the first female governor of georgia, the first black woman ever elected governor of a u.s. state. stacey abrams will be joining us here live for an exclusive interview tonight. i'm really looking for to that conversation. if you have been watching the news unfold over the course of the day today, it has been a little bit like watching a snowball running downhill getting bigger and bigger. when we went to bed last night, there was one known case of the omicron covid variant in the united states. a person in california who had recently traveled to south africa. south africa's where that variant is thought to have originated, or at least where was first detected. public health experts and officials like doctor anthony fauci have spoken with chris hayes tonight on msnbc. they have been warning us that as soon as the omicron variant was anywhere, it was likely going to be everywhere very quickly. we shouldn't expect to be able to keep this new variance out. well, sure enough, we went to bed with there being one case in the united states, by the end of the day today it is no longer just one case in california, it is a case in california, one in minnesota, colorado, tonight the governor of new york having announced there are five known cases in new york. probably since i have been talking that list is out of date, there will undoubtedly be more. just like they said it would be, it is definitely here, essentially instantly. and depending on how it competes with the delta strain, which is dominant here in the united states right now, it may well be that omicron takes over and becomes that were new dominant coronavirus variant. how will it be different than delta? we will learn the answers to all of these things soon enough, doctor fauci told chris hayes tonight that perhaps in 2 to 3 weeks we will have at least preliminary answers to some of the most important questions. but, for now, omicron is here. and we really don't know firm answers to any of the important questions about it yet. there is work, done but we don't know how contagious it is for one, how transmissible it, is how easy it is for one person to give to another. how well to antibodies of various variants work or not work against it. that means antibodies that we got from being vaccinated, but also the antibodies we got from having been vaccinated with covid and having survived it. it is worth noting that when the w.h.o. put out their first international statement about the new omicron variant being detected, they noted explicitly in that for statement that they thought they were seeing a high degree of reinfection with the omicron variant. that means people who had covid before, and recovered from it, we're nevertheless getting covid again, getting this new strain of covid as if it was a whole new thing. as if the antibodies they developed against the earlier strain of the virus did not help them with this one. again, that was just an initial observation from w.h.o., we don't really know yet, we also don't know at all if this variant makes people more or less sick, more or less likely to be hospitalized. more or less likely to potentially die. we don't know if omicron have symptoms that are worse or less bad than what we have experience with delta already. we don't know if it's death rate is worse or better. we don't know those things yet, and we may know those things as dr. fauci said tonight, and maybe as soon as two or three weeks. we don't have two or three weeks to wait to do the research to get ready. it is here now. and so, you know, shields up once again in terms of the common sense stuff we know we can do to keep ourselves stave. we have to work again now in the face of another round of worry and uncertainty about how bad this one will be. the white house today announced a whole bunch of new stuff, some of it is exactly what you would expect, they announced for example an extension of the role that you have to wear a mask on planes and trains and all kinds of public transportation. some cities and counties will presumably go back to mask rules as well if they ended them before, that is logical. the white house announced that they will try and up the availability and affordability of at home testing kits, i tell, you i used one of them just the other day myself. i felt a little bit weird, and i wanted to be careful, not to anybody else second case i somehow gotten covid so i didn't home test for the first time, and i have to tell you it was kind of cool. it is not hard to do, but just complex and novel enough that it's like doing a little science project. instead of just writing yourself a, no it's using an etch a sketch. it's gradually and cool. i enjoyed the process myself. i was very happy to be able to do it at home. the biden administration today announced plans to make those at home test kits easier to get, and they want to make insurance cover the cost of them. on paper, that's good in terms of affordability. in the real world we all know from dealing with insurance is always a total pain, so hopefully the white house can figure a way to cut the cost of those test kits in a way that is more direct and easier for everybody to deal with rather than having to get reimbursed for it from your insurance company. but even that is a good start. and i think it is worth noting, there is a sort of important concept buried in the middle of what the white house announced today. it is interesting and promising. all this worry about omicron, the numbers going back, up hospitals that are overwhelmed right now, even before omicron really gets here. there's a lot