through the area early saturday morning. many of those missing were at a candle factory that collapsed as they were working inside. at least six people were killed at an amazon distribution center in southern illinois. four states in all were devastated by the deadly twisters with more than a hundred people feared killed. more on this developing story ahead this hour. in washington, d.c., the house committee investigating the january 6th insurrection has released its full mark meadows contempt report 24 hours ahead of tomorrow's vote by the committee. we only started digging through all 51 pages but among other things it says meadows exchanged messages with a member of congress in november, 2020, indicating potus meaning donald trump wants to chat with certain state legislators and on january 5th one day before the assault on the capitol mark meadows wrote in an e-mail that the national guard was on stand by to protect pro trump people. why the national guard was so slow to respond has been a matter of much controversy. we'll have much more on that report ahead of tomorrow night's crucial vote. but first, when donald trump addressed a crowd of thousands of supporters in washington, d.c. on january 6th before many in that crowd marched to the capitol and, you know, attacked it, among those in the crowd were a married couple from central pennsylvania. they said the election was stolen. but they claimed not to have breached the capitol. they said they just went there to hear the speeches as you do. and then when they went home they ran for the local school board. both of them. having never run for anything in their lives. they received the backing of the right wing family values group acing the questionnaire. no teaching of critical race theory. check. excluding trans kids from sports. check. and from bathrooms. another check. they also received the support of the local republican party and they won. steven and danielle lindmouth were part of a republican sweep of the elizabethtown, pennsylvania area school board because that is the republican party strategy, right? school boards are no longer the sleepy hope of budget meetings and how many snow days. they are the fiery front line of fights over book banning and the teaching of america's true racial past and what is science anyway? masks in a pandemic? who needs them? the gop is using school boards to rile up their base. that isn't everything. steven lindemuth even got elected to the normally noncontroversial, nonpartisan position of judge of elections in mount joy township, pennsylvania. a local office that administers polling on election day. sounds obscure and trivial. but every little bit helps when you are trying to steal an election. pennsylvania has a critical senate race on the 2022 calendar. could steven and danielle lindemuth be part of the republican party's plan to win in pennsylvania by any means necessary? anyone on the right it seems has a role to play no matter how small when it comes to overturning democracy. look, we know this much for certain. mr. lindemuth's victory in november in this conservative rural community is a milestone of sorts in american politics. the arrival of the first class of political activists who galvanized by donald j. trump's false claim of a stolen election in 2020 have begun seeking offices supervising election systems they believe robbed mr. trump of a second term according to a may reuters poll, more than 60% of republicans now believe the 2020 election was stolen. a percentage as ridiculous as it is scary. it's becoming clearer with each passing day that many members of trump world will stop at nothing to win. we also learned this week that trump's attorney and former traffic court lawyer jenna ellis wrote two memos in the week before january 6th arguing that pence could prevent biden from taking office. to call her legal arguments far fetched would do a discredit to the term legal argument. in effect she made the case the then vice president should simply refuse to open the envelope so the states whose results trump considered fraudulent, what results? i don't see any results. and if you think that was bad, an election denier pushing a power point presentation on how to overthrow biden's victory says he met with trump's chief of staff mark meadows after the election maybe eight times or maybe ten. he also spoke to some elected republicans in congress. but we don't know which republicans. meanwhile donald trump right now continues to lay the ground work for a 2024 run by hunting for disloyal republicans and getting them purged from the party he now owns. that includes putting hand picked loyalists in charge of elections in key battlegrounds. because being an election worker just doing your job is now grounds for being harassed. in another twist to the big lie story according to police body cam video obtained by reuters, kanye west's publicist went to a georgia election worker's home to try to force her to confess to bogus fraud charges. who had kanye west's publicist pressuring a georgia election worker on their 2021 bingo card? you know, in the same way that i used to blithely say avoid that like the plague and i no longer do because it turns out we don't avoid plagues, it's also become clear to me this year that democracy does not die in darkness. at least not now not here. american democracy is dying in broad daylight. joining us now is timothy snyder a professor of history at yale university and an author of "on tyranny: 20 lessons from the 20th century." tim, thanks so much for coming back on the show. you have the election worker basically intimidated in