battle with pancreatic cancer. his achievements in the senate are legendary. but here is the thing. there is a lot about harry reid the man you probably don't know. take a look at this. >> i'd like to answer that at this time. being very typical to this point. he's lying. the only time i was there was when i had dinner with barney green stein. >> was i at the dinner? i at that dinner? was i at that dinner? >> you were in the building. >> i was in the building? so you know damn well i was at the dinner and you swore to me i would have a fair hearing at that dinner. did you not? did you not? tell me i was at least at the dinner. allow me that much. give me that much at least. >> yes, you were. >> thanks for not calling me a liar. >> that character played in "casino" that character is loosely based on harry reid and the scene is based on a real life scene from 1978, a hearing when reid was chairman of the nevada's gaming commission. reid's incredible life story includes growing up in poverty in tiny nevada and a shack with no running water. his mother making ends meet doing laundry in brothels. his memoir he recounted learning to slim at a brothel, actually. while you may have heard about his time as an armature boxer, he was a capitol police officer while attending school and defending a cocktail waitress accused of writing bad checks to become one of the most powerful and interesting people in washington. reid became nevada's lieutenant governor at the tender age of just 31 years old. he also served in the house of representatives before he was elected to the upper chamber, the senate in 1986. flags as you see are flying at half staff on capitol hill while reid served for more than three decades including 12 years leading senate democrats, eight as majority leader. and it was his relationship with president barack obama that cemented reid's legacy. reid encouraged the then senator from illinois to run for president and later worked tirelessly to enact the obama agenda pushing through an economic recovery plan during the great recession and passing the affordable care act. interviewed president obama released a letter he wrote to his good friend in his final days. he wrote i wouldn't have been president had it not been for your encouragement and support and i wouldn't have gotten most of what i got done without your skill and determination. the world is better because of what you've done. not bad for a skinny poor kid from searchlight. joining me is al franken who served alongside senator reid and the host of the al franken podcast we'll talk about in a minute and ceo of the nevada independent. thank you both for being here this evening to celebrate the life and legacy of senator harry reid. senator franken, i want to start with you. you recently a couple years ago traveled to nevada to interview senator harry reid. i've been listening to your podcast all day that you did with him. >> yeah, oh, good. >> you had such a warm relationship and such a wonderful exchange because of your relationship, i'm curious your thoughts. what's his legacy? >> his legacy is the affordable care act. that's one of the big legacies. you'll talk to john about his role in the democratic party, building the democratic party in nevada. one of the things i think you heard in the piece is the podcast helped what great sense of humor harry had. we were walking back to the senate chamber through statutory hall and there is press on either side and just a dim and no one can hear what harry and i are saying. i turned to harry and said talk to me like i'm someone important. without a skipping a beat, he just says that would be impossible. [ laughter ] >> that was harry. harry was just -- he was hilarious and i don't know how many people knew that. he had a dry sense of humor. he got my jokes. one time bernie was reporting on the budget committee ranking at this time and said they want to cut food stamps. what kind of religion cuts food stamps? i said southern baptist and only harry laughed. >> well, as a southern baptist, i'm laughing, as well, my friend. >> yeah. >> yeah. >> and you're right after the state of the union, it was quite busy so for those of us on the hill at that time covering it, i'm sure you're like give me cover here and talk to me like i'm important. you heard senator franken say, speak about senator reid's role in the affordable care act. you yourself have talked about this and said that the affordable care act could have been called the reid care because of the out sized role that he played in that. talk if you will about that and his legacy in nevada, particularly his role in building the democratic party and what is now very purple state with increasingly changing demographics. >> well, i think he was most proud of getting the affordable care act through the senate, which was no mean feat you know that the president was enduringly grateful for him doing. he essentially as i said several times now had to commit legalized bribery to get a couple of the reluctant colleagues to vote, one of whom ben nelson sacrificed his career to vote for the affordable care act. reid -- when i talked to him for the book i'm writing about him, brings it up a lot. his partnership with obama and how obama trusted him to get that through. i think it went into the story of harry reid is written, at least the one i've written i'll talk about reid care and why it's named reid care in the inside story of what really happened. as far as nevada goes, harry reid loved nevada. the fact he was able