of reasons to worry. but there is a vision here, and there is reasons to be hopeful conceptually embedded in what the white house announced today. what i mean by that is, i think it is important to see, and recognize, that we are having this new big push from the administration for home testing kits. at the same time that we are also able to talk for the first time about at-home affective covid treatment as well, for the first time, and these announcements preparing for the winter and omicron, the white house was talking about making covid anti viral treatment pills more available as well. the merck anti viral pill, the pfizer anti viral pill, they are not approved yet, but they are coming. they are both in the process of being approved. the white house announced today that they are buying millions of doses of those anti viral pills so they will be ready to go in large numbers as soon as they are approved. conceptually, think about how those two things go together. both of those things are at home. the test i did the other day, i just had it on hand. when it first came on the mark at the summer, susan was at the drugstore one day and saw they had them picked up a couple of boxes that we would have them just in case, that was a while ago, they just sat in the medicine cabinet ever since, but sure enough this week i felt a little -- and it was really good to have. i didn't need to go anywhere, i didn't mean to make an appointment, i work we'd always stay up to three in the morning, i did it at 2:30 in the morning. that was when it was convenient for. me had i had to go somewhere and make an appointment, go and line, i totally would have procrastinated. that because i had it at home, i did it at the kitchen table when it was convenient for me. basically as soon as i felt gross. it took 15 minutes, i enjoyed, it was fun. and then it was done. i had my result. my test was negative, thank god. but if it had been positive, this is where, there is a little bit of hope here. if i had been positive, think about how that would go, ideally, if as a country we could get all of these pieces of the puzzle in place. right? first piece, first of all, you are vaccinated. you are less likely to get covid in the first place. second of all if you do get covid if you are vaccinated, you are less likely to get very sick. you have those pieces in place first. that is why being vaccinated is good for you, it's good for your family, good for your community, good for your local hospital who you hopes to never see before covid. it's good for your country. being vaccinated takes a lot of boxes in terms of what you can do for yourself for you and your country. but, let's say even with those precautions in place you do start to feel sick, you think you might have covid symptoms. here is the process ideally if we can make all of this work. you are vaccinated, you feel like you might be sick, sit down at the kitchen table, take your at home test, if it is positive what do you do? you call the doctor. the doctor gives you a prescription for the anti viral pill. well, at least in the case of the pfizer anti viral pill, in clinical trials that has seen nearly 90% effectiveness and getting people out of the hospital. now to get those amazing results from that drug, you do have to act fast. you have to take the drug early. soon after you are diagnosed, before your symptoms get serious. well that would be a heck of a lot easier if everybody had home test gets around. in 15 minutes they could find out if they had covid or not. that would really increase the number of people who would catch it right after the onset of moderate symptoms, which is exactly what you want to start your five-day of antivirals. again, our home, and not in the hospital, not after you are too sick for any of the drugs to actually work on you. you can see the pieces kind of coming together here right? if we really did get home test to everybody, very cheaply, or freely, and people can get these five-day courses of anti viral pills which are 90% effective at keeping outside the hospital. if that was the result. well then, that is a profile for an american covid epidemic where maybe the hospital stopped getting overrun like they are tonight, again, in parts of minnesota, parts of michigan, parts of ohio, parts of wisconsin, but a lot of other states. that is a profile for an american covid epidemic where we stop dying at a rate of 1000 americans a day, which is still where we are right now. 80,000 new infections a day, which is where we are right now. if we were able to get these pieces in place, all of which we talked about by the white house today, none of which are magic. these really do seem like the pieces that need to be in place, they are all rational, they are all put our destiny more in our own hands than it has been in the past. they all, offer us the prospect of protecting our health system, so the people who really do need it can get into it, and can get good care rather than being overrun. and unable to get a bed, unable to get more advanced levels of care when they need it. these are the pieces. not only do people still contend with now, but particularly if this omicron thing that is screaming down a tunnel towards death is turning out to be a bad one, these are the pieces we will need in place. we will need all these things. testing at home so you do it fast, right away, it's not a pain, you don't put it off, you test it as soon as you get anything that might be a symptom. if you are positive, what we need access to his treatment, as soon as those treatments are