on there, now we're going to hook him up and our people. >> john roberts pointed out that. i think john roberts in the past -- you can see in the court's most recent abortion decision where he reluctantly and separately wrote in support of maintaining the precedent that john roberts might have been somebody who in the short-term would have said, okay, we have to respect precedent and look like we are respecting precedent. we will tiptoe through that line. today, he sounded like a man talking from the past. brett kavanaugh and in my opinion amy coney barrett are fully on board for the project that the others are on board for. it's very hard to imagine an instance in which the rest of red states look like what is happening in texas. it's really important to point out that we are seeing this experiment in practice. we understand why the supreme court allowed it to happen in texas. six-week abortion ban is now forcing people either to remain pregnant without their will -- against their will, to leave the state only if they can afford to do so or resort to methods of self-inducing pregnancy that might leave them vulnerable to prosecution. it's happening in america because the supreme court allowed it to. it's about to spread into other states. >> the big question on this -- we will return to this topic on another day is what people can do, what the mobilization looks like. that will be where history turns if it does. thank you both. tonight, just minutes before we came on air, a surprise development. something we have been monitoring, the january 6 committee met to issue their second contempt citation. jeffrey clark now wants a second chance to appear before the committee. we will get into that with someone on the committee and what that's all about next. frequent heartburn? not anymore. the prilosec otc two-week challenge is helping people love what they love again. just one pill a day. 24 hours. zero heartburn. because life starts when heartburn stops. take the challenge at prilosecotc dot com. my auntie called me. she said uncle's had a heart attack. i needed him to be here. your heart isn't just yours. protect it with bayer aspirin. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. >> man: what's my safelite story? my truck...is my livelihood. so when my windshield cracked... the experts at safelite autoglass came right to me... with service i could trust. right, girl? >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ with chase security features, guidance and convenience, banking feels good. chase. make more of what's yours. xfinity rewards are our way of thanking you just for being with us. enjoy rewards like movie night specials, xfinity mobile benefits, and the chance to win tickets to see watch what happens live. hey, it's me. plus, get holiday gifts for everyone on your list with great deals on fan favorites from today. join over a million members by signing up for free on the xfinity app. our thanks. your rewards. we have just learned that mr. clark has agreed to appear again to continue his deposition. however, we will proceed tonight with considerable the contempt request as this is just the first step of the contempt process. we just want the facts, and we need witnesses to cooperate with legal obligation and provide us with information about what led to the january 6th attack. mr. clark still has that opportunity. and i hope he takes advantage of it. >> surprising development tonight as the committee investigating january 6 met to dole out its second contempt of congress citation. committee chairman bennie thompson took the step of offering former department justice official jeffrey clark another chance to sit for a deposition. he has been in for one. at his last appearance, clark's attorney told the committee he would not answer questions, would not produce any documents. the committee still voted to hold clark in contempt. that passing unanimously. a vote by the full house could come within days if clark spurns the committee again. stephanie murphy is a member of the select committee investigating the attack who voted for the contempt referral. she joins me now. maybe you can explain the scenario. what happened when he came the first time, the decision to vote for contempt and what the latest developments are now. >> sure. thanks for having me, chris. the first time that mr. clark appeared before the committee, he basically didn't answer any questions, continued to try to use the executive privilege to not answer any questions. then he ended the meeting and left. what he has done is try to tell us that now he is ready to come before the committee again. but he is going to plead the fifth. to be clear, pleading the fifth means that you are trying to protect yourself against criminal charges. so what the committee did is that we proceeded with the efforts to hold him in contempt. what i think that anybody who has been called before this committee and the american people should understand from the bannon contempt as well as initiating the clark contempt proceedings is that we will allow no one to be above the law and no one to stall the investigations of this committee. so that's why we are moving forward to pre-position. we will allow him an opportunity this weekend to appear before us again. if we -- let's see what he does before our committee this weekend, whether he had a change of heart about whether he will cooperate and do his patriotic duty. >> my understanding is the indication last time was a little gauzy. he was trying to invoke executive -- nebulous executive privilege claim. betsy woodruff-swan noting, the claim hasn't been made even by the former president who doesn't really have the right to make it. at least in the case of bannon, he has not invoked it on jeffrey clark's behalf. is that right? he came in and tried to claim a privilege the person who