facism how close america is to it right now. plus as omicron spreads like wild fire i'll ask the former cdc director what the cdc under joe biden could do to improve messaging. as the school closures escalate the president of the american federation of teachers will join me to talk about what steps she believes need to be taken to protect both educators and students from the virus. good evening. i'm mehdi hasan. we just marked one year since the horrible, deadly january 6th assault on the united states capitol. now as the insurrection rolls on we are getting ready for the next national election. not the 2024 presidential election. the midterm congressional elections that happen later this year. it is 2022 already. those elections could decide everything. like if republicans win the house, will they certify the presidential results? should a democrat win the white house in 2024? will they shoot down any further congressional investigation into donald trump and his allies? if you think there have been no meaningful voting reforms passed in the last year imagine what happens if republicans regain control of the house if not both chambers of congress. imagine what happens to voting rights then. here is the kicker. what if the republican congress decides to install trump as the next president in january 2025 should trump lose that election? that is the scenario envisioned by professor timothy schneider of yale who studies autocracies and facism and how authoritarian governments have taken hold in places like eastern europe. schneider writes if trump cheats his way back to power it will be catastrophic. tens of millions of people protest. paramilitaries on both sides emerge. violence leads to fake and real stories of death and to revenge. police and armed forces would know neither whom they should obey or arrest. with traditional authority broken those bearing uniforms and bearing arms will take sides and start shooting one another. governors will look for exit strategies for their states. americans will rush to parts of the disintegrating country they find safer in a process that looks increasingly like ethnic cleansing the stock market and economy will crash, the dollar will cease to be the world currency. it is the starkest picture i've seen painted yet by someone who studies these exact scenarios for a living. in a moment i'll talk to professor tim schneider about whether this is for real because everyone knows i'm someone who keeps warning about this but even i haven't gone that far. to get to that dark point requires a rolling insurrection involving the likes of house minority leader and possible next speaker kevin mccarthy who from the capitol on january 6th begged donald trump by phone to call off the rioters. in the immediate days that followed said that trump, quote, bears responsibility for the attack on congress by mob rioters. it was surprising when only two weeks later mccarthy visited trump at mar-a-lago. say cheese. here is what the minority leader told his caucus about that pivotal meeting. >> kevin had told us something like oh, i just happened to be in florida and he wanted to meet so i was going to meet with him. no. that was an intentional meeting. that took like these paddles that you see on the tv shows and resurrected donald trump back to life. i think that one, when history looks back, it'll be kevin's meeting with donald trump which actually made him as immediate a force as he was. he may have come back but i think that was a very important meeting. >> republicans everywhere and every day since have been carrying trump's water about january 6th. just yesterday the state senator who led the charge to overturn biden's election in pennsylvania launched his bid for governor. general michael flynn was there and trump campaign lawyer ellis. in wisconsin today big lie purveyor ron johnson announced he is running for re-election for his u.s. senate seat. oh, joy. then there is his republican colleague josh hawley. remember him? hawley has escaped any real consequences for trying to overturn the electoral college vote and supporting the insurrectionists despite the blatant fist bump. he mean even his brother in arms ted cruz admitted what happened on january 6th was domestic terrorism. until that is tucker carlson on fox bullied him into backing down live on air. >> the anniversary of a violent terrorist attack on the capitol where we saw the men and women of law enforcement demonstrate incredible courage, incredible bravery, risk their lives to defend the men and women who serve in this capitol. >> you called this a terror attack when by no definition was it a terror attack. that's a lie. >> the way i phrased things yesterday it was sloppy. i wasn't saying that the thousands of peaceful protesters supporting donald trump are somehow terrorists. >> i haven't seen that kind of bravery from ted cruz since he let donald trump call his wife ugly. now, the police officers who were attacked that day no doubt think what happened was terrorism. they were defending against a violent insurrection. four have died by suicide and one officer brian sicknick who collapsed when his january 6th shift was over died the next day. his partner of 11 years sandra gaza joins me now. thank you so much for being here at such a difficult time. we really appreciate it. i have to start by asking, what was the one-year mark like for you? what was that anniversary like for you? how did you remember brian on thursday? >> well, mehdi, thank you for having me on your show again. it was very difficult, very emotional. i actually could not make it to the capitol that evening, so i spent a quiet night at home remembering brian on my own. i watched a lot of the news. it was very difficult to see a lot of the footage. you know, replayed over and over from that day. it was very hard for me to, you know, remember that brian was there that day. that he was assaulted and just to play that all over again in my head was very difficult. it was a hard day. >> we are so sorry for your loss. i have to ask, sandra, when you hear ted cruz being bullied by tucker carlson into saying this wasn't terrorism, you hear republicans say stop politicizing all this stuff, as someone who lost someone that day and knows how much violence went down what is your response to them? >> well, you know, i've said before that i think that they have no spines. they were talking over and over again. never bend a knee to the woke mob but they'll bend a knee for the orange blob. and why they are bending a knee for tucker carlson who is just a news anchor, you know, obviously tucker carlson is also bending a knee to the orange blob, you know, and they're kissing donald trump's butt. but i mean, it's ridiculous. if it wasn't so atrocious and awful it would almost be comical. you have these very powerful people in these powerful positions that are groveling and, you know, begging for forgiveness and as a lot of people say kissing the ring or kissing his feet i would say. it's almost comical in a way. but i also want to say today marks the one-year anniversary of officer howard levingood's suicide and january 13th is the one-year anniversary of officer jeffrey smith's suicide. for ted cruz to backpedal and all these others, i know matt gaetz and marjorie taylor greene were saying all these kinds of ridiculous things on the 6th. they just couldn't help themselves and keep their big mouths shut, you know, why don't they go talk to them? visit them and tell them to their faces that january 6th wasn't a big deal. because, you know, they're really suffering. >> last quick question. we are out of time. do you still hold donald trump responsible for brian's death? >> absolutely. he played a role in that. like i said before. the medical examiner said all of that transpired that day, escalated his death. donald trump is a scum bag. he instigated that event. absolutely 100%. >> we are so sorry for your loss and appreciate you taking time to come on the show tonight. thank you so much. >> thank you. there are few academics who have watched the rise of global autocracy more closely than tim schneider. you heard me read from his chilling newsletter at the top of the hour. he is professor of history at yale university and author of "on tyranny" 20 lessons from the 20th century and joins me now. welcome back to the show. come 2024, you write of people shooting each other. you write of people, the military disobeying orders. you write of the stock market collapsing globally. is that you using hyperbole to make a point or is that what you genuinely believe we are on course for as of right now sunday night, january 9th, 8:00 p.m. eastern? >> i think right now it is the most likely scenario but doesn't have to happen. one way to prevent it from happening is to recognize it is a possibility. if we just think america is automatically a democracy and institutions will automatically function or the country is automatically going to exist then we can sleep walk ourselves into trouble. we need to just right now look back from january, 2025. imagine what would happen in this country a president is installed rather than elected. this doesn't have to happen. but it could very well happen. we'll be better able to prevent it if we can look back and say, hum. if an unelected president, somebody who loses by many electoral votes and many millions of popular votes is