georgia. people who attended the 1-6 rally getting elected to new office. new memos how to pull off a coup. a power point calling for a national emergency to prevent the election count. what out of all of those news stories concerns you the most as somebody who studies coups and autocracy for a living? >> the fundamental thing that concerns me in the short term is that a failed coup is always practice for a successful coup. countries that have coups very rarely have just one. what we've seen in the u.s. is a failed coup that involved elements of the department of justice, trump supporters, mr. trump, chief of staff, a lot of people on capitol hill. it didn't work. but precisely when coups don't work they become the lessons you draw in order to have a successful one. then underneath it all the thing that concerns me the most is the big lie. the way the big lie now shapes peoples lives, the way it is not just an absence of truth but something that filters media, filters a whole political party. it is now serving as you just said as a way to purge loyalists and seemingly obscure positions. the big lie becomes a way to cover for the fact that what you're doing is taking revenge for something that never really happened. the big lie paints you as the victim and it gives you the right to do whatever you want the next time around. deeply, that is the thing that concerns me. >> so given all the daily dose of revelations we are getting these days let me ask you plainly. how close did we come to losing our democracy this year and how close are we to losing it in 2024? >> well, it is very clear that we came close to losing it last time. there are a lot of wise people in 2020 who are aware of the possibility, of this scenario. there was an important center right to far left coalition which operated in this country in 2020 not just in the voting booths but also in civil society to try to head off the most probable variants of the coup. there were very wise people inside and outside government institutions perfectly aware that was possible, right? so we came very close. if people had been as foolish in 2020 as they were in 2016, it would have happened. but i'm much more afraid of 20 -- by the way, i am somebody would predicted in print that trump would try to carry out a coup de tat. i am more concerned about 2024 than 2020. 2024 is less about an individual though he is still around and more about preparations that are being made in advance. the 2020 coup attempt was not particularly skillfully planned. it didn't have a lot of conspirators. there wasn't a lot of local buy-in. in 2024 we are looking at something quite different, a whole political party who is basically made trying to install a president, a presidential candidate who has lost, they've made that one their one issue. installing mr. trump after he loses is now the single party issue. that is very concerning and i think really should be the way we should frame the whole discussion as you tried to do in your fine introduction. the main stream story, the most likely thing to happen now is that the man who loses the election is going to be installed as president. it is up to us to tell the story cleanly and clearly so that we can make preparations. >> why do you think the democratic party is not making preparations? we are a year, almost a year in to the biden presidency, the democratic control of both houses. not a single piece of pro democracy voting rights legislation has been passed into law even though we're all seeing this happen in front of our eyes. it is driving me crazy. >> it's not just driving me crazy it is making me very, very concerned. because this is the way democracies fail. they can fail with violent coups but usually fail with a combination of some little coup and some big legal preparation which is what we're seeing. the legal preparation in fairness to the democrats, it is possible at the state level because democrats don't control the states. that is how our electoral system is set up. at the federal level we don't have a representative system. most people would like the united states to be a democracy but most people are not directly represented in our system. the democrats unfortunately don't have the kind of majority that they had for example under fdr or these laws would pass. i think they are at a real impasse. the democrats are people who would like to believe the other side also wants to play by the rules. they are not really set up as a combative party. this is their basic problem. >> yes, it is. it very much is. one last quick question. is there a danger we obsess too much over secret documents, leaked documents, power point slides, in the chief of staff's e-mail inbox? because we are so used to treating only secret things as scandals and not the public evidence of a coup we've had before us since january 6th? even if there were no leaked memos or body cam videos we just showed we'd still have trump inciting the attack on the capitol on january 6th in public. trump has always done the quiet part out loud which i think kind of numbs us to his authoritarian and racist tendencies >> i think in a strange way the details are comforting because we can focus on the individual scandalous detail and lose sight of the overall picture which is very clear. the overall picture is we had a president of the united states, sitting president, try to carry out a coup de tat. the other part of the big picture is a major political party is setting up to install that man a second time as president after he loses an elek. that is the big story. media coverage should be organized around that. everything