theoretically might have a shot at it doesn't even invoke on his behalf. >> the current president, who has the right to invoke executive privilege, has not chosen to do so. that is president biden. that is the person within whom has the authority to invoke executive privilege. not only did president trump not say anything about clark, but clark's superiors at the department of justice have appeared before our committee and have provided testimony. it's a real shame that somebody who has taken an oath of office when he went to work for the department of justice is behaving the way he is today. >> i should say that the committee's report on clark says the committee believes mr. clark had conversations with others in the federal government, including members of congress, regarding efforts to delegitimatize the election. you mentioned something which i saw before which is i guess -- i don't know if he stated this, the intent to invoke the fifth amendment, which is protection against self-incrimination. you don't have to answer questions from a police officer or on the stand. what i hear from you is it's your committee's position that that fifth amendment doesn't apply in this case because it's not a criminal proceeding. >> let's see what he does when he appears before our committee again. invoking the fifth is a weighty -- a very weighty action. it means that you have concerns that you might incriminate yourself in a criminal act. in the event -- let's see what he does. we will continue to proceed in every way we can to get the information that we need. this department of justice has demonstrated that they believe in the rule of law and executing their duties as they should. if we have to move forward with criminal contempt and refer it to the department of justice, i have full faith that they will do their job to the letter of the law. >> congresswoman stephanie murphy, thank you very much. >> thanks so much. i want to show you a moment from september of last year of donald trump at the rose garden promoting the new coronavirus testing strategy. >> these new rapid point of care tests are easy to use and return results within just minutes. i would like to ask the admiral to demonstrate how the tests are performed. he will do this very nicely. good luck. hope you don't test positive. >> that's a funny joke. you can hear the light hearted laughter in the rose garden that day which would not have been the case if everyone knew that the president himself had tested positive for coronavirus two days before that event. didn't say anything. the stunning new revelations that the former president tested positive nearly a week earlier than we first knew. an investigation into the many people he exposed to the deadly virus along the way. d. so when my windshield cracked... the experts at safelite autoglass came right to me... with service i could trust. right, girl? >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ your plain aspirin could be hurting your stomach. vazalore... is the first liquid-filled aspirin capsule clinically shown to cause fewer ulcers than plain aspirin. try new vazalore. aspirin made amazing! who's on it with jardiance? we're 25 million prescriptions strong. we're managing type 2 diabetes... ...and 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no one can deliver your mom's homemade short ribs. that's why instacart helps deliver the ingredients. and you add the love. ♪ i'm chi lan, i am a mom, and a real estate agent. after having a kid, everything that you used to do for yourself goes out the window. the lines that i was seeing in my forehead were getting deeper than i was used to them being. and i realized, you know, what i can focus again on myself. so, what do you see when you look at yourself? i see someone who is growing and changing, who loves and is loved. botox® cosmetic is fda approved to temporarily make frown lines, crow's feet and forehead lines look better. the effects of botox® cosmetic may spread hours to weeks after injection, causing serious symptoms. alert your doctor right away as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness may be a sign of a life-threatening condition. do not receive botox® cosmetic if you have a skin infection. side effects may include allergic reactions, 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previously known. according to an upcoming book by trump's own white house chief of staff, mark meadows, then president trump tested positive for covid on september 26th of last year, nearly a week before he publically disclosed his condition. according to meadows trump tested negative on the 26th right after the positive result, so they decided to dismiss the positive result as a mistake. we got one negative, one positive. wing it, i guess. did the leader of the free world do the responsible thing? did he quarantine out of caution? did he use the amazing resources of the most powerful government on earth to suss out what was the case? no, of course not. here is everything donald trump did do shortly before after and he tested positive. before vaccines were available. on the 26th, right before trump tested positive, he held that celebration for his new supreme court nominee, amy coney barrett. inside without masks on social distancing. see chris christie? he will be in the icu soon. trump, who is in the middle of a heated campaign season, then tested positive after that event. just put yourself in the situation of doing that. you saw friends and you test positive. probably reach out and let them know that you just tested positive for covid. that does not appear to have happened. he tests positive. it's before a scheduled rally in pennsylvania. which as you can see from the footage, he did not cancel. the next day, get this, it gets better, september 27, trump meets with gold star families at the white