with a campaign that promised to, first, fire donald trump, and then launch a massive public health campaign, including vaccination to fight covid-19 and pull the american economy out of the pandemic recession. so how is the biden-harris team doing? >> we passed two pieces of legislation, the american rescue plan delivered immediately to millions of people and rescued the economy from the brink. we're going faster than any other nation in the world in terms of our growth rate. since its passage, we had a record number of jobs, 6 million jobs since january 20th. [ applause ] no new president ever created that many jobs as quickly. and we've seen the extraordinary drop in unemployment. we passed the most important piece of legislation ever passed since the eisenhower administration, the interstate highway system. this is going to create good-paying jobs you can raise a family on. >> as of now, we have, had, as in past tense, lifted 40% of america's children out of poverty. [ applause ] let's reflect on that. let's reflect on what that means. for generations. talk about transformative. talk about return on the investment. you all know elections have consequence. elections matter. and it's not about a victory celebration, not about a pat on the back. it's about then what can we achieve with the time that we have? that directly impacts so many people? >> and in the most ignored, huge accomplishment of the joe biden-chuck schumer partnership, president biden has nominated and chuck schumer confirmed more lifetime appointed federal judges than any first-year president since ronald reagan. joining us now is nobel pries economist paul krugman, distinguished professor at the city university of new york graduate center. professor krugman, thank you very much for joining us tonight. let's hear your review of the biden-harris first year of the administration. >> oh, i mean, by most normal standards, this has been -- first of all, the social stuff, the american rescue plan did make an enormous difference to millions of lives. the infrastructure, you know, infrastructure became a running joke for four years. now it's for real. there's a lot of other stuff i would like to see happen, but it's a lot. and we have had an extraordinary jobs recovery in spite of glitches. i know we're going to talk about inflation, but we are far closer to regaining the jobs lost due to the pandemic than, i think, almost anybody expected. so by most normal standards, this has been a really good year. trouble is actually condensing enough people that that's happened. >> inflation is a worldwide phenomenon now. how much of the inflation that this country is enduring now is attributable to government policy? >> i would say not very much. there's some. those programs, the american rescue plan, sustained purchasing power and americans have been buying a lot of stuff and a lot of what they've been buying is physical stuff. you couldn't go to the gym, so you bought exercise equipment. that has clogged supply chains and that's part of the reason for the inflation. the fact of the matter is a lot of it is really independent of anything that any president could have done. a lot of it has been oil prices, although those have come down a lot over the last few weeks and that will help. the idea that this is a biden inflation just doesn't stand up try to talk about it. republicans are condemning it, but if you ask, so what would you do? how would you bring inflation down? how would things be better if donald trump were still in office? they have absolutely no answer. >> i know economics is not supposed to be a predictive discipline, but you're called upon to do so all the time. as you look forward into 2022, what would you expect, given what we know now, to see happening in the economy? >> i think that the economy will continue to grow, to add jobs. not probably as fast as we have because we've gained so many, particularly among adults, we're close to where we were before this nightmare happened. but we'll continue to add jobs. inflation will come down. it will probably still be high. there's enough stuff in the pipeline, things like rents on new apartments are way up, but the overall rent index doesn't reflect that because a lot of people are still on their old leases. look, the fed has released its own projections. it expects inflation to come down but still be somewhat high over the course of next year and expects unemployment to continue to fall. i'm kind of -- i can't make much of an argument with that. i think where we are is a situation where we will still have things to complain about, but it will actually look a lot better a year from now than it does now. >> will it be possible for inflation to decline more rapidly in the united states than in other countries that are also enduring inflation right now? >> quite possibly because some of the things that have driven it up are kind of uniquely american, not because things are bad, but because they're good. we support income so well, we've been buying more stuff, durable goods, sorry for the jargon, but that stuff that comes from container ships parked outside the portfolio los angeles. we've done such a good job keeping people's incomes up and as those bottlenecks ease, inflation will come down a lot more in the united states than other places. >> if you could spend a few minutes sitting in the oval office on january 1st with the president, what would you tell him? >> oh, i think mostly it's about messaging. i mean, the policies -- i mean, i hate to sound, you know, everybody knows my politics, but this is a very implement administration. it has not done anything