else are basically footnotes to support that big story. we know that's the big story. it's as clear as day. >> tim snyder, many thanks. appreciate your analysis as ever. ahead, just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, gop extremism reaching a new low with fresh comments on covid from out of touch senator ron johnson. my 60-second rant on that coming up. first how do you navigate a country so consumed with erasing our history? pulitzer prize winning journalist and creator of the 1619 project nikole hannah-jones joins me right after the break. first, steve romo is here with the headlines. hey, steven. >> many thanks. let's get you caught up. desperate search and rescue efforts are under way this evening as a catastrophic chain of tornadoes swept through the central u.s. late friday night. at least 48 people have been killed by the storms and the death toll is expected to rise in the coming days as crews sift through the rubble. kentucky was particularly hard hit. governor andy brashear declared a state of emergency early saturday morning describing the disaster as the deadliest tornado event in the commonwealth history. on sunday he told the press he is concerned most of the morgues in the area aren't big enough to handle the grim situation on the ground. restoring power is also a challenge across kentucky. more than 100,000 residents remain without electricity or heat and many have no place left to turn. brashear reflected on the difficulties facing the commonwealth in a press conference sunday afternoon. >> i wish i understood why we've gotten hit with a pandemic, historic ice storm, flooding, and now the worst tornado in our history all in a span of 19 months. what i do know is that in kentucky we're good people. we care about one another. that's why people are out in the storm helping their names or people they don't know. >> president biden released a statement on twitter calling the storms an unimaginable tragedy and offering the federal government's support to the affected states. the president is reportedly planning to visit the region and survey storm damage once the circumstances actually allow it. we're back with more after this. you get advice like: try hypnosis... or... quit cold turkey. kidding me?! instead, start small. with nicorette. which can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette new vicks convenience pack. dayquil severe for you... and daily vicks super c for me. vicks super c is a daily supplement with vitamin c and b vitamins to help energize and replenish. dayquil severe is a max strength daytime, coughing, power through your day, medicine. new from vicks. wow... that's so nice! the gift of ancestry®... is a walk through your history. do you remember who this is? 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"between the world and me." to name just a few. earlier this year the wisconsin state assembly passed a ban on teaching critical race theory in public schools. it is not being taught in public schools. a republican state lawmaker there is pushing to criminalize a list of forbidden words in the classroom. parents, cover your children's ears for this in exhibit. we wouldn't want them hearing about the "d" word, the "e" word, even the dreaded "m" word. they're trying to ban words like diversity, equity, and multi culturalism among many others. republican lawmakers also are trying to restrict the teaching in classrooms across america of the award-winning 1619 project from the "new york times" which aims to reframe the country's history around 1619 and the start of american slavery. in fact, former president trump got so worked up over it that he created his own so-called 1776 commission just to try to counter act it. since the 1619 project was first released the brains behind it pulitzer prize winning author nikole hannah-jones has become something of a bogey man for the american right enduring relentless attacks and smears and abuse so i am delighted to have the woman herself nikole hannah-jones on the program tonight. her new book is called "the 1619 project a new origin story" an expansion of her groundbreaking work that first appeared in the times and is now available as a picture book for kids called "the 1619 project born on the water." thanks so much for joining me tonight. i've been waiting to have this conversation with you. let me just begin. can i ask you what i recently asked congresswoman ilhan omar when she came on the show because i feel you and her are enduring a similar set of attacks based on your race and gender. how are you coping with this all with the relentless focus on you from the right? how are you? >> well, one, thank you for asking that and for your persistance. i am glad we could finally make it work. your show is so important and your voice right now is just critical. you know, i'm doing just fine. i can't say it's been easy these last two years but i am built for this and i wake up every day knowing that the work that i do is important and necessary so i'm fine. >> good to hear. you are built for this and we admire the work you are doing. the right's campaign against you has also affected your career. you ended up leaving unc chapel hill this year after a top donor objected to you receiving tenure there. we often talk about the backlash to the antiracism movement as if it is a spontaneous thing or knee jerk reaction from ignorant people but in reality it is a well funded, big money movement with some very powerful people behind it, is it not? >> yes, absolutely. these are the people who have been engaging in what they call culture war and what the media unfortunately