to do two things to build a democratic party machine after a near death experience barely one in 1998 by about 400 votes against john, he built up a formidable as any in the country and dominated nevada politics for a decade and a half but he also took a tiny ignored even derived western state and turned it into a national power by getting the democratic national committee to make nevada an early state in the presidential nominating process and who had the most influence over who would win those contests, none other than harry reid. >> you're so right. since you brought that up i want to talk about that. personally, i think it does make sense the demographics of nevada much better represent the demographics of the country but when the form erma jurorty -- former majority leader said that, it became the chamber of other lawmakers helped make this a reality. so kudos to him for that. given that we're going into a year of midterms and 2024 we'll see how this plays out, what impact do you think that it will have on our federal elections, especially in 2024 during the presidential elections when nevada will go first before iowa and new hampshire? >> well, what we're hoping is that's what happens. it hasn't been officially set the stone. the arguments are there. we're not as white or all white as iowa or new hampshire or minnesota, i suppose. but -- >> hey, hey. [ laughter ] >> we do hope that nevada is going first but nevada would not be where it is without harry reid and that man, the so-called reid machine is essentially still in tact and building towards 2022 and then 2024 and nevada, we are a very hispanic station and a growing asian population, as well now in double digits and an african american population always been robust and around double digits. despite as i mentioned earlier the character of nevada as a place with the brothels and casinos, slot machines on every corner, las vegas is actually a very different city than what harry reid first got to the u.s. senate in 1986 and the state is very, very different than when he got there. he changed with the state. his story of evolution is also the story of the evolution of nevada. >> yeah, and i'm forecasting when i saw when because i think that south carolina and nevada are going to come earlier. the dnc is talking about this now. that was no shade to you senator franken from minnesota because we know minnesota is good enough, smart enough and gosh darn it, people like minnesota. >> we have a very strong party there. i think those are nevada and minnesota have two of the strongest democratic party organizations in the country. >> i want to talk about that because, you know, senator reid was very influential and convincing president obama to run. he was then senator obama from illinois and talked him into running for president and instrumental in submitting his legacy. i understand he wanted to encourage you to run again for senate. why was he successful with president obama and not successful with you unless you want to break news here tonight and have an announcement for us. >> i ran. i ran twice and i won both elections. long story. harry was very encouraging. chuck schumer was less so and harry was really the one who got behind me and i won that and clobbered norm coleman by 300 points, if you recall. >> i do recall. my apoloapologies. >> smallest clobbering in history. >> a clobber is a clobber. my apologies. i thought he'd encourage you to run again after. john, i want to bring it back to you -- >> he actually did. okay. i see what you're talking about now. yes, yes, we talked about that. >> yes. history has been written. john, i want to toss it back to you. something interesting that i saw that the senate majority leader did. he actually tried to out law prostitution in nevada. you know, he learned to swim in brothels and that's a huge part of nevada's economics. he thought it was an impediment. i'm curious because he was so beloved by the people in the state. how did they feel about that? >> well, i can tell you there were a lot of people that didn't love harry reid for that, not just the folks who ran and worked in the brothels and they made appearances in carson city to lobby against that and it went over like a lead balloon. there was a very hostile news conference i remember with harry reid after he gave that speech to the legislature and surprised everyone. remember, there are only two urban counties in nevada out of the 17 and the other 15 where there is county options for brothels and many have brothels have power in carson city probably disproportionate to their numbers and there was quite an outcry about it. you know what? harry reid treated that the same way he treated everything else. he didn't care what the reaction was. he just decided he was going to move forward with the proposal. that was one that went nowhere but many of them proposals he made as senator franken will remember for their time together did go through and he was pressing on many, many issues of renewable energy and of course, the nuclear waste dump targeted for nevada in 30 plus years. >> right. >> those are because of harry reid. >> wow. quite a legacy and life well lived. our thoughts and condolences to his family. thank you al franken and john rolston for joining us. apoloies to the people of nevada for mispronouncing nevada. nevada, nevada, nevada. my apologies. >> and it's reno not reno. >> thank you, thank you. appreciate that. >> for the next time. >> thank you for being here. >> thank you. before the break, we have breaking news from manhattan. late today a jury found ghislaine maxwell guilty. she's facing the likelihood of decades behind bars. up next, as covid surges again, there are growing concerns about children. how they and their teachers will be affected by the new quarantine rules and also. >> all florida residents should be outraged and they should ask the question now where is our state? where is our governor? where is ron desantis now? >> florida man at it again. with florida among the states hardest hit by the omicron surge, governor ron desantis is m.i.a. plus, when white people go missing, the news can be a national sensation but completely different for families of color. an hbo documentary is shining a light on this disparity. we'll talk about that. 