house. those, of course, families of fallen soldiers. surviving members of u.s. -- surviving family members of u.s. service members who have given their life and who are mourning their deaths. he meets with them having tested positive, again without masks or social distancing. look how close they are. the day after that, september 28, trump held two outdoor events, one of which was on the subject of covid testing. that event struck people as pretty odd at the time. look at that visual. trump spoke notely dnotably dis from others. at the event, trump made this crack to then covid testing czar. >> i would like to ask the admiral to come up and demonstrate how these tests are performed. you will do this very nicely, i think. good luck. hope you don't test positive. >> a joke. but not really. practically trump's entire inner circle tested positive, including chris christie who was hospitalized with a serious case who got good medical care. i'm glad he did. that wasn't true for everyone who got the virus and died. he said trump called him while he was in the hospital. >> then he said to me, how do you think you got it? i had been in the room for him four days before that. there were seven much us. six got it. well, i'm sure i got it in the white house. i think so. he said, i'm sure. but you are not going to say you got it from me, are you? >> that's what was on donald trump's mind. knowing he tested positive days before. trump still traveled to ohio to be in the room for the first debate with then candidate joe biden. we later learned trump was not tested before that in-person event without masks. with his opponent on the stage, who could have gotten covid and died. that was happening a lot. it's been happening a lot. to 70 plus-year-old unvacinated people as joe biden was at that point. in his book, mark meadows admitted trump had been looking physically unwell. over the next two days, trump held multiple campaign events and fund-raisers, including one in new jersey where trump spoke maskless to 200 also maskless supporters. that night, the world first learned trump's close aid hope hicks tested positive. trump got a second positive test shortly after. something he lied about in an interview. >> whether we quarantine or have it, i don't know. when you are with soldiers, when you are with airmen, you are with the marines and the police officers, i'm with them so much. when they come over to you, it's hard to say, stay back. it's a tough kind of a situation. it's a terrible thing. i just went for a test. we will see what happened. who knows? >> he knew at that point he had tested positive a second time. he knew he tested positive before, before he did the event with the soldiers and airmen and marines. he got covid from the covid infested service members who just couldn't stop themselves from hugging the president was the implication. trump found out he tested positive on the 26th of september. he still said he didn't know if he had covid. he took the time to blame the military and police for getting him sick. trump was hospitalized shortly after that. to recover thanks to the state-of-the-art access and care he had access to as a president that was not made available to the americans who died horrible deaths under his watch. we should note that trump has called the fact he tested positive fake news, because of course he has. all this is not surprising though enraging. the man is incapable at an almost cellular level -- it's extraordinary of considering anyone else's welfare. case in point, hours after that first positive test, he walked to the back of air force one without a mask and talked to reporters, at least one of whom tested positive days later. that reporter's take on this revelation next. revelation next. plop plop fizz fizz. alka seltzer plus cold relief. dissolves quickly. instantly ready to start working. so you can bounce back fast with alka-seltzer plus. now available for fast sinus relief. when it comes to autism, finding the right words can be tough. finding understanding doesn't have to be. together, we can create a kinder, more inclusive world for the millions of people on the autism spectrum. go to autismspeaks.org you don't get much time for yourself. so when you do, make it count with crest pro-health. it protects the 8 areas dentists check for a healthier mouth. the #1 toothpaste brand in america. crest. [microwave beeps] [ahh] ♪ ♪ ♪ i'm so defensive, i got bongos thumping in my chest ♪ ♪ and something tells me they don't beat for me ♪ ♪ i love romance, but i got eggshells around me ♪ ♪ don't step on 'em, don't step on 'em ♪ ♪ don't step on 'em, don't step on me ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ he'd better not take the ring from me ♪ on september 29, 2020, the day of the first presidential debate, trump arrived late. the moderator said trump was not tested before the debate because he was late. he stood on the stage with then candidate joe biden without masks. his family and entourage sat in the event flouting the mask requirements. trump this after he tested positive and held that distanced rose garden event. >> i have a mask right here. i will put a mask on when i think i need it. tonight is an example, everybody had a test and you have had social distancing and all of the things you have to. i wear a mask when needed. >> he looks awful there. i wonder why. maybe he had covid. understandably, there's been talk about trump almost gave joe biden covid. michael sheer is a white house correspondent and two-time pulitzer prize winning reporter. hours after he received the call from meadows informing him of a positive test, trump came to the back of air force one without a mask and talked with reporters for ten minutes. i was wearing a mask but still got covid. he joins me now. michael, great to have you. fist, your reaction to this revelation which i