approved. treatment that you could do at home. quickly while it is still able to do some good. of course, we need as we have from the beginning, we need as much vaccination as possible. none of that is magic, all of that is all but in our grasp. if omicron is bad, we will really need those things. today the white house said, 2.2 million americans got a vaccine dose in the last day. 2.2 million shots in a day. that is huge. that is the largest number of shots in this country since the spring, since may. over 2 million americans getting a shot in a single day is a good sign that, it shows that we are worried, but it shows that for the most part we get what is going on here. we get what is needed to be done, we understand the rational steps that are needed to protect ourselves in our country, at least most of the country does. of course, alternatively, instead, you could you know, give your baby and landfill mud. maybe that will work instead. and while you are dipping your baby in landfill mud, why not eat some of that dirt yourself, just in just a bit every day, or a lot, try breaking into your cookies. maybe that is a better idea for how to handle this problem. magic dirt. what's? this is a real thing that the anti vax people are doing now. you are forgiven if you think that i am joking. or if you are finding it hard to keep up with exactly what the anti vaccine folks are putting themselves -- or putting into themselves now. it can be hard to keep up with. but there are journalists who have been watching this, and we are better off for knowing what they have been able to document. as unbelievable as some of it is, we have to know that this is what is happening. most of the country is getting their act together, some of it is not. it seems to be getting worse over there. about two and a half months ago, and we see news reported on why then collins called, vigilante treatments that were being promoted and anti vaccine facebook groups. the anti-vaccine people were going so far as to tell people that they should pull their family members out of hospitals, pull checks on hospitals to pull their gravely ill family members out of icu wards, to instead bring them home and treat them with ivermectin, and other great ideas you can learn about from sports podcast that you can learn on facebook. some people in groups that formed recently, to form and tougher mackinnon treatment to extract covid treatments from hospitals pivotal so they can self medicate a home with ivermectin. but as the treatments began to realize that ivermectin by itself is not effective, the groups that we can recommending a series of increasingly hazardous our home treatments such as, gargling with iodine. and nebula's-ing and inhaling hydrogen peroxide. they're calling it part of a quote, protocol. the asthma allergy foundation of america recently it put out a warning against nebulizer hydrogen peroxide. nebulous ink means literally putting it in an inhaler, like an asthma inhaler and then inhaling. hydrogen peroxide, really? that reporting was from nbc news from september. but what they were talking about their, i november there was, spotted in the wild, vice news reporting on the qanon cult of shoot that sent hundreds of trump supporters to dallas, texas, recently. where they convince themselves they were going to witness the re-vacation of president kennedy and his son, who's coming back from the dead in order to be king trump's new vice president. or maybe kings don't need vice presidents, he'd be vice king. just astonishing stuff what happened there with all the qanon trump supporters in dallas. it's astonishing. and someone entertaining, i guess. because it's so crazy. and it's also sad and wearing, and tragic. this is vices headline on that reporting. the qanon jfk call in dallas is tearing families apart. quote, katie garner sister left her family behind and drove to dallas about a month ago and has cut off almost all communication with her family. her phone calls and messages are also being monitored according to garner, who believes her sister will never return. quote, she left her children for this and doesn't even care. she's missing birthdays and holidays for this. trey truly believes this is all raised real and where the crazy ones for trying to get her to come home, but she won't, garner said. i don't believe he'll ever come back from this. we are in mourning. quote, according to garner, her sister has so far handed over about $200,000 to the group. and she's being forced to drink a hydrogen peroxide solution and to take quote, bio pellets to ward off covid-19. drinking hydrogen peroxide and taking bio pellets to ward off covid. i should tell you, the qanon jfk death cult folks are -- their next thing they're predicting for dallas is tomorrow. those folks may all show themselves again tomorrow on the plaza, we'll see. last month, nbc news also reported on how anti-vax folks were also telling each other that they could undo any vaccination they might have had. sharing information online including with popular tiktok videos about how you can bathe in borax, the cleaning solution. you can put borax in your bathtub and then you get in your post ups and the blacks will -- pass they also take care of your nanotechnologies and radiation and stuff. well, today, it's apparently metric to. new reporting today, quote the social media post started in may. photo and videos of smiling people, mostly women, drinking mason jars of black liquid, slathering black paste on their faces and feet, or dipping babies and dogs in tubs of the black water. they tied the post