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[cheering] that was awesome. and, the hits won't quit, with peacock premium included at no additional cost. all that entertainment built in. xfinity. a way better way to watch. all right. title wave. it's the phrase no one wants to hear about the spread of a deadly airborne virus, but it's the most apt description for what is happening as omicron and delta sore. new u.s. covid cases are at a record seven-day average of 265,000 per day. that's as of tuesday. this is happening just days before kids return to the classroom after their holiday break and as child covid hospitalizations are up. per an nbc news analysis, the average number of children hospitalized with covid jumped 52% in the last four weeks. how school districts are navigating this crisis varies. new york city schools will reopen on monday with expanded testing, but relaxed quarantine rules. on the other hand, d.c. public schools will require all students and staff to show proof of a negative covid test before they come back. masks could soon return to miami-dade schools while california is providing each public school student with a rapid covid test before returning to class. now, as for colleges like ucla, yale and duke, it's back to remote learning for a few weeks at least. now, the pandemic for certain has sparked more appreciation for teachers but here we are again two years later educators risking their health on the covid front lines, parents without options on how to ensure both the education and safety of their kids and what continues to feel like a giant experiment on children. joining me now to discuss is dr. craig spencer, an emergency medicine physician and the director of global health and emergency medicine at colombia medicine and i am thrilled to have mara gay, a "new york times" editorial board member and msnbc political analyst. thank you both for being here. doctor, i want to start with you. the omicron kids is what these children have been dubbed, the rising number of pediatric cases keeps going up. it has one e.r. doctor wondering what is going to happen three weeks from now. so as a member of the medical community, i will ask you to make a prediction. what could the country potentially look like three weeks from now? >> not only just as a medical doctor but a parent myself, i'm obviously concerned. i have a kid in prek and i have another kid in daycare and here in new york city, we're seeing a huge number of cases and i suspect the same will happen all over the country. the title wave will wash over the rest of the u.s. just as it has in new york city and the numbers that you presented, 200,000 kids got covid in the weekending december 23rd, the one that we have the most data for. we have hospitalizations up and we still have around 800 children that have died from covid throughout this pandemic and around one in ten have been infected. we know kids generally have less severe disease with covid thankfully, but i have concerns the next coming weeks we'll see a lot of cases and a lot will be hospitalized. >> not all kids have less severe cases. people should understand that some kids get severely ill and some unfortunately even die. mara, this is what you wrote a year ago, which was devastating. you said that you were one of the millions of people still fighting to regain your full health and at the time it was months after you're surviving covid and talk about the pulmonologists, the two brave women that treated covid-19 patients throughout the pandemic and talk about the physical therapist who cheered you on while you were hooked to oxygen and other machines and climbing what you said at the time felt like a mountain. you're documenting your own journey has been frightening for all of us to witness and warning to so many people. what is your journey like today? how do you feel? is your current health status? >> so, i'm feeling a lot better. thank god. and that's thanks to a combination of luck and faith and a lot of help and resources that unfortunately, millions of americans and others around the world do not have access to. i have serious concerns about not just long covid but organ damage that many americans are going to experience from what maybe quote unquote mild covid infections and with the case load as high as it is, that remains a concern. you know, i am getting better every day. i'm expected to regain my full health and i'm certainly determined to do so. i'm running. i've been working almost the whole time and so i'm one of the lucky ones. i think it's been very humbling and thank you for asking, but, you know, honestly, i am not only somebody who is lucky enough to survive but is lucky enough to be regaining her full health. i want to be not just a