stupid. there are very few things it has done that are obvious, clear mistakes, and a lot of stuff is really good. but the message often seems to be weak. they should be hammering those job gains, not an occasional press conference, but they should be out there all the time talking about what would things be like if republicans got their way. they should be saying, you know, people want to take away those child tax credits, they're making it possible for you to afford food for your families. usually i hate this kind of thing, but right now the messaging is terribly important. >> joe manchin seems to think there's a serious inflation risk in what's lefts of the agenda that hasn't been yet enacted or carried out. what would you say to joe manchin about that? >> i'd like him to talk to a high school math teacher. really, seriously, the numbers are just not there. build back better is not that -- looks like a lot of money. you always sound like dr. evil, $1 trillion, but the u.s. economy is enormous, and the amounts of money that we're talking about largely paid for with new taxes are just not enough to be a source of inflation. i mean, when you talk about the american rescue plan, which $1.9 trillion in one year, now we're talking about $1.7 trillion largely paid for over ten years. that's just not a big inflationary thing. >> professor paul krugman, always an honor to speak with you thank you very much for joining us tonight. >> take care. >> thank you. coming up, the political media still hasn't adjusted to the new reality that the republican party no longer believes in democracy and is changing state laws now that might allow them to change the outcome of elections. professor jelani cobb will join us next. t. now, she uses a capful of therabreath healthy smile oral rinse to give her the healthy, sparkly smile she always wanted. 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if necessary, the change outcomes of elections in some states. some journalists are alerting their colleagues that they need a new approach to political coverage. jane mill back rise we need a skeptical, independent press, but how about being partisans for democracy? the country is in an existential struggle between self-governance and an authoritarian alternative, and we in the news media, collectively, have given equal, if not slightly more favorable, treatment to the authoritarians. too many journalists are caught in a mindless neutrality between democracy and its saboteurs, between fact and fiction. it's time to take a stand. and joining us now, jelani cobb, staff writer for " the new yorker," and professor of jim at columbia university. and jonathan altar, both msnbc analysts. professor cobb, in 2021, what adjustments should the political media be making in their approach to the coverage? >> there are a lot of things that we learned or should have learned, rather, from what we saw unfold from 2015 to the present but we've been slow to see those things translate into how coverage has changed. the first is that it is absolutely true that we're supposed to have a vast majority point. what we've done is mistaken or substituted an even handedness for neutrality, meaning you would treat things that are fundamentally dissimilar as if they're the same in the name of objectivity, but what that actually does is normalize the thing that has become unusual. in this case we've seen a number of things, an ray of things, we could create a catalog of things that are not just outside the norms of politics, but actually detrimental, ennem cal to democracy to this country by the widest understanding of it. when we look where we stand on the democracy index and see our numbers complaining, what we would consider flawed democracy, things that are not in dispute, these are not partisan elements here. the media should approach this with that sort of critical eye , that we should not give platforms to people who are consistently mendacious. pretty much all politicians lie, but when we see people operating in bad faith and using the media as a means of misinforming people, those people should not be allowed access to platforms, particularly like the sunday morning shows, something we've done again and again. margaret sullivan has a great point saying we should stop having reporters covering politics, instead covering government because politics is treated like sports, but covering government requires that you look at ethical questions, that you look at issues of democracy, that you look at what exactly is being done to the governing structures of the country. >> jonathan altar, there are three subjects in front of us. professor cobb's just distinguished between politics and government. there's a third, which is the politics of governing. the politics of governing is what we're seeing the media attempt to cover when they're chasing joe manchin down a hallway with a microphone. you don't have to chase him the that much, he usually turns and says something. but that's also a tricky arena in which to try to bring a careful eye to what's being said. >> yeah. look, the media needs to make a major new year's resolution. we need a new paradigm, a new lens on american politics. it's not that, you know, people should go easy on joe biden. after dana milbank wrote a piece, i wrote a piece, others wrote pieces calling for an end to this neutrality. the response was, oh, you want the press to go easy on biden? no, i don't want that. we need to maintain the adversarial relationship between the press and the white house that we've had for 150 years in this country. it doesn't have to go away. but it shouldn't dominate