should say is subsequently confirmed by "the new york times" and the denial, such as it is from trump, is not a denial. he said, i tested negative later. that's the story. your reaction to this. >> this sort of confirms our suspicions all along. largely the only thing i had done at that time that could have exposed me to covid and ultimately my wife who got cvid was being on the back of the plane. we were all being so careful, not going to restaurants, not going to grocery stores. i have always assumed that i got it on that plane. i think what this confirms is that i actually likely got it from the president himself. he tested positive at a time when those tests -- those instant tests, those rapid tests really had a likelihood of showing a false negative. that was the problem with those tests. if you actually tested positive with one of those rapid tests, you likely had been sick probably for a little bit of time. >> i should note just to make a point here about the story as far as we know it from meadows, which was there -- he has taken off. there's word there's a positive test. they test again. it's unclear how they test again. they are not swabbing him again. i don't know if they got another -- they took two swabs? i don't understand it. nor am i going to concede that that's what happened in the absence of any other confirmation. i want to say -- >> i think that's right. i had the same thought. it doesn't make sense when you take one of those swabs for an instant test, you use it and ruin it. you can't just use it again for a second test. the likelihood that they were taking double swabs of the president is unlikely. i suppose it's possible they tested him again on air force one or after he landed in pennsylvania before the rally. i think that's unlikely. like i say, either way, a positive test for one of the rapid tests is a much more con concerning event. that's probably a false negative, let's be concerned. that's what this whole incident underscores, what we have known all along, which is that this white house didn't take seriously the precautions that the rest of us were trying so hard to follow. they weren't wearing masks. they weren't paying attention to results of the tests. essentially shrugging off the concerns about the other people that they might be putting in -- at some risk. >> i would just -- again, i'm going to editorialize. this is not your view. it is mine. i would go further and say it's worse than that. there were people reckless. to the extent -- they got a positive test from the president. it's unclear what happens afterwards. reading between the lines, what it looks like is to the extent they got a negative test, good enough. we're out. don't test him again in case it pops a positive. we don't want that. we don't want the run-up to the debate. we don't want to cancel events. it's worse than reckless. >> i think as a journalist who presses for transparency and presses to hold the administration accountable, the fact that we did not know any of this for -- through all of the important events, through another week of the campaign -- it never made any sense. when they finally told us he tested positive, it never made sense that he got so sick the next day that he had to go to the hospital with breathing problems. that's not how covid works. you test positive and over the course of a series of days the disease gets worse. it's just, from my perspective, one of the big sins here is just lying to the american public. not being straight with the public about the health of the leader of the free world. >> the point about the time frame has always been key. it is on average about between seven days to 11 days of onset of symptoms and symptomatic cases that people are getting hospitalized. in this case, we have a positive test and hospitalization the next day. that never made any sense. essentially, never progresses that rapidly. this makes more sense. when you go back and look at that time line, we might re-visit this again, it's a shocking time line. i'm glad you recovered. i'm glad your wife recovered. i hope that's true of everyone that came out of this cluster. i don't know if it is. thank you very much. >> sure. next, why the supply chain crisis may be a thing of the past possibly. we got back on track. whether it will last after this. . the ceos i met with this week reported their inventoies are up. i can't promise every person will get every gift they want on time. only santa claus can keep that promise. we were alone when my husband had the heart attack. he's the most important thing in my life. i'm so lucky to get him back. your heart isn't just yours. protect it with bayer aspirin. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. are you one of the millions of americans who experience occasional bloating, gas or abdominal discomfort? 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(diana strums guitar) maya swears by grammarly business because it keeps her work on brand and error-free. fast and easy. - [announcer] learn more at grammarly.com/business. ♪ i see trees of green ♪ ♪ red roses too ♪ ♪ i see them bloom for me and you ♪ (music) ♪ so i think to myself ♪ ♪ oh what a wonderful world ♪ if you watch the news recently, you might think the shelves in all our stores are empty across the country, that parents won't be able to get presents for their children this holiday season. but here's the deal. for the vast majority of the country, that's not what's happening. because of the actions the administration has taken in partnership with business and labor, retailers and grocery stores, freight movers and railroads, those shelves are going to be stocked. >> president biden announced measures to ease supply chain issues. today they announced lowering port fees and expanding trucker hours. this video from the port of los angeles in october, dozens of