cautionary tale but the healing that can take place over a longer period of time. not everyone gets well in two weeks but that is not an accuse to cast them aside and call them disabled nor should we cast aside people in the disabled community period. i think there is too much of that. what people really need is help to get well, physical therapy and access to that help. the other thing i'm really concerned about is again, long covid and longerer tail issues from this pandemic. there is too much of a cavalier attitude towards mild infections. the really main goal we should be communicating to the american public at this point is just hang on a little while longer, keep doing the right thing, get vaccinated. stay masked. because the goal actually at this point is to cut that link between infection and severe illness and death. and we can do that over time so living with covid does not mean living with it in the way we have been for the past two years but i don't think americans fully understand that and so when faced with that leeriness there is a sense of maybe we should just give up but there is good reason not to if we can hang on a little while longer, more treatment is coming. more help is coming. and it will be a very different situation if we can pull together in that. >> yeah. i love -- thank you for saying that. i think that's such a crucial message at this time and doctor, you just heard mara say and i agree, there is a cavalier attitude about these mild infections so as we talk about the kids increasingly occupying hospitals and you yourself said, you know, it's not as challenging with children and all children anyway, but how do we know that these kids, you know, a year from now or five years from now won't have some lasting impact or be, you know, long haulers with covid? does the data support any conclusive evidence that that won't happen at this point? >> that's a great question and we don't have a lot of data unfortunately. we should have it at this point. we don't even have enough data on long covid in adults that have survived this illness. we do know that some children have had a multi inflammatory system and we've seen it well documented and do everything we can to prevent as many cases as possible which means getting the kids eligible for vaccination vaccinated. that's the best way to prevent them from getting sick and by extension, prevent them from having long covid. vaccinating those around them and teachers, people that interact with their parents, we need to create bubbles as much as we can because as you said, the title wave is coming and it's up to us doing not just vaccine but protecting ourselves and our families and getting vaccinated, masks, all these things we know that work. these will be the ways that we are hopefully able to cut down on the burden not just of hospitalizations and deaths, which matter as well of course but preventing those long term complications many of which we still don't know what it will be like in a year or five years or ten years from now. >> you both have just been a cautionary tale and provided great words of encouragement. thank you dr. craig spencer and mara gay. mara great to see you healthy and well on the screen. thank you both. still ahead, where in the world is ron desantis. the florida governor has been missing in action. his twitter feed would have you believe he's out and about, but one photo he posted is from 12 days ago. what is really going on? we'll be right back. what is really going on? we'll be right back. we gave new zzzquil pure zzzs restorative herbal sleep to people who were tired of being tired. i've never slept like this before. i've never woken up like this before. crafted with clinically studied plant-based ingredients that work naturally with your body. for restorative sleep like never before. mission control, we are go for launch. um, she's eating the rocket. ♪♪ lunchables! built to be eaten. all right, some of you may remember the dangers of florida man and nobody embodies that more than the state's governor ron desantis who mind you, has repeatedly opposed covid prevention measures. while now the incompetent trump accolade is missing. in a press conference yesterday, mayor jerry demings of orange county which encompasses the city slammed desantis for his inaction. >> our residents, all florida residents should be outraged and ask the question now where is our state? where is our governor? where is ron desantis now? when was the last time you saw the governor do a press briefing regarding covid-19? >> when was the last time florida man held a press conference on covid? now, according to the "orlando sentinel" it was december 17th. since then there is an increase more than 1,000%. the state just reported a record-breaking number of new cases today, the most since the pandemic began. this comes after florida man implemented oppressive restrictions on private businesses back in november preventing them from being able to require vaccinations and also, prohibiting mask requirements in schools. i mean, is ron desantis procovid? is he out here caping for omicron? it seems like it. desantis made it more difficult to limit the spread of omicron, which may explain why florida is among the top five hardest hit states. in fact, the last time desantis did actually hold a press conference about covid, he was focused on treatments, not prevention. he's been totally unwilling to promote vaccinations among his residents and it gets worse. florida man would rather do it for the gram than do it