underway in congress tonight. to hold, in contempt, the white house chief of staff to former president trump, former republican mark meadows. now, last night at this time we were reporting on a bombshell hearing from the january six investigation. in which they voted to recommend holding mr. meadows in contempt at that hearing. the january six investigators read into the public records all of this new material we had never -- heard of before. quote, text, and emails that mark meadows had turned into the investigators before something spooked him. and he decided he was no longer going to cooperate. he was going to defy their subpoenas last night. so when we got those shocking details from some of the materials meadows turned over, including verbatim texts and emails from prominent conservative news personalities. and from members of congress. and all sorts of other people. whose words we have not heard. in the investigation thus far about what happened on january six. people who do not only believe that trump was responsible for the violence that was underway, but that the violence was very serious and that only he can turn it off. pleading with him to try to turn it off. a very dramatic stuff from the committee last night. the way it pursued really works out is that the committee votes whether or not they are going to hold him in contempt. then it needs to go to the rules committee of the house. then the full house of representatives takes a vote on holding him in contempt and referring him for criminal prosecution by the u.s. justice department. so, we have the rules committee do their thing dismounting. tonight we have the debate underway in the full house. tonight has also been a night of further revelations. tonight, during the debate, ahead of this vote in the full house, members of the investigation did not just do this proforma. they didn't just do this referring back to all the stuff that we already previously learn from them. tonight, during the debate, before this vote in the house, the members of the january six investigation released yet more new material. and the reason they are doing this is, formally, they are trying to make the case to members of congress that they should know why it is so important that mark meadows speaks to the investigation. why it is so consequential to the investigation that he is now refusing to answer questions. even about the material that he has already provided. so they keep giving in samples about stuff they have learned from the materials he has provided. explaining that this is a serious about what happened on january six. but they really need to be able to ask him about it. him refusing to answer questions about it is consequential. the investigation needs this material. that is formally the case that they are making. as a matter of real politics, what they keep doing is dropping bombshells every few hours now in this investigation. this is tonight in the house. >> how did the following text from a house lawmaker influence trump's plans to overthrow joe biden's electoral college majority of 206 to 332 after joe biden beat donald trump? and here is what the lawmakers wrote him. on november 4th, a member of this body wrote to meadows, here is an aggressive strategy. one day after the election. why can't the states of georgia, north carolina, pennsylvania and other republican controlled state houses declare this as bs? we're conflicts and elections were not called that night and just send their own electors to vote and have a go to the scotus. the supreme court of the united states. how did this techs influence the planning of mark meadows and donald trump to try to destroy the lawful electoral college majority that had been established by the people of the united states in the states for joe biden? those are the kinds of questions that we have a right to ask mark meadows. >> we also, to ask him about text messages which he provided to our committee, that show an official in georgia texting mr. meadows during the trump wraps in spurred or call. quoting that they need to end this call, and, quote and emphasizing that i don't think this will be a productive talk much longer. we need to talk to mr. meadows about that. on january 3rd, mr. meadows was exchanging text messages with a lawmaker about the pressure campaign. to get state legislatures to overturn the results of the election. in one text message to a lawmaker, mr. meadows wrote, he presumably being presidential, amp quote, he thinks the legislatures have the power. but the vp has power to. and quote. the power to do what? we can get the power to overturn the election results. the power to reject the will of the voters. and days later, a violent mob tried to get vice president pence to do that. we'd like to ask mr. meadows about that. >> congressman pete aguilar from the january six investigation they're citing text messages between trump's white house chief of staff, mark meadows and a member of congress. messages that appeared to be about how to throw out the election results. state legislatures and the vice president, that is how will do it, right? that was the plot. that was the scheme. by which they tried to do. it congressman jamie raffensperger also said that to the white house chief of staff, by a member of congress. have republican control state legislators, to send -- let the supreme court sorted out. yes, that was the plot. [laughs] >> and that was sent from a member of congress. to the white house chief of staff the