hashtag boo, and linked to a website that sought a product called black oxygen organics. black oxygen organics or blue for short, was marketed as full vic acid, a compound derived from decayed plants that was dug up from an ontario peat bogs. the website of the company that sold it billed as the end product and smallest protocol of the decomposition of ancient, organic matter. but more simply, the product is there it for the uptick. sold in a sleek plastic bag and sold $410 and plus shipping. the post that they're drinking, cooking, soaking, snorting and slathering boo on their bodies and giving it to their families children pets. who would've thought drinking dirt would've made me feel so good, one person said in a 27th -- facebook group. she posted that statement alongside a photo of her face, nuzzling a jar of black liquid. another user posting a photo of a baby, sitting in a bathtub of water colored in deep caramel. boo says it protects against entreats covid-19, and can be used to de-top the detox in early vaccinated. according to post viewed by nbc news. t viewed by nb news she goes on to describe the work as an online activists who love his on google earth that bob that sourced the peat for this dirt appeared to share a border with a landfill that pushed several folks or critics of the if sold movement to take matters in their own hands and sandbags of this stuff to lapse for testing. the results of three of these tests viewed by and beefy nbc news and confirmed as reliable by two soil scientists a u.s. universities, showed that the door contained elevated levels of cliff earth. nbc also arranged for its own expert test of the dirt that a trace element of the research lab -- that results found dangerous levels of lead and arsenic in this dirt. that people are eating and swearing all over their bodies and bathing in. but sure, dip your baby and it. and your to hook. bake it into your priorities. because your two health conscious to take the covid vaccine. we are right now gearing up for a whole new fight with a whole new variant and maybe this variant will turn out to be a pussycat. maybe i'll turn out to be nothing. even if it turns out to be a bad one, we do have new and better technology than we did before. tests, vaccines, treatments. but you know, it's not all of us. i mean, here's the head of a big tv christian ministry this week, who hosted anti vaccine conspiracy theorist on his christian tv network. he died, painfully, of covid this week. here's what republican officials in michigan. actually, one of the two officials who actually didn't try to block the certification of michigan's electoral votes after the election, when he got a call from president trump encouraging him to do that. that republican official in wayne county michigan, was loud and proud about how the covid and covid vaccines were all a plot by the democrats. just a panic everyone and still more elections. he died this week. after a long stretch on a ventilator. terrible way to die. we've got all the pieces. they are coming together. you can see the concept of how this could become something manageable. something that we can be. something we can get levels of transmission down low enough that this could be something that feels like history. you can see how the pieces are coming together. right? we know what we've got to do. but at the same time, we've got, you know, republican governor of florida hiring the state surgeon general, one of these quack's who's been promoting hydroxychloroquine. and seeing masks don't work and people don't need a vaccine. that's who's the surgeon general of florida right now, thanks to governor ron desantis. i mean, we've got facebook and tiktok and all of these other online engines circulating increasingly inseam fake cures and fake preventative's that people are willing to put themselves in incredible danger to take, rather than getting vaccinated. we've got all the pieces we need to put together and we've also got a part of the country that is literally eating lead and arsenic laced dirt instead, and feeding it to their kids. they are americans, too. they are our family members in some cases. they are members of our community. they are americans to. there are responsibility. and we are. there's a cannot be that we give up on them. it cannot be that we ignore them. we have to try to understand them and there has to be some way to do this. joining us now is brandi -- she covers misinformation, extremism and the internet. randi, thanks so much for being here. >> yeah, thanks for having me. >> so, am i supposed to call it boo or boo? >> boo, it's called boo. magic dirt. the missing miracle solution. there's a lot of words for it, but it's dirt. >> how big is the movement online that is marketing this? now it is not only as a covid cure and covid preventive. but the magic mistreat or even for all your other elements? >> it's tens of thousands of people that are actively in evolved and selling and producing and using it. even after health canada has recalled it. even after the fda seized it and they had to put not for human consumption on the bag. people in these groups that are still active on facebook are still saying yes, you can take it and you can take it in elevated doses. we're just going to keep trudging along. so, there's really a ton -- there's just not much more you can do. i've been covering the anti vax world for a decade. what was great about them for so long was that they were wild and they did the same thing we're seeing now. the borax's old. the bleach baths are all. this is all old anti-vax stuff. but