for the people. just hours after mayor demings said he was missing in action, desantis dropped a pic of himself visiting a local restaurant but just one problem. the timeline is not lining up. the group remove ron pointed out that the photograph was really 12 days old. and we checked with the governor's office, which confirmed the visit on his schedule back on november 16th. joining me now is florida commissioner nicky seeking the democratic nomination of florida. simple question, where is ron desantis? >> i have no idea, and thank you, tiffany for having me on here tonight. he cancels our cabinet meeting in the middle of december and i haven't seen him since december 17th. so i don't know where he is, but quite honestly, even if he was here, he wouldn't be doing anything anyhow and we know that. so once again, the people of our state will have to step up and beat this illness without him. the local county and state commissioners are having to stand up testing sites because there are very few state run testing sites. i sent a letter to him yesterday asking him to please engage. we have five-hour lines down in miami-dade county and people waiting in lines all across our cities and he's nowhere to be found. no response. no action and so once again, the people of our state will be counting on the local government for leadership amongst themselves to get through this virus. >> i mean, he's essentially running as a procovid governor. this is somewhat of a delicate dance he's doing with his mentor. donald trump said desantis will make a great vp. god help us all, should he run in 2024. it's really weird but for some dumb reason, the bigger denier of science you are, the more popular you are in the republican party. could this be strategy that he's doing willing to sacrifice the residents of this state and let people fall victim to covid so he can gain an out sized position in power? >> yeah, you know, this is the basic problem that we have with republicans who like fox news more than they like the people of their own state they're running. you know, they go on and they create chaos and create these problems and then they rely on us to fix them and to be able to clean up their mess and then they take credit for it. so this is a bigger picture for ron desantis. we know from the state of florida he's running for president in 2024 so he's left our state -- this is the third time he's done this and the cases are spiking in the state and we see no leadership and show right now our als and our retirement communities and our nursing homes are 17% with the booster shots and there is no action from this governor who used to say seniors first and now he's leading all of them very vulnerable in our state showing no leadership. i got my vaccine, my booster shot today. i did it in public to show this is what a leader is supposed to do, lead by example and telling the people of our state, thank you for waiting in line and standing up. thank you for making sure you're protecting yourselves and your family members, co-workers. thank you to our first responders who are still out there every single day taking care of us but our governor mia. >> well, thank you for telling us about the booster shot. that's something that you're -- your opponent finds difficult to do. you mentioned fox news. listen to an interview with him and maria and see how he responded to the question about a booster shot. >> have you gotten the booster? >> so, i've done whatever i did the normal shot and that at the end of the day is people's individual decisions what they want to do. >> so maria did not even follow up or press him on that. i don't think she really cares. this is my delicate question to you. i've been to florida, love florida, spent time in miami and did a special down there. i'll definitely be back very soon. so i have friends in florida. however, i just wonder is this something that's appealing to florida voters? because the fact that there were so many people to elect and vote for ron desantis not counting things like voter suppression and the ways that power structure has limited some people's pathway to the ballot box, it seems like there is something appealing to florida voters about being anti science and if that's the case, how do you overcome that and, you know, is it a game with convincing people, you know, to get out and vote or, you know, do you try to convince those people who like how he's handling the pandemic to believe in logic and reason? >> first of all, i need to remind the rest of the country and people in the state know this, ron desantis won by 34,000 votes so he's certainly leading our state like he believes he won it in a landslide and unfortunately, i think he does believe being anti science, look at who he pointed as our new surgeon general in our state and he believes this rhetoric or let's dance around the issues maybe i got a booster, maybe i didn't. i got a pfizer booster. i know exactly what kind of booster i got. he's dancing around this issue but it goes back down to do you believe in the vaccine or you don't. it shows a lack of leadership and a quality that you should be looking for in a governor and be honest, if you got the booster, why not tell people? show and lead by example and be at that true leader. if you didn't, say you didn't. but the fact that he is dancing around the answer and not being honest with the people of our state, that is really the question people should be asking every single day and especially at the ballot box in 2022. who do you