the way it is, and the access around which coverage turns should be changed to democracy and anti-democracy, so our adversarial approach should be directed not just at people in government, but those who would assault our system and undermine our system. and the coverage, honestly, lawrence, has been kind of pathetic. just to take the eastman memo, this was a sketched-out coup attempt. it was a blueprint for a coup, and the networks didn't even cover it on their evening news broadcast. you had people in the states who were basically trying to rig future elections, very little, if any, college. this should be top tier. chasing joe manchin around, that's fine. that has its place. but that should be below the number one story, which is will our democracy survive? and to the question of whether the press should be neutral, the press wasn't neutral about fascism in the '30s and '40s, or about civil rights in the 1960s, they weren't giving even steven phony-bald coverage to segregationists. the press today is not neutral about climate change. >> professor cobb, what does the world "neutral" mean in journalism? >> i mean, neutral has generally been taken -- it's supposed to mean you don't approach a story with a particular agenda, that you're not more favorable to one party than you are to another party. and that's admirable. but what widespread happening is that we round things up or round them down to equivalence, and that becomes dangerous. when you start talking about things that are truly enem cal and hostile to democracy in the same tones that are day-to-day occurrences in a normal functioning democracy, what you do is lull the public into a false sense of complacency. one other thing that's really crucial, we need an accord. we need some sort of document that press organizations can sign onto in terms of how we will approach covering fascism and covering authoritarianism in the united states. we really need more than anything else to be able to get on the same page about how we're going to deal with this looming crisis in front of us. >> professor cobb, you are invited to do the first draft of that accord that we will all then consider joining. professor jelani cobb, jonathan altar, thank you very much for joining our discussion tonight. >> thanks, lawrence. >> thank you. >> thank you. coming up, the testimony you must hear. unfortunately, it is testimony that the supreme court did not hear. that's next. were cooking with mom. she always said, “food is love.” so when she moved in with us, a new kitchen became part of our financial plan. ♪ i want to make the most of every meal we have together. ♪ at northwestern mutual, our version of financial planning helps you live your dreams today. find a northwestern mutual advisor at nm.com clerk: hello, how can i? planning helps you liv sore throat pain? . ♪honey lemon♪ try vicks vapocool drops. in honey lemon chill. for fast-acting sore throat relief. wooo vaporize sore throat pain with vicks vapocool drops. medusa lived with a hideous curse. uhh, i mean the whole turning people to stone thing was a bit of a buzz kill, right? so she ordered sunglasses with prime, one day delivery. ♪♪ clever girl. people realized she's actually hilarious once 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on "the last word." and it is the essential testimony that the supreme court never heard. they never talked about it, not once in 90 minutes. they didn't have a discussion about the pregnancies that result from rape and incest when the supreme court was hearing arguments about a minneapolis mississippi law that would outlaw abortions, including pregnancies the result of rape and incest. rape and incest were completely ignored by the supreme court justices who are considering taking away american women's right to abortion services. but they did find time to talk about adoption. here's justice amy coney barrett suggesting that there's no real need to terminate pregnancies if after carrying a pregnancy to term and giving birth, the mother could then terminate her parental rights by putting the baby up for adoption. >> it doesn't seem to me to follow that pregnancy and then parenthood are all part of the same burden. and so it seems to me that the choice more focused would be between, say, the ability to get an abortion at 23 weeks or the state requiring the woman to go 15, 16 weeks more and then terminate parental rights at the conclusion. >> the state requiring the woman to carry the pregnancy and then terminate parental rights through adoptions. opponents of abortion don't think that sounds unreasonable at all, but how would that sound even to them, the opponents of boxer, if we changed just one word? how would it sound if it said the state requiring the girl to carry to pregnancy? or what if we picked specific cases, real cases of real tragic and horrific suffering and said the state requiring the 12-year-old girl to carry the pregnancy and then terminate her parental rights? the amy coney barrett side of the argument never uses the word "girl" to describe who needs abortion services in this country. michelle goodwin teach us constitutional law at the university of california and in a "new york times" op-ed piece, she writes, like a military draft, the state has coercively on scripted rape and incest survivors to endure one more tremendous burden, to take another devastating and physical mental hit, to tie their lives to those of their rapists. this time it is state lawmakers who strong-arm their bodies into service. this draft, the pregnancy draft, is welfare at home and the state leaves its girls on the battlefield to fend for