they were so small. and now, the problem is that it's just anti-vaccination thinking and tactics have just overwhelmed the country. >> is there an effort -- as you say it's become a quantitative really significantly different things in terms of the number of people experimenting with this stuff. and the way that it's spreading. is there any meaningful effort, any useful effort by social media entities to try to throttle this stuff? to throttle the misinformation about it? >> yes, they try but they don't really speak the language. so, you can try to put out videos by the w.h.o. or even super cool ones with a little cooler influencer, but it's not gonna work. because again you have a group of people who have been putting their tendrils inside of their communities for a long, long time. covid was their opportunity and they -- anti-vaxxers have all said it. they use this as an opportunity and they took it. so, they are an insurgency. they are embedded in your da's, school boards, coffee groups, knitting circles. and that is how this message spread. so, there's no way at this point to combat that idea or that movement. it's just hard. >> it's hard when people are talking about doctor oz, who's no running for senate in pennsylvania. at one point was telling people that vitamin c was the way they were going to get over covid, right? and it's hard when people are telling you that your epsom salt bath is going to and vaccinate you. but taking vitamin c and about him absence holt isn't going to hurt you. smearing your baby with arsenic and lead least dirt is -- it's harder to -- this is harder to walk away from. we have to understand it in order to even try to start to think rationally about. it brandy, thank you for your reporting. i know you spent a lot of time and a lot of dark places to help us understand this stuff. thanks. >> you're welcome. >> all right, much more ahead tonight. stay with us. stay with us 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. unleash the freshness... [upbeat music] still fresh ♪ in wash-scent booster ♪ downy unstopables it's another day. and anything could happen. it could be the day you welcome 1,200 guests and all their devices. or it could be the day there's a cyberthreat. only comcast business' secure network solutions give you the power of sd-wan and advanced security integrated on our activecore platform so you can control your network from anywhere, anytime. it's network management redefined. every day in business is a big day. we'll keep you ready for what's next. this just before 10:00, 10 pm comcast business powering possibilities. on december 6th last year. a woman in cobb county georgia and the suburbs of atlanta called 9-1-1. >> [inaudible] harassing phone calls a woman on the receiving and, of those threats, that in-person intimidation was not a public figure. she is a 60-year-old retiree, who ran a little boutique business selling fashion accessories. but then, president donald trump accused her, her personally by name, of stealing the presidential election from him in georgia. that 9-1-1 call is featured in the latest installment of the incredible ongoing reuters series -- excuse -- me on threats and harassment against election officials on election workers in the 2020 election. this latest reporting zooms in and tells the stories of two specific elections workers, ruby freeman who is the warm and you heard on the 9-1-1 call, and her daughter. miss freeman's daughter is an election worker in metro atlanta, she asked her mom to sign up as a temper criminal process malice on election day. the two of them worked with other election workers through that day and night, processing ballots at atlanta state arena. but after the election, trump and his supporters set to work trying to overturn biden's win in georgia, one of the things they did was they took a clip from the surveillance video at the state farm arena on election night, a clip that happened to show ruby freeman and her daughter just doing their jobs, not doing anything wrong. but donald trump's lawyer started telling everybody what really what you could see happening in that clip, if you looked at it right, was you could see ruby freeman of her daughter stealing the election. right down that videotape. trump lawyers showed the video to georgia republican legislators, they gave it a right-wing news outlets, they told them that what was seen in the video was these two women cutting suitcases full of illegal ballots. mr. sean hannity ran with a video clip on fox news, and almost see the lead. right website identified ruby by name, president trump himself played the video on a massive jumbotron at a postelection rally in georgia, saying it showed these woman committing a crime. and then, remember that insane phone call in which trump tried to pressure georgia secretary of state into finding just enough votes to overturn biden's win and declare him victor. trump used ruby freeman's name in that call 18 times. he called her a professional vote scammer, a hustler. she runs a fashion accessories business. she is a retiree. she came in as a temperature. as an election worker. after that call, the head of the elections in the county said the arrest me got even worse. quote, and it just kept going. now a new lawsuit that women have filed against the right-wing website that first publicly identified them. in that lawsuit they claim on at least two occasions strangers showed up at the home of one of their relatives, and try to push into the house, to make a citizens arrest. also, on january 6th, at the same time trump