want to be as your next governor? do you want somebody to dance around the issues and put your personal safety at risk or somebody that's going to have the booster, be out every day encouraging people to take safety measures and get the vaccine and listen to cdc and make sure you're protecting your loved ones and community members. >> thank you for delivering that message. he's very strange. he's in with donald trump and people that lack intellectual curiosity. good luck to you on the campaign trail. you'll have to come back soon. thank you for joining us. up next, the new hbo series "black and missing" is a wakeup call for america raising awareness about black missing person's cases ignored by both police and the media. derika wilson joins me next. stay with us. ay with us welcome to silversneakers. are you ready to get moving? 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(crowd applauding) therabreath, it's a better mouthwash. at walmart, target and other fine stores. okay, get this, black americans make up 13% of the u.s. population and a striking 34% of missing person's cases reported in 2020 but in what the late great missing white woman syndrome, white victims get a disproportionate amount of media coverage with the disappearance of gabby petito a white woman being the most obvious example of that. that's why sisters are raising awareness to help find missing people of color feature in a four part documentary series black and missing. >> african americans remain missing four times longer than white americans. that number is alarming. we hear from families all the time the police is turning us away. the media wouldn't respond. >> it drew me and my sister natalie to do something about it and help these other families because if not us, who? >> if not us, who indeed? that documentary covers several cases of missing black people the group worked on including a pregnant black woman who disappeared right before her baby shower. some of her baltimore neighbors say the police never even interviewed them. >> the community that she went missing from, there has been a number of missing black and brown women. it just didn't appear there was anything being done in my eyes. do you remember her by any chance? our daughter? she used to live on the corner house pregnant. >> some of the neighbors said law enforcement didn't even come out to ask if they had seen or heard anything. >> who is going to protect black girls? that was one example of the way the system treats people of color differently according to the black and missing foundation. children of color tend to be classified as run aways with minority adults are labeled associated with criminal involvement. the association says many americans seem to be desensized when it comes to people of color to the extent they think crime is a regular part of their lives. it's exhausting. after the break, i'll talk to black and missing co-founer derika wilson in the doumentary "black and missing." you don't want to miss this. stay tuned. sing." you don't want to miss this. stay tuned ♪♪ ♪♪ experience the power of sanctuary at the lincoln wish list event. ♪ it wasn't me by shaggy ♪ you're never responsible ex for unauthorizedr of sanctuary purchases on your discover card. as a professional bull-rider i'm used to taking chances. but when it comes to my insurance i don't. i use liberty mutual, they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. wooo, yeaa, woooooo and, by switching you could even save 665 dollars. hey tex, can someone else get a turn? yeah, hang on, i'm about to break my own record. yeah. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty. ♪ when you have xfinity xfi, you have peace of mind only pay for what you need. built in at no extra cost. advanced security helps keep your family protected online. pause wifi whenever for ultimate control with the xfinity app. and family-safe browsing gives parents one less thing to worry about. security, control and peace of mind. with xfinity xfi, it's all built in at no extra cost. my sister went missing in 2009. all the major news stations, nobody would awe to me. >> "missing white woman syndrome." >> if you don't meet those criteria, blond hair, blue eyes, your stories are not newsworthy. >> here's my niece, her story is just as compelling. >> we have nothing for missing black people. >> that was "black and missing," a documentary series featuring the work of the black and missing foundation which raises awareness of and searches for missing people of color. derica wilson, cofunder and ceo of the black and missing foundation. this work is incredibly important. >> thank you for having me. >> thank you, i appreciate you being here. this work is incredibly important that you're doing. talk a little bit about what exactly your group does, but more importantly, the people watching at home, what can viewers do to help elevate some of these stories that really don't get a lot of attention in the media? >> absolutely. so our organization, we're bringing awareness to missing persons of color. because oftentimes their cases are simply not taken seriously. we're working with law enforcement to take the police report to elevate these cases, they're working with our media partners to shine a spotlight. we understand and realize that not every case is going to make the 5:00 and 10:00 news cycle. we understand that not every case is going to elevate to mainstream media. but again, less is more. less of one particular race and more of everyone that's missing, the