container ships idled out in the water, because there was so much congestion they couldn't come on to offload, there were containers sitting there and they couldn't get them off the trucks. the biden administration promised to focus on easing the backlogs. people at the time thought it was just symbolism, to look like you're doing something. but it seems to have worked. according to the white house, the number of long shipping containers, 41% are gone. retail inventories are up 3% from this same time last year. walmart's ceo says he feels optimistic about his company's inventory headed into the holidays. back friday sales were up nearly 30% this year. and on top of that today, the payroll company adp announced private payrolls grew by 534,000 jobs, the third straight month of job growth according to their data. when things are working, it's not news. but it really was news when things were screwed up a month ago. right now there are reasons to feel like we're on a much better path, the economy you can feel pretty optimistic about. betsy stevenson is a labor economist who served on the council of economic advisers under president biden. she's also a professor of public policy and economics at the university of michigan. betsy, i've got to say, i think the supply chain stuff always struck me as not necessarily under the president's control that much, a, b, made a fair amount of sense. all of this has been so weird. i compared it to like when a parking lot lets out after a football game, right, and everyone wants to go and you sit there in the parking lot and it's frustrating but there's just too many people for the amount of space. but it also seems like whatever they've done, maybe it's the private sector, maybe it's government, it has gotten appreciably better. >> it's definitely getting a lot better. but, you know, it is some turbulent times. there were a lot of companies that made a bunch of stuff that they were expecting us to buy in 2020 and then we didn't end up buying it, right? so prices fell like crazy. we didn't all get together in thanksgiving of 2020 and we saw prices coming down because people could sell their stuff. then they thought, oh, i got burned in 2020, how much do i really need to supply for 2021? that's been part of the problem. and yet, we're all like, oh, my god, we've been waiting so long to get back out there and to demand is higher than anyone expected. there's a game right now were sellers are trying to figure out where we as consumers are going to be. it's a guessing game. that's one of the reasons we get these mixups between supply and demand. we see this going on right now with oil prices were the price at the pump is still high but a bunch of oil companies are really afraid that the new variant of covid is going to cause oil prices to collapse in the future, so while we're paying high prices at the pump, prices are collapsing in futures markets. >> i saw that today, i mean, that's the other kind of irony. here jason fuhrman, who i know you've worked with, in the obama administration, served in the obama administration as an economist, he had a tweet saying, these are these are good problems to have. what he meant by that is, these are the knock-on effects of an economy that's got robust demand coming back, people with some disposable income, we're seeing wages rising, the bottom 70% of the labor market. and a bunch of conservatives jumped on him like, you think these are good problems? but the flip of that is, right, if there's another terrible new variant, you can have cheap oil and cheap airfare, cheap hotels, lots of cheap stuff, if everything shuts down again, but i would rather have this than that. >> that's exactly right, that the reason that we've seen some inflationary pressure, which the federal reserve was calling transitory and now they want to back away from that word, although the ecb in europe is still referring to it as transitory, we call it transitory because we think the inflationary pressures are going to go away as supply meets demand. what happened was the economy came back stronger, faster, than people expected. and as a result, demand got ahead of supply. >> you look at the euro zone, this this inflation in the eurozone where they're setting historic rates of inflation, november 2021. that is not the u.s. fed and not joe biden who is doing that. that is the fact that there are big structural factors at play in a once in a century pandemic recovery. i do think the message for the white house is, steer the ship, you know, keep -- steer the ship through this. the only way out is a through. you want a virus that's suppressed and an economy that's roaring by summer of next year. >> yeah, one of the things that frustrates me the most is people looking at the kind of support that the administration has given the economy is the -- you know, the stimulus bill in march of this year. and i think that kind of stuff is actually why we had such strong growth. it's not the cause of all our inflationary pressure. it's actually the cause of our strong economic growth. and i'm really grateful that it was there to support families when they needed it. >> agreed. betsy stephenson, thank you very much. that's "all in" on this wednesday night. "the rachel maddow show" starts right now. good evening, rachel. >> good evening, chris. thank you, my friend, much appreciated. thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. just strangest, just most unsettling stories i've ever covered in all my years doing this job, and there's been many of them. it's certainly one of the strangest stories i ever have come across, let alone covered in detail, about the behavior of the u.s. government. just the oddest, strangest, weirdest sticks-with-you kind of thing that i've ever had to cover in the news. was the trump administration story about this man who you