supporters were in d.c. attacking the u.s. capitol, a crowd in suburban atlanta was attacking ruby freeman's house. they surrounded her house on foot and in vehicles, shouting at her through a bull horn. thankfully she had fled her house for an undisclosed location. she fled on the advice of the fbi. she did not return home for two months. her daughter changed her appearance dramatically, and avoided going out in public. miss freeman close her business. it is the stuff of nightmares. you are going about your life, doing a civic duty, and you have your whole world turned upside down because the president of the united states and his supporters have decided you will be there punching bag. you will be there bogeyman in this effort to create a fantasy of the stolen election. we're in the process, fulton county georgia became what reuters calls, quote, a hotbed of threats against election workers. how do you operated mark a sea in this atmosphere of threat? fulton county, georgia, is also the place where most democrats are in georgia. if operating an election in fulton county is now a hotbed of threats against the people running those elections, how do you, i don't know, get out the vote under those conditions. how do you get people to volunteer to work at the polls. that is the daunting task facing democrats. big d democrats, and small democrats in georgia. if there is one person whose life experience might make -- picking on that cask, it is probably stacey abrams. georgia voting rights pioneer, the woman who very nearly won georgia's governor race three years ago. stacey abrams has just announced she is running for georgia governor again, she is here live for her first national tv interview since her announcement next. stay with us. stay with us that's why, in difficult times, we provided one hundred and fifty million meals to feeding america. and now through the subaru share the love event, we're helping even more. by the end of this year, subaru will have donated over two hundred and twenty five million dollars to charity. this is what it means to be more than a car company. this is what it means to be subaru. (music) this is what it means to be more than a car company. ♪ i think to myself ♪ ♪ what a wonderful world ♪ (music) ♪ i think to myself ♪ ♪ what a wonderful world ♪ >> opportunity and success in georgia shouldn't be determined by your sip code, background or access to power. but if our georgia is going to move to its next and greet his chapter, we're going to need leadership. >> i think she'd make a really good governor. stay tough and stay brave. >> thank you. >> leadership that knows how to do their job. leadership that doesn't take credit without also taking responsibility. leadership that understands the true pain folks are feeling. and has real plans. that's the job of government. to fight for one georgia. our georgia. and now, it's time to get the job done. >> stacy! stacy! stacey! >> that's part of the new campaign launch video from stacey abrams, who's just announced that she will mount a second bid for georgia governor next year. now, stacey abrams narrowly, very narrowly, lost the least to governor in 2018 to the guy who holds the job now. republican, brian kemp. but two years later, in 2020, georgia helped elect a democratic president by going blue for the first time in 28 years. georgia also flipped to u.s. senate seats to hand democrats control of the united states senate. i mean, in georgia, it has certainly been a team effort and one of the biggest democratic party electoral success stories of the century. but even though she didn't do it alone, it is inarguably stacey abrams who is lay the nation for those victories more than any other person you could say that about. joining us now is the newly-announced democratic candidate for governor of georgia, stacey abrams. this abrams is a real pleasure to have you here tonight. thank you so much for coming on. >> thank you for having me. it's always a pleasure. >> people talking all the time. your ears must be constantly burning. you knew that there was a lot of speculation and a lot of discussion as to whether or not you would mount a second run for governor of georgia or whether there was some other type of office, potentially national office, that you might want to run. or some other way you might want to compete. why did you decide that you want to make a second bid for governor? a second bid >> because i belir state. i believe we have the capacity to be extraordinary place for families to grow. for people to succeed and thrive. and i think we have a failed leader, who is currently occupy the office. my mission is service and to serve people you have to care about them. we have to care about all of them. i've shown that in the three years since the last election. i've spent my time doing what i can to serve georgia. whether that was expanding access to vaccines, putting all 60,000 georgians medical that. getting thousands of pounds of food sent to food banks. helping families keep their incomes high, but helping small businesses. i've tried to in every way possible serve the people of georgia. but the best way to serve georgia, in my estimation, is to run for governor and to take that job and do with it what we can. and that is serve every georgian, and create won georgia. >> when you ran in 2018, part of the week and we covered that race so intently is because the candidates were very interesting people. present company included. but also because there was a disturbing dynamic in that race, which was that your republican opponent, who went on to win