greater the chances of reunion. so by really need our community to get involved. share these flyers. make them go viral. this day and time, our flyers are considered the digital note card. so it has a great reach, getting across from city to city, state to state. because one share is all it takes to help find these missing individuals. >> that's a great point you make. social media really has democratized the process of who gets a voice in these spaces. because for so long, we were left out of conversations in the mainstream media. really good point. when folks are sharing funny memes and all the other things, please take a moment to help amplify the cases of the missing. it's really heartbreaking. i actually have worked on a lot of missing cases myself. i used to be a field producer for "america's most wanted." one case i worked on you talk about in your documentary, the case of tamecka houston, a missing woman from spartanburg, south carolina, your hometown, as i understand. i spent a lot of time in spartanburg. something interesting about her case. her aunt, rebecca howard, was a media guru, a pr executive. even with her experience, tamecka houston's name was never really elevated. you know, to national attention. despite all of her work. what's something that families themselves can do to help make sure that their missing loved ones are getting the attention? i want to be clear, the onus is on broadcast networks and news outlets and print outlets who salivate over the chance to cover missing white faces. but how can families penetrate that layer of whiteness where we are not often welcome? >> we need families to continue to be persistent. we need for them to come to the black and missing foundation. we don't want them to see here in this aalthough loan. we'll help pound the pavement and get these stories out there. we want to utilize not just the mainstream media and the news cycles, but going back to social media. so one of the tools that we actually help provide families with is a flyer that has the police department's information and our contact information. because so often, families are taking matters into their own hands. they're putting their personal contact information on these flyers. and yet they're being victimized because they're receiving the scam and the ransom calls. we want to help them. we know that they are very vulnerable. we are very sensitive to their cases. and we just want to help them bring their loved ones home. think about if you misplace your car keys or cell phone. your anxiety is through the roof. multiply that times a million for someone that has a missing loved one. it's undescribable. this is what these families are going through when they're desperately knocking down the doors of law enforcement, when they're desperately knocking down the doors of media. we need more diversity in the newsroom. because in these particular cases, the decisionmakers quite frankly don't look like us. >> you are speaking my language, sister. you know, here at this network, our decisionmakers do look like us. but yes, i take your point. >> awesome. >> for sure. but yes, you know, i want to talk about the number of people who are missing. disproportionately, they're girls. and i take your point about the anxieties when you misplace your car keys. imagine, especially fare people under 18, 72% of the people missing are under 18. out of that, 54% female, 46% male. under 18, it's disproportionately young girls. i have walked into covering this beat, i've walked into homes and interviewed parents. i've had a mother tell me once that she would rather find out that her child was dead instead of living years not knowing what happened to her child. i cannot imagine that level of angst. why do you think it's disproportionate young black girls who are missing relative to boys? particularly when it comes to under 18? >> i really feel that human trafficking is a multibillion-dollar industry that is happening right here on u.s. soil. and when it comes to missing girls and boys, you know, that is actually playing a factor, human trafficking. and these pimps are playing on our children because they feel no one is going to look for us when we go missing. >> you're right. i want to point out that though there are disproportionate amount of black people missing, the amount of indigenous missing who have gone missing and been summarily dismissed by media and law enforcement and other folks of color as well. so by all means, definitely more folks of color as decisionmakers. you're doing this documentary with the goat, soledad o'brien. >> yes. >> i'm sure that it is excellent. soledad queen, soledad all of us in journalism bowing down to her excellence. >> absolutely. >> thank you for yore the work that you do, good luck to you. the four-part documentary series "black and missing" is available on hbo and hbo max and time flats. that's "readout." i'll see you tomorrow. "all in with chris hayes" starts right now. tonight on "all in" -- where we stand as we approach year three of the pandemic. as cases explode again, the cdc defends the decision to cut covid isolation. >> we've followed numerous areas of science in making this important decision. then a measure of justice in the epstein saga. the significance of tonight's guilty verdict for jill lane maxwell. the surprising area where democrats are having success against the push to undermine democracy. and the truth about the great shoplifting freakout of 2021. the state now proposing a bounty for parents who find banned