themselves. the republican-appointed supreme court justices were not willing to frame any of their hypothetical questions around rape and incest pregnancies of little girls. but that is what they are going to be ruling on, what happens to those little girls. those justices do not dare acknowledge the existence of those little girls who become pregnant through rape and incest. michelle goodwin's op-ed piece is titled, "i was raped by my father. an abortion saved my life." it is the single most important article published in this latest round of the national discussion about abortion. it is an astonishing piece of writing that ranges from the tragically autobiographical to a scholarly analysis of the law. it was material morning of my birthday the first time i was raped by my father. the shock so severe that i temporarily went blind before i began the fifth grade a few weeks later. the physiological suffering included severe migraines, hair loss, and even gray hair, at 10 years old, at age 12 i was pregnant by my father and i had an abortion. before we got to the doctor's office, i had no idea that i was pregnant. my father lied about my age and the circumstances of my pretty good, informing the doctor that i was 15 and i had been reckless with a boyfriend. nobody ever wants to write about such experiences, exposing intimate aspects of one's life, revisiting traumatic aspects of childhood, yet the lack of compassion and the hubris that underlie the mississippi and texas legislation deserve a response. with those laws, the state has, in effect, forced girls to carry the burden of its desires, forcing many of them to risk their health and even risk death by remaining pregnant. joining us now is michelle goodwin, chancellor's professor of law at the university of california irvine and the author of "policing the womb: invisible women and the criminalization of motherhood." professor goodwin, i have to ask, were you surprised that in that 90 minutes there was not once, not once a mention, a discussion of, a real discussion and exchange about rape and incest and little girls? >> unfortunately, i was not surprised that this was lacking in the questioning from the justices themselves, that it was an issue that was not raised. but what is so horrific is that both in the texas law and the mississippi law there are no exceptions for instances of rape or incest. and so it's quite ironic that given that very specific in these laws that is justices didn't address it at all. >> you write in your piece about your own experience. my father's pre-additions were hidden behind wealth, social status, and his acting the part of a committed parent. i attended elite schools in new york city, studied ballet at a renowned academy and took private vinyl and tennis lessons. my father never missed a parent-teacher conference. i think in that sentence and others in your piece we have to realize there's no way of knowing who this kind of thing is happening to. >> that's absolutely right. so when the texas governor, governor abbott, says i'll just be tough on crime and we'll just get rid of the rapists, many americans think about that as the creepy guy driving around in the white van that's all sealed up. and what we fail to pay attention to is that these are phenomenon that happen through all socioeconomic strata, and that these are fathers that are doctors, that are lawyers and legislators and judges themselves. this is the disconcerting part, and i think if we actually look at the way in which some judges have ruled in cases involving incest is quite striking the very limited sentencing some of these fathers get. >> professor, one of the things that i was feeling was that the -- certainly the republican-appointed justices have no comprehension of and no curiosity about the real lives of little girls and women who do not have financial resources, who do not have choices in life generally, never mind in their particular states the choice of abortion services. >> that's right. and i think it's really important to read judge carlton reeves ruling in the lower court. the reason it hasn't gone into effect, judge reeves wrote a stunning opinion with wonderful foot notes identifying how harsh mississippi has been as a state to the interest of women, and specifically the interest of black women. let's be clear that states like mississippi and texas have amongst the highest maternal mortality rates in the entire world. texas was considered the most dangerous place in the developed world to even be pregnant. fanny lou hamer famously talked about the mississippi appendectomy, referring to 11 and 12-year-old girls who were forcibly sterilized, black girls, in the state of mississippi, so it's hard to take seriously these states saying their efforts are out of love and care when in fact that's never been shown in the arc of history in those states regarding black women and girls or generally any women who happen to be vulnerable and poor in those states. >> it seems if the court rules in the way it indeed leaning toward overturning roe v. wade, what roe v. wade at this point is protecting in america the rights of poor women, women who don't have significant means, who live in republican-controlled states, who will then change the laws and restrict abortion or ban abortion completely. the wealthy women in those states will easily be able to travel to other states that provide abortion services and, of course, the big democratic states will preserve abortion rights as they have them now. and so a majority of the population, actually, will be living under democratic state governments that preserve all of roe and