day after the election. when the election hadn't even been called yet. again, formally, they are making the case to members of congress, there is all this very intriguing and interesting stuff that we have learned from mr. meadows by the heart of our investigation, we need to ask him about these materials. in real politics, what they are doing, is exploding one of these every few hours. new information that, in some cases, can be tied directly to individual members of congress. and with each of these things that are attributed to a member of congress, the committee has made clear, they know which member of congress it is. beyond that, the vice chair of the investigation, republican congresswoman liz cheney, is making clear right now, both last night, and today, that the january six has taken a turn towards criminal liability. not just who is going to look like a bad guy in history. but who has been caught, potentially, committed crimes here. and i will show you what i mean. i am going to play your two clips of liz cheney, one from last, night one from today. when she said this last night, prosecutors all over the country lost it. anybody who has ever been a criminal defendant all over the country. everybody had an idea when she said this. wait a second, what did she say there? >> mr. meadows testimony will bear on another key question before this committee. did donald trump through action or inaction, corruptly seek to obstruct or impede congress's official proceedings to count electoral votes? >> that was list cheney last night. we learned today, that was not a slip of a tongue. that was not an in considered remark because she said it again today. >> did donald trump, through action or inaction, corruptly seek to obstruct or impede congress's official proceedings to count electoral votes? >> all together now. mr. meadows testimony will bear on a key question before this committee. did donald trump direction or inaction, corruptly seek or or impede congress official proceedings to count the electoral votes? says this cheney last night. says liz cheney today. the vice chair has repeatedly asked that question. to make the case for how important it is to talk to mark meadows. she has repeatedly asked that question about the criminal culpability of former president donald trump. and by saying, for phrase, criminal culpability, because the language he is quoting there in that clunky turn of raids that she is deliberately repeating, that turn of frates's from a statute. 18 u.s. code section 15 oh. five whoever corruptly influences obstruct or impede the endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede the due to a proper administration of the law under which any proceedings is being had, must be fined in prison for five years or if the infants of all this international or domestic terrorism imprisoned not for more than eight years. this is a federal crime that the vice chair of the investigation says it is inquiring about when it comes to mr. trump. and they would like to question mr. meadows about whether or not mr. trump committed that crime. all right. because if somebody corruptly obstructed or impeded congress's official count of the electoral votes, that is a federal crime. and crime should pay. so whoever did it should be caught and punished. this has basically been revealed now as the direction of the january six investigation. the investigators, the members of the committee, basically revealed last night that this is the way the direction is heading towards. towards uncovering, and presumably referring for prosecution serious felony misconduct. crimes. and since this was basically revealed us a direction of the investigation last night. the thing that has been going off like a fistful of bottle rockets inside a locked metal mailbox, is the prospect that not only is former president donald trump in the crosshairs of the investigation along these lines. but serving members of congress may be in the crosshairs as well. including those who helped hatch the plot to falsify the election result. here is an aggressive strategy. also according to liz cheney, one sitting member of congress was working with trump justice department official, jeff clark. on jeff clark's alleged part of the plot was that the justice department would be used to induce various states to falsified their election results. jeff clark himself has pled the fifth. as liz cheney described last night, and again today, in exactly the same language. he pled the fifth. in anticipation for prosecution along these prosecutions. well according to the investigation, a member of congress was working with him on that. and the investigation knows with that member of congress is, but they have until this. yet they said they will. they haven't told us yet. the prospect that the sort of crosshairs, potential, criminal liability is in line here when it comes to the former president. and the prospect that the members of congress who are implicated on what happened on january six, that we are getting to the part where those members of congress made least the subpoenaed, that those members may have possible across the queue shun looming around them as members of congress. that is maybe why things feel so nuts right now in washington. it turns out, this january six investigation is getting somewhere. some were apparently serious. and that makes this a very stressful time for everybody who was involved in the plot, i'm sure. one particular person who was quite key to