the race, with secretary of state at the time and was engaged in really aggressive, will appear to be virtual voter suppression tactics. including throwing huge numbers of georgians off the voting roles, and a way that seemed to benefit his own candidacy. in which he was on the ballot. when you so narrowly lost, you famously we're contentious about the loss, saying that you didn't necessarily think it had been a fair fight. second back now, a few years out of that and seeing what's happened, both in georgia and around the country around the issues of fairness in elections, how do you feel about that now looking back at it? how do you want people to understand how that dynamic affected the race the first time? he race the firs time >> in 2018, i spent more than a year traveling the state. but i'd also spent ten years, 11 years in the state legislature. and i've been working on voting rights since i was 17. i've watched, in fact, i'd battled with the then-secretary of state over his agree just and aggressive voter suppression activities. and on the night, the 16th of november when i acknowledge that i would not become the governor. that he had won the election. i did not challenge the outcome of the election, unlike some recent folks did. what i said was that the system was not fair. and leaders challenge systems. leaders say, we can do better. and that's what i declared. i could not in good conscience see that in order to protect my political future i'm going to be silent about that political present, which is that we had a system under the leader that sought to keep people from casting their ballots. that threw those ballots out. that said that voter suppression was a viable tactic for winning elections. i am so proud of the work that i've been able to do in the last three years. but even more, i'm proud of the work that georgians have done to demonstrate their capacity to have their voices heard. to participate elections. to change their stars. to change their futures. and i could not be prouder that i was part of that. icing on november 16th, 2018, that my time would be committed to ensuring the protection of our system. defending our democracy and ensuring access to the right to vote. ng access to t>> stacey, i thine reason that you've been -- you became a national figure in ways that didn't necessarily make sense on paper, but did make sense as soon as you open your mouth, as soon as people started talking to you. is because all those years and years and years and years of organizing, particularly voting rights work that you did in georgia. you built a record of both being absolutely committed to issues, particularly like voting rights, and also being very practical. and getting stuff done. and having results to show for your work. i feel like at the national level right now, you're one of the only people i know who holds both of those mantles. i have worked -- i have results to show for my work and i am devoted in a lifelong way to voting rights. i think a lot of americans, particularly a lot of central and central left americans, feel very helpless about the electoral process. about voting rights. about the way that the system is being erased to ensure minority rules, in lots of different ways. do you feel like there is a practical way forward there? certainly in washington right now, it feels incredibly stuck. >> i actually do feel that we are making progress. sadly, because of the dramatization of our politics, we have come to expect these high moments at achievement. but the work is hard and it's plotting, and it takes time. but what we have watched over the last ten months on voting rights has been a shift among those who were not standing with us. who are now standing and leading on the issue. we have seen changes made in the language to protect our voters. to protect our election workers. to protect our democracy. we're continuing to see progress. i am very bullish on the likelihood that the freedom to vote act and the john lewis voting rights advancement act will pass. because we know that in lieu of their passage, what we saw happen across the states this year is going to be redoubled, starting in january. when you state legislators come back and they feel the fervor of the insurrection filling their veins again, they're going to continue to pass voter suppression legislation. and congress, especially the u.s. senate, has to understand that action is vital. and we're seeing that play out with the gerrymandering. we're seeing it play out in how election workers are under attack. and we're seeing it play out in the conversations about whether we have a real democracy. i have faith in our leaders, because i have faith in our people. americans will not stand for the fall of our nation, and i believe that we will continue to lift our voices. but more importantly, we have seen 50 senators say time again that they're going to put patriotism above partisanship. and my hope is that they will be joined. and if they are enjoying, then at least we will see action taken, because whether or not people want it done, we know we need action to be taken. ken. >> stacey abrams, newly declared candidate for governor of georgia. this race was a barn burner in every possible way in 2018. this year, i can guarantee is going to be all that. more stacey, thank you so much for being here tonight. we look for to having you back. good luck with your campaign. >> thank you, and i acts everyone to go to stacey abrams .com to learn more about our race. >> see, now that's practical. 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