more. and so it's really at this point the protection that was being debated, really, in the supreme court was really just the protection of women who don't have the means, to create their own choices in these situations. >> that's right. and that's really why the choice framework, is more i will lus sorry than real, because for very poor women it's very difficult. let's be clear. in mississippi there's only one abortion clinic that remains in that state. it's a deadly proposition to carry a pregnancy to term in that state. even more generally, a person is 14 times more likely to die by carrying a pregnancy to term than by terminating it. so we have to look clearly at what these states are doing, given the data that we already know, the high death rates, the expense and costs, the various wait times and other things that have been posed, in many ways this is not just health risks, but it's life and death for a number of women, and we've not been serious and direct about that. and the judges who are involved in these cases have not been called on the carpet to not only look at what happens to girls but also to look at the life-and-death scenarios in the united states. i want to share one thing, and i know we're tight on time, but the united states ranks 54th in the world in terms of maternal healthiest. it's safer to give birth in bosnia or saudi arabia than the united states. so these laws in many ways are a deadly proposition. >> professor michelle goodwin, thank you very much for joining us tonight. we're going to post a link to your article, which is the must-read article in this subject that i really want everyone to see. thank you very much for joining us tonight. we really appreciate it. >> thank you so much for having me. coming up, former police officer derek chauvin is in prison tonight for the murder of george floyd, the crime that might never have been exposed were it not for the 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(crowd cheering) therabreath, it's a better mouthwash. at walmart, target and other fine stores. entitled manner as to count one, unintentionally second-degree murder while committing a felony find the defendant guilty. verdict count two, we the jury as to count two, third-degree murder, perpetrating a dangerous act find the defendant guilty. we if jury as to count three, second-degree manslaughter find the defendant guilty. >> here's what the minneapolis police department told us on may 25th of last year after george floyd died. on monday evening, shortly after 8:00 p.m., officers from the minneapolis police department responded to the 3700 block of chicago avenue south on a report of a forgery in progress. two officers arrived and located the suspect, a male believed to be in his 40s in his car. he was ordered to step from his car. after he got out, he physically resisted officers. officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress. officers called for an ambulance. he was transported to hennepin county medical center by ambulance where he died a short time later. end of story. end of police story. that was it. that was the lie they were going to get away with. that was the lie the police officers involved in the killing of george floyd were going to get away with. no police officer was going to contradict that story. not one of those cops on the scene was ever going to tell the truth about what happened to george floyd, never. but their story fell apart overnight thanks to one person, darnella frazier had been on this earth for less than half the time of derek chauvin's time on this earth, but at 17 years old she knew how to do the right thing. darnella frazier aimed her phone at derek chauvin and george floyd and held it and recorded every minute of what derek chauvin did to george floyd. even when derek chauvin threatened her with mace, darnella frazier held her ground and she kept recording. she then posted her video on facebook, and the police lie instantly began to crumble. >> probably close to midnight, a community member had contacted me and said, chief, almost verbatim, chief, have you seen the video of your officer choking and killing that man at 30th and chicago? and so once i heard that statement, i just knew it wasn't the same milestone camera video that i had saw. and eventually, within minutes after that, i saw for the first time what is now known as the bystander video. >> darnella frazier changed the police chief's mind about what happened on that street and the next day derek chauvin was fired. when darnella frazier testified during the trial, she testified she wished she did more. >> when i look at george floyd, i look at my dad, i look at my brothers, i look at my cousins, my uncles, because they are all black. i have a black father. i have a black brother. i have black friends. and i look at that and i look at how that could have been one of them. it's been nights i stayed up apologizing and -- and apologizing to george floyd for not doing more and not basically interacting and not saving his life. but it's like, it's not what i should have done. it's what he should have done. >> all three of the police officers on the scene could have done more. each one of them could have intervened and knocked derek chauvin off george floyd's neck, but they did not have darnella frazier's courage. of themselves have darnella frazier's sense of duty to the sanctuary of life of another human being. derek chauvin is awaiting trial tonight. that happened because darnella frazier press record on her phone, because she knew something had to be done for george floyd, and that was the only thing she could do. tonight