the plot. the guy at the top. who was already having a very miserable day before this unfolded over the course of today and tonight. as we are going to talk about in detail, this evening, the washington post has just reported that former president trump's longtime accountant has started giving testimony to a new york grand jury. those investigating trump's financial practices. this is an investigation looking at alleged tax fraud, bank fraud, insurance fraud by trump and his company. this is the investigation that has already put felony charges over his business. this has already obtained millions of pages related to trump from his accounting from. but now with this actual accountant. responding to subpoenas. and appearing before the grand jury as the washington post puts it tonight, this country is now hearing testimony, quote, from a man who can serve from a human road map to that data. his accountant can serve as a human decoder to the millions of pages of financial documents that that investigation has already obtained from trump and his business. what could be worse for trump than learning that his longtime accountant is testifying about him to the grand jury. a grand jury that has millions of pages of documents to back up that testimony. what could be worse for trump? the only thing that could be worse is learning that his longtime banker is talking about him, too. and indeed, the washington post was first to report tonight that rosemary vrablic, but trump's longtime banker ad deutsche bank, who has handled hundreds of millions of dollars in facially inexplicable loans to donald trump through the years through deutsche bank -- the post reports tonight that she is also talking to prosecutors now in the trump case. his longtime accountant, and his longtime banker. one of them appearing before the grand jury. one of them just speaking directly with prosecutors in that ongoing criminal investigation of trump that is already resulted in felony charges against his business. and all of that news for trump tonight, before we got this new ruling later on this evening from a federal judge in washington d.c.. a ruling that in fact, yes, trump's tax returns must be handed over to the house ways and means committee. this was a trump appointed federal judge who made this really ruling, for what that's worth. but the law here appears to be kind of a black letter, no wiggle room situation. trump will certainly appeal this ruling and the judges order that the tax returns have to be conveyed to the house. that ruling is on hold while the inevitable appeal goes ahead. but like i said, kind of a bad day already for individual one. already for individual one right? with his longtime accountant and his longtime bank or both involved in the criminal prosecution of his -- the ongoing criminal prosecution and investigation of him and his company in new york. and adverse root against him in terms of handing over his tax returns to the ways and means committee that has been investigating that along a number of different lines. it comes as his white house chief of staff is being referred to the justice department for criminal prosecution in conjunction with what we now know is a great guns investigation. that is openly talking about trump in relation to at least one serious federal family charge that brings with it a five year prison term. how was your tuesday? here's the thing though. it's worth widening the lanes a little bit, i think, on nights like this. particularly when a whole bunch of things happen at once. what are the implications of this? not just for individuals involved, for personal accountability? what are the implications for us, as a country? we've got georgia u.s. senator reverend raphael warnock joining us live tonight in a couple minutes. the reason he is joining us is because as this january six investigation turns into the bigger picture -- not just the immediate, violent acts in the capitol that day. but the plot that the capitol attack was part of. as the january six investigations turns out to go root and branch. after the whole, big plot to use fake fraud claims as a pretext for rejecting the election results, for toppling the u.s. government and installing a losing candidate as president. as a general six investigation is moving away from the simple idea of incitement to violence, incitement to right and it turns instead to uncovering this months-long, complex plot that involves not just the president and not just multiple administration officials. but apparently, multiple members of congress as well. there is this incredible new level of drama and anxiety in washington over the question of whether these guys might not get away with it any longer. if they participated in a criminal plot to falsify results in the states, to block the administration of the election at the capitol, to their by illegally overthrow the government, there is new urgency to the question of whether or not they personally are going to get away with it. this newly-urgent question. the investigation, yes, is having people prosecuted for contempt. but its members are naming even more serious crimes that are in the bull's-eye of this investigation. we now have this new urgent question as to whether the people involved in that plot are going to get away with it, personally. but also, will they get away with it politically? because the effort to overthrow the election relied, at the sort of nuts and bolts level, on the false claims of election fraud. and those false claims of election fraud have been cited as pretext, in every republican controlled state in the country, as a way to get voting rights. politically getting away with it means politically getting away with that. and senator raphael warnock called the question on that today in a really compelling way. and he joins us here next. stay with us. want your clothes to smell freshly washed all day without heavy perfumes? now they can! with downy light in-wash freshness boosters. just pour a capful of beads into your washing machine before each load. to give your laundry a light scent that lasts longer than detergent alone, with no heavy perfumes or dyes. finally, a light scent that lasts all day! new downy light, available in four naturally-inspired scents. ♪ ♪ ♪ hey google. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ limu emu... & doug ♪ ♪ superpowers from a spider 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(gasps) ♪ did it work? only pay for what you need ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ spider-man no way home in theaters december 17th feel stuck with student loan debt? move to sofi and feel what it's like to get your money right. ♪ ♪ move your student loan debt to sofi— you could save with low rates and no fees. earn a $1,000 bonus when you refi— and get your money right. ♪ >> the last few days we've been - san francisco can have criminal justice reform and public safety. but district attorney chesa boudin is failing on both. - the safety of san francisco is dependent upon chesa being recalled as soon as possible. - i didn't support the newsom recall but this is different. - chesa takes a very radical perspective and approach to criminal justice reform, which is having a negative impact on communities of color. - i never in a million years thought that my son, let alone any six-year-old, would be gunned down in the streets of san francisco and not get any justice. - chesa's failure has resulted in increase in crime against asian americans. - the da's office is in complete turmoil at this point. - for chesa boudin to intervene in so many cases is both bad management and dangerous for the city of san francisco. - we are for criminal justice reform. chesa's not it. recall chesa boudin now. covering the strange story you think would be getting more beltway press. is the story of how the senate agreed to create an exception to the filibuster so they could pass that debt ceiling today. are you asleep? did you fall asleep there for a second? did that get very worried, very quickly? i know, i know. but there is one part of this worth waking up for. whether or not you care about the stupid debt ceiling. the question is, if they can carve out an exception to the filibuster for that, why can't they do it for anything else? why couldn't they do it foresee, voting rights? so, voting rights could protections could pass the senate with a simple majority in the senate. that would mean voting rights could pass with just democratic votes, since republicans definitely won't do it. i've been kind of tearing my hair out and hollering about this for a little while now. today, somebody who knows how to talk about these things much better than i do, he finally put it the way this ought to be put. senator raphael warnock of the great state of georgia is one of the best orators of the united states senate has seen in a very, very long time. watch him on this today. watch. >> democrats have tried again and again to engage our republican friends in a discussion on this issue, one that lays out the foundation of our democracy and time and time again, because of a lack of good faith engagement the rules of the senate have prevented us from moving that conversation forward. we could not imagine, we could not imagine changing the rules. that is, until last week. because last week, we did exactly that. be very clear, last week, we changed the rules of the senate. to address another important issue, the economy. this is a step, it change in the senate rules we haven't been willing to take to save our broken democracy, but one that a bipartisan majority of this chamber thought was necessary in order to keep our economy strong. we changed the rules to protect the full faith and credit of the united states government. we've decided we must do it for the economy, but not for the democracy. so, madam president, i will be honest. this has been a difficult difficult week for me as i pondered how am i going to vote on this debt ceiling question we're about to take. i feel like i'm being asked to take a road that is a point of moral dissidents for me. because while i deeply believe that both our democracy and our economy are important, i believe that it is misplaced to change the senate rules only for the benefit of the economy, when the morning lights and our democracy are flashing at the same time. madam president, in light of the conniving methods of voter suppression we have seen enacted into law since the january 6th attack on the capital, i come to the floor today to share with the people of georgia and the american people the message that i shared with my colleagues over the weekend. and earlier today, during our caucus meeting, i said to my democratic colleagues over the last several days, number one, unfortunately, the vast majority of our republican friends have made it clear that they have no intention of trying to work with us to address voter suppression or to protect voting rights. while we cannot let our