calls culture war for a long time. i was prevented from gaining tenure at the university of north carolina by a board of trustees that was appointed by the state legislature, so we are at this place where we have so many people, even people who would consider themselves progressive, who are saying that our biggest fear, are diversity trainings done poorly, or campus students protesting a professor's lesson that they don't like. meanwhile conservatives are using the levers of the state to actually suppress free speech by law. there are laws now being considered that will criminalize, make a felony, if teachers teach certain texts that republicans don't like. so i think we are really at a critical juncture. i was so happy to see that you had timothy snyder, professor snyder on. i have been studying his work. i think he's been a salient voice to really point out how dangerous these times are. >> i'm glad you mentioned some, quote-unquote, progressive voices who jumped on this band wagon. you often hear from more conservative centris times square and also some republicans who say the left has become too damn woke and they are losing elections because of it. i spoke to tom nicoles the never trumper from the atlantic about that last week. >> the objection i keep raising is that if you're trying to build a coalition of ordinary voters who are not no matter whether you think they should or not are not going to sit through a graduate seminar in race and gender, who are not as plugged in every day to the political discourse the way people like you and i might be, you are going to lose elections. >> what i find so amazing about that argument is that if that were in fact the fear you wouldn't see republicans gerrymandering to ensure they can win elections even when they have a minority of the votes. you wouldn't see efforts to make voting for people of color more difficult. you wouldn't have seen an attempted coup in our capitol on january 6th. if the belief was the policies of the left of progressive people talking about racism, who are talking about women's rights, who are talking about queer rights, if that wasn't there that they could turn off so many voters democrats couldn't win why are there so many efforts across the country from state houses to the capitol to keep these people from voting? if in fact republicans can easily win a majority of voters. it is just not true. >> it is such a good point. the co-author of "how democracies die" a harvard professor made a point similar to yours recently saying democrats have won 7 of the last 8 presidential elections, popular vote. it is the institutions causing problems for democrats not the policies which are hugely popular. nikole the 1619 project you won a pulitzer for, that is a new book project now, too. it has nothing to do with critical race theory. it has been lumped in with the anti-crt campaign by the right by republican lawmakers threatening to cut funding to schools that include the 1619 project in their classroom discussions. do you think liberals on the left have been slow to react to this conservative campaign at the school board level to pushing back against it to stand up for free speech for history? >> absolutely. we know that this effort, this propaganda campaign, we should call it what it is, we know critical race theory was in fact not being taught. this is an effort to stoke white resentment following the global racial protests last year because race is the original wedge issue. so we know that that is very organized, that it's been funded. it's been treated as a grass roots movement. most of the people we see focused or excuse me interviewed on main stream television shows and in newspapers are in fact many of them are republican operatives. that that has been a very organized campaign. and the resistance to that has not been organized at all. in fact, it's been kind of astoundingly silent when we consider again that the state is prohibiting speech that it does not like. that it is out-lawing speech it doesn't like. another thing i think is important. we have to stop allowing propagandas to define the terms. there is nothing wrong with critical race theory being taught. critical race theory simply says that 60 years outside of the civil rights movement why do we still see so much inequality in our society? and it seeks to explain why we see so much inequality after the civil rights movement. so no the 1619 project is not critical race theory. it is certainly informed by critical race theory and asking similar questions which is why do black americans still fall at the bottom of every indicator of well-being even though we all have ostensibly equal rights now? part of the problem is the resistance that is been very disorganized and tepid. even people who say they stand up for free speech, organizations that fight for free speech, it has been very tepid. i also think the case is that we have to just push back and not allow a propaganda campaign to define the debate. >> nikole, i want to ask about criticism the 1619 project received not just from the bad faith right but from good faith nonright wing historians for example northwestern university's leslie harris who took issue with your claim that one of the main reasons colonies declared independence was to preserve the institution of slavery. later corrected in your essay. i wonder in hindsight is that something you regret making that mistake giving your bad faith opponents a stick with which to beat you and the historical accuracy of the entire project? >> so first let me say, i would invite anyone to hold their journalism up to the level of