on her facebook page where she posted her video of george floyd taking his last breath, darnella frazier wrote, i just cried so hard this last hour. my heart was beating so fast. i was so anxious. anxiety buzzing through the roof. but to know guilty on all three charges, thank you, god. thank you, thank you, thank you thank you. george floyd, we did it. justice has been served. derek chauvin was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison for the murder of george floyd. three other officers who were at the scene charged with aiding and abetting george floyd's murder are scheduled to be tried in march, and all four former officers are facing federal civil rights charges for depriving george floyd of his constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force. derek chauvin changed his plea and is now pleading guilty in that case. in june darnella frazier was awarded a special pulitzer prize for producing the single most important piece of video journalism, which then became the most important piece of evidence in the most kwenlt case of police force in u.s. history. a teenager girl in navlg who many of you you met on this program five years ago is now much closer to achieving her dream of becoming a doctor. the remarkable joyce which i see zally is now a student at the university of malawi college of medicine. joyce will tell us how it's going next in tonight's "last word." rty grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks! 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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. five years ago on this program , we introduced you to the remarkable joyce chisale who was 13 years old and had just been sent home from high school in malawi because her family couldn't pay the the school fees. public high school is not free in malawi. when i met joyce, i told her she wouldn't have to worry about school fees anymore because, thanks to your generosity, she would receive a scholarship from the k.i.n.d. fund, kids in need of desks, the partnership i created between msnbc and unicef to deliver desks to schools in malawi and provide scholarships for girls to attend high school. joyce told me on the day we met that she wanted to be a doctor and a poet, and then recited a poem that many of you will never forget. >> my power is entitled "little by little." little by little, no matter how far the distance is, we're not shaken. little by little we will reach our destination. little by little we'll go, no matter how bumpy the road is, we're not going to turn back. we will fulfill our dreams. little by little we will go. no matter how narrow the path is, we are going to force ourselves to pass and little by little we'll go and reach the promised land. don't be shaken. don't turn back. little by little you go and reach your destination. >> joyce has reached the next stop on the road to her destination, and a few days ago she told us how it's going in her first year at the university of malawi college of medicine. >> my journey at the university has been good, it's been exciting, it's been adventurous, as well as stressful because there's a lot of work. the workload is very huge as compared to the workload we had in high school. so yeah, it's been stressful. but it's been wonderful at the same time because i've learned a lot of new ways on how to manage my time, how to tackle my workload. yeah, it's been good. >> joyce has the enthusiasm for her classes of a student who feels very lucky to be there. >> my favorite class here has been biology, chemistry, as well as mathematics. in biology it's been exciting because, yeah, i learned a lot of things about the human anatomy, went deeper. it has been good to be so immersed, and chemistry has been challenging, learning about chemical reactions, chemistry implosions, so yeah, that's been good. >> and now it's time for joyce's first college exams. >> we will be studying our end of year examinations soon, and the prepares are good. yeah, there are some things that are difficult, but it's been wonderful having friends to help me. yeah, deep discussions. so i'll be very glad to finish my foundation here so i can actually start medical sciences. >> you can help other students achieve their dreams and your dreams for them by going to lastworddesks.msnbc.com. you can give a desk or a girl scholarship as a gift to anyone on your holiday gift list and unicef will send them an acknowledgment of your gift. no contribution is to small. joyce made me promise that she would get this last word tonight from her heart to yours. >> to the people who are donating to the scholarship, you are doing a great job out there. you are helping a lot of viewers, including me. on behalf of all the girls, i would like to say thank you for your support. may you continue having that heart to support others. may god bless you. >> joyce chisale, once again, gets tonight's last word. and from all of us here on "the last word" team and msnbc, thank you for watching this year. good night. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ hate to have to do this, but we have sad breaking news from hollywood. the associate press is reporting legendary actress betty white has died at the age of 99. she was the longest-running woman on television, but there was so much more than television. she began her career on the radio in the 1940s, then tv in the 1950s, starring in more shows than i have fingers on my hands. her most famous, though, rose nylund on "the golden girls" that ran on nbc from 1985 to 1992. and then the movies, so many movies. just the other day her "proposal" co-star ryan reynolds