republican friends off the hook for not being equitable governing partners, if we are serious about protecting the right to vote that's under assault right now, here's the truth. it will fall to democrats to do it. and if democrats alone must raise the debt ceiling, then democrats alone must raise and repair the ceiling of our democracy. how do we in good conscience justify doing one and not the other? some of my democratic colleagues are seeing, but what about bipartisanship? isn't that important? i say, of course it is. but here's the thing we must remember. slavery was bipartisan. jim crow segregation was bipartisan. the refusal of women suffrage was a bipartisan. and an out of the basic dignity of members of the lgbtq community has long been bipartisan. the three fifths compromise was the creation of a punitive national unity at the expense of black people's basic humanity. so, when colleagues in this chamber talk to me about bipartisanship, which i believe in, i just have to ask at whose expense? who is being asked to foot the bill for this bipartisanship? and is liberty itself the cost? i submit that that is the price too high and a bridge too far. to my democratic colleagues, icy, while it is deeply unfortunate, it is more than a parent that it has been left to us to handle, alone, the task of safeguarding our democracy. the judgment of history is upon us. future generations will ask when the democracy was in a 9-1-1 state of emergency, what did you do to put the fire out? did we rise to that moment or did we hide behind procedural rules? i believe that we democrats can figure out how to get this done, even if that requires a change in the rules. which we established just last week that we can do when the issue is important enough. well, the people of georgia and across the country are seeing that voting rights are important enough. i think that voting rights are imported enough. once we handle the debt ceiling, the senate needs to make voting rights the very next issue we take up. we must do voting rights and we missed deal with this issue now. senator raphael warnock of georgia, a man. senator warnock joins us now live. senator, thank you so much for being here. i know that this has been a big and busy day already sir. thank you so very much rachel. it's always great to be with you. >> you put into words today is something that i have been in expertly and inept lee struggling with over the past couple of weeks. this revelation that it is possible to carve out exceptions to the filibuster. we don't need the filibuster rule for everything. we needed for an amendment that mike lee saw a couple of weeks ago. we apparently didn't need. it they didn't want to apply today to raise the debt ceiling. but yet, washington discourse appeared stuck on the idea that it can't be used for something so substantive, for something so important. as you put it today, foundational. like voting. writes i am agile your aim today was to try to puncture that washington discourse and turn it around. am i right in saying it that way? >> well thank you rachel, i have been struggling with this issue and struggling deeply. as i said to my colleague to the american people before the senate, this was a weekend of anguish for me. because we did just that last week. we changed the rules. and we change the rule because we think that it was important to do to protect the economy. i agree with that. , but if it's right to protect the economy it's also right to protect the democracy. and it's a contradiction. it is sheer hypocrisy to say otherwise. to change the rules in order to raise the debt ceiling while the ceiling of our democracy is crashing in all around us. i think history is going to judge us for this moment. and to be really clear, i have been focused during a year now, almost in the center on a whole range of issues. i have been focused on getting medicaid expansion in georgia. where we have 640,000 georgians, 1.4 americans in the coverage cap. i have been focused on childcare expanding. expanding job infrastructure. all of these things are important. even as we push forward, we have to deal with the infrastructure of our democracy. and that is the question confronting us right now. and the issue for democrats is, what are you going to do? sadly, our republican counterparts have already made their decision. i am not about to let them off the hook. if they are the party of lincoln then they ought to stand up for liberty. and i'll continue to make that case. but we just can't afford to wait. given all that is going on. voter suppression bills introduced themselves 49 states. dozens of provisions to subvert the will of the people. our democracy is in a 9-1-1 state of emergency. we must put the fire out. that means we've got to pass the freedom to vote act. and we must build a fire station to handle future fires. we have to pass the john lewis voting rights advancement act. that is the most important work that we can do at this time. >> senator, you said in your remarks today that you have spoken with their democratic colleagues about this. and the point that you are making, that republicans have planted their shot on, this they should not be held on -- but when it comes to acting it has never been more clear that it must be democrats who act. not that there have been these two exceptions made in the past couple of weeks. on the filibuster rule, frankly not that the january six has revealed so much terrible backstory in terms of how serious the