scrutiny this project has gotten and see how it comes out in the end. no. was everything in the project perfect? it could never be. i need to push back a bit. we didn't correct it. what we added were two words so we said, one of the primary reasons that colonists wanted to gain independence from the british was because of slavery and we added some of. one of the reasons some of the colonists. it wasn't a correction but a clarification. i don't regret it. i do regret my language wasn't more clear but if people read the book they'll see that we've actually expanded that section of the book, that argument is even stronger than it was before. and i don't think that rational people who think about the fact that so many of our founders were enslafrs that the men who wrote our primary document, the declaration of independence, constitution, bill of rights, were all enslavers that slavery would be some motivation in an era where enslavers were seeking to maintain their property and not having to pay so much taxes. i don't regret including that because i think it is true. i do regret i wasn't more clear. i know we probably don't have a lot of time but debate is part of historiography. it is about interpretation and the fact this was used to discredit the entire project speaks to that many people simply don't agree with what the project is arguing >> i have to ask, as you say, debate over history is very important but what is going on right now, to me, the attacks on the education system, on our teaching of history, seem to fit in very much with what tim snyder was saying earlier, what you and tim snyder are saying in two different parts of the show are part of the same story. this is fascistic, a page from the hungary playbook. >> it is. these are the books i'm reading right now because these are the books i think that are necessary to understand what is happening. as jason stanley argues in "how facism works" conservatives in fascist movements want to replace facts with power. and they want us to believe in the history that didn't actually exist because that allows them to take power and that is the moment that we're in. i think that is what 1619 has gotten caught up in. >> jason stanley was on the show a few days ago. i'm glad you're citing his book. appreciate you coming on the show. thank you for your time. >> thank you so much. still to come, the fringes of the gop growing more and more extreme and ignorant but this week there is one republican senator at the top of my list. more after the break. 60-second rant coming up. sharp, stabbing pains, or an intense burning sensation. what is this nightmare? 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(combative yelling) therabreath, it's a better mouthwash. at walmart, target and other fine stores. we are back with michelle eisen one of the organizers behind the starbucks unionization vote in buffalo. michelle, congratulations on those organization efforts. we've got video on screen right now of your team celebrating after the votes were counted. what was that moment like for you? how are you feeling now? >> it was amazing. it was everything we've worked for in the last three months coming to fruition. i think in that video i'm still doing a lot of processing. it took me a little while to even accept what i had just seen so it was awesome. >> michelle, this was a very high profile union drive that went on in buffalo. a lot is made about your victory. to be fair you're still union -- your store unionized by a vote of 19-8. not a massive group of people. you are in a part of new york state some people view as pro union. what if anything do you think your successful drive says about other starbucks' location attempts to unionize let alone the broader u.s. labor movement nationwide? >> i think it says that there is a want for it and there is a need for it and i think we're going to see a lot more of it. it is people who have been put in a position or in a box and told that their work life, you know, what they do for a living is not important enough to necessitate fair working conditions and fair pay and we're standing up and saying that is just not true. that everyone deserves to have good working conditions and fair pay regardless of what your career is. >> president biden released a statement on friday criticizing a plan by kellogg's to permanently replace striking workers while they negotiate for a better contract. do you feel like the workers of america now have a friend in the white house? >> i mean i hope so. i certainly think that was a statement that needed to be made and i don't think it should be specific to individual businesses. i think it should just be a blanket statement, you know, made across the country that workers deserve to be respected and paid fairly and, you know, it shouldn't take an act of needing to go on strike for those conditions. those conditions should just be guaranteed. >> last quick question, michelle. what are you hearing from starbucks management since the vote? do you expect them to continue to play hardball when it comes to negotiations? >> unfortunately i do think they'll continue to play hardball. they have waged a pretty intense antiunion campaign leading up to this vote. we have three more stores that are about to get their vote date. there's actually been very little acknowledgment just like when our campaign went public they chose mostly to just ignore it until they couldn't and so far there's been very, very little acknowledgment at least from corporate as to this even having happened, which is a little disheartening given how much time i've spent with a company i really