plot was to overthrow the election and to provoke the elections in 2020, do you sense any movement? and you shift among your democratic colleagues to your way of thinking on this? >> we have been having some encouraging conversations. i have been talking to many of my colleagues, including senator manchin and i have been talking to leader shimmer. others throughout the weekend. and i am going to continue to make the case, because again, i think that this is the most important thing that we can do with congress. we make a terrible error of judgment if we behave as if these are ordinary times. these are no ordinary times. and if we don't do something to protect our democracy, here is my fear rachel, i fear that we may well have crossed a rubicon that will make it difficult for us to get back. to get back what we imagined. what we take for granted as a democracy. democracies don't die all at once. it's a little bit at a time. and anybody who's paying attention right now ought to be concerned. the good news, is we have the power to act. we can do something about. it reprieved it last week. because, why? if we didn't act, the economy would be in crisis. and i would thought, seriously, about voting against raising the debt ceiling. but i was thinking about the people back home. i was especially thinking about the most vulnerable members of our community who are not resilient. who would suffer a loss that is perhaps unimaginable if we didn't do the responsible thing. i was thinking what would happen to our democracy if we don't defend. it would change the rule last week. we ought to do the same. live up to our duties. you know, politicians make a lot of politicians when they are running for office. but one thing that i swear to do, when i put one hand in the air. i swear to defend the constitution. i am determined to do that, and i hope that my colleagues will live up to this as well. >> raphael warnock, of the great state of georgia, united states that state. thank you for making these remarks today. heartful and eloquent as always whenever you put pen to paper. but on an issue that is what needed to be explained, you did so in a beautiful way today. thank you sir. thank you for your service. >> thank, you keep the faith. >> all right, we've got much more ahead. this is a very busy news night. stay with us. stay with us so, we switched back to tide. one wash, stains are gone. 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[daughter] slurping don't pay for water. pay for clean. it's got to be tide. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ experience the power of sanctuary at the lincoln wish list event. o man, that's a whole lot of wrinkly at least my shoes look good! experience the power of sanctuary looking good start with bounce wrinkleguard, >> this is from the lawsuit. the megasheet designed to prevent wrinkles in the dryer. over the course of several, weeks there proud boys, oath keepers, their leadership and certain of their members and affiliates, motivated by a desire to overturn the legal results of the election and initiate a second term of donald trump's presidency worked together to plot, publicize, recruit for and finance their planned attack. the result of that planning, the january 6th attack on the capital, was not a protest or a rally. it was a coordinated act of domestic terrorism. well, the cost to the district are still investigated and tallied, the district has preliminary estimated it that the d.c. metropolitan police department incurred millions of dollars in costs during the week of january 6th alone. the district of columbia has today filed a civil suit to try to extract financial penalties from far right trump supporting militia groups that took part in the planning and execution of that january 6th attack on the capitol. the u.s. justice department in many cases is looking to jail the members of these groups. this lawsuit, if it succeeds, would likely bankrupt them as well. joining us now is d.c.'s attorney general, karl racine. mister attorney general, a pleasure to have you with us tonight. thank you for making time. >> thanks for having me, rachel. >> let me do just ask if i have any of this wrong way around or five explain basics correctly? >> i think you've been exceptional and descriptive and accurate. >> tell me about the decision to bring this as a civil case? as the attorney general in d.c., you certainly have the power to bring criminal charges in cases where that's warranted. why did you choose to go this route in this case? >> actually, on the criminal side, the district of columbia, as you know, is not a state. so, our jurisdiction criminally is limited to misdemeanors. and while there is incitement of riot misdemeanor, which we continue to investigate, we determined that we might as well strike were the wrong has occurred. and there's been a civil run of a great magnitude here. and as you indicated earlier, it's important to hit the defendants where it matters. and that's in their purses and in their wallets. and history shows, when civil suits have been levied against these hate groups, guess what? the run, they scatter, the hide, they disappear. and that's what we're seeking to do. to bankrupt these groups who will take our freedoms away. >> i don't know enough about the finances and organization of these two entities, the proud boys and the oath keepers, to know whether as organizations they are sitting on any core amount of money. is the idea that the organizations themselves have resources that could potentially be ceased, if your lawsuit is successful? or, perhaps in addition, is it possible that the individual members of these entities that are found to be potentially responsible for the conduct that you accuse them off, individual members could also be personally, financially on the hook for that kind of damages you're seeing? >> indeed, it's all of the above. and as you know, through the civil discovery suit, we're able to go right through discovery. we're able to find out where the assets are and indeed, who was funding these attacks. it may be that the founders of the attacks are not named in the lawsuit. but when we find out who funded the attack, we'll have the factual basis, if appropriate, to add those defendants, additional defendants. we know, rachel, that the insurrection didn't walk here. they did sleep outside, they stayed in hotel. they planned. there were obviously thousands of them. this is not a free operation. we're going to go out and we're going to find out exactly who financed these matters and we're going to make them pay. police officers were injured. police officers are suffering trauma. police officers killed themselves because of that trauma. these defendants must pay for that role. >> karl racine is the attorney general for the district of columbia. mister attorney general, this is a groundbreaking approach, but as you see, one that comes against the context of a lot of history about far right groups facing financial ruin from these kinds of lawsuits. please keep ups a price so i know this is going to really be a really interesting case as it felt. please come back and talked about it as a proceeds. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back, stay with us. with downy infusions, let the scent set the mood. feel the difference with downy. 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hey, we think they're going to try something super nutty on january 6th. that was a very prescient story. a year ago, today, in the new york times. in that same printed addition of the new york times, this was the actual lead story. this was column one, a one. the first covid vaccination in the country. our country's vaccine rollout began a year ago, today, starting with a critical care nurse in queens named sandra lindsey. she got the first shot in the country. and the year since? our year with vaccines? it has been -- it has been a lot of things -- . but when you're on, today's news does actually have is to own nice, bright spot in it. today, pfizer released more clinical trial data on its anti viral pill. this was a treatment that you can take if you get infected with covid. this is faced two and phase three clinical study data, which shows that the pill is, like earlier studies show, it's 89% effective at keeping high-risk people who catch covid alive and out of the hospital. more than 2000 unvaccinated study participants, nobody who received pfizer's anti viral pill died. and you do need people to get this bill pretty soon after they start having symptoms. if you take the pill within five days instead of three days, the pills effectiveness starts to drop, but is still up in the high 80s in terms of the percentage reduction in people going to the hospital. pfizer also says that lab study show the pill is effective against the omicron variant. according to the times, the fda might approve this pfizer anti viral pill within the next few days, which means that people who need it could be getting it by the end of the year. again, it has been the heck of a year, but that little piece of good news about that antiviral from file today is something to hope for. that's going to do it for us tonight. so again tomorrow. now it's time for the last word with lawrence o'donnell. good evening, lawrence. >> good evening, rachel. i've been thinking what a difference a year makes and then what about those things where a year doesn't make that much difference in terms of what we're living with tonight also. >> yeah, exactly. both in terms of covid, but also in terms of our politics. the revelations of the last 24, 48 hours around january six, have been absolutely mind-blowing. yes and they are those kind of revelations that confirms what we kind of assumed. as we were watching the day unfold it would make sense of course that all those republican friends of mark meadows and donald trump would be texting mark meadows and saying, save us. what is happening here? and what it is fascinating to get the details. but it does feel like one of those things where we could have, as rioters, drawing the blank. >> i think that the thing we couldn't have known is that we would get to see all of this material. >> right. >> so it's one thing to know that mark meadows is texting with the rally organizers. and the rally organizer says to him, we need direction from you. it's getting out of hand. thus confirming that the people organizing the rally, which turned into violence, we're taking their direction from the white house. and we all thought that the white house was directing all of this, but seeing it in black and white, seeing the members of the media saying that trump had nothing to do with this on the day of saying that trump needs to stop this. because they absolutely knew that he was responsible in the moment. i just never thought we would see this stuff. and now here it is. >> i think that by now, we do have the behavioural guarantee that stupid people will put everything in writing.