thought was one of the better ones. >> we'll have to leave it ones. >> we'll have to leave it there, michelle isen thank you for joining me tonight. sometimes, to defend basic principles like free speech or free press, you have to defend people you you may find distasteful or even loathe and with that in mind, we have to talk about julian assange, founder of wiki leaks. some of you may not enjoy what i'm about to say, but he has been extradited to the united states, now, he doesn't have too many friends in the u.s., many seeing him as defending the war or terror, involving in the campaign and helping trump win. he has been accused of sexual assault, antisemitism and endangering the lives of those who worked in the u.s., but frankly, none of that, i'm sorry to say is relevant to this particular case. this is a case launched on assange in 2010 long before clinton v trump. it's about first amendment, freedom of the press, censorship. back in 2014, the justice department admitted the problem in investigating julian assange is there's no way to prosecute him involving investigation without the same applying to journalists. in 2019, the new york time editorial board indictment on assange aimed at the heart of all the first amendment. international, aclu, put out an open letter saying the proceedings against assange jeopardize democracy. it's also about assange working with chelsea manning to break into a report, hacking a computer and stealing certain documents. now, one of the ideas that the u.s. relies on to their case that he is a serial hacker is a testimony assange made in icelandic interview over the summer. you may not know that because most of the u.s. didn't use it, but still, it's the use of espionage in this case. it's not supposed to be used in acts of journalism, and the documents and videos wikileaks released of the war war were certainly in the u.s. interest. you have to wonder on assange's behalf, and trump's involvement in the issue, a huge mistake if you don't think a future trump administration will utilize this precedent of going after assange to go after the rest of us in the mainstream media, or fake media as they call it, you're more hopeful than i am. i am no fan of julian assange as a person, i'm appalled he would suck up to the trump family or wouldn't give the woman that accused him of sexual assault a day in court, but you don't have to be a fan of julian assange or wiki leaks to be worried about the action the u.s. is taking. quoting, if we don't believe in freedom, we don't believe in it at all. it's wrong when trump did it and it's wrong when biden did it happen. i would point out that the u.s. government spend time sailing assange, failing to point out war crimes that wiki leaks was involved in 2010. hearing from someone who knows a assange personally and saying it's a threat to free media. he said, assange may be an a-hole, scratch that, he is an a-hole, but we'll have to stand up for him anyway. at the top of the hour on ayman, top expert joins ayman to talk about what's next on julian assange wikileaks founder. don't miss out on ayman. i'll be back on the show after this break. i'll be back on the show after this break starts with a healthy immune system. with vitamins c and d, and zinc. getting out there has never tasted so good. try centrum multigummies. i've got moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now, there's skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months, after just 2 doses. skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms such as fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches, or coughs or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine. ♪nothing is everything♪ talk to your dermatologist about skyrizi. learn how abbvie could help you save. ♪ ♪ ♪ (sha bop sha bop) ♪ ♪ are the stars out tonight? (sha bop sha bop) ♪ ♪ ♪ alexa, play our favorite song again. ok. ♪ i only have eyes for you ♪ - oh...oh. - what's going on? - oh, darn! - let me help. ok. lift and push and push! there... it's up there. hey joshie... wrinkles send the wrong message. help prevent them with downy wrinkleguard. feel the difference with downy. ♪ ♪ no two dreams are the same. but there is one van equipped to handle them all. for over 120 years, mercedes-benz vans have been built, upfitted and ready to go. because we believe dreams - should never stay that way. that's all from me for this hour. you can catch my show monday through thursday, 7:00 p.m. eastern on on the choice, on nbc's streaming channel, pea cock. i'll hand it over to ayman, before i go, did you hear the governor blocked the extreme abortion law, claims he will use the texas loophole to halt the sale of assault rifles. quoting, if that's the president, we'll let california i knows sue those who put ghost guns and assault weapons on our streets. if texan can remove brgz laws. surely, if that's the way they do politics, you sort of have to. >> i agree, i think adam newsom is doing thing that are pretty clever, one, using the politics in texas that are, quite honestly, pandemic in this country, mass shootings. so it's quite brilliant on his part to use that loophole to go after gun manufactures. i think there are questions about the legality of it but that may work in his favor, because it may put pressure on texas and the justices who now see the loop hole he has identified in california going after gunrights and makers and sellers whether that will apply in texas. it may kick the justices into gear saying wait, if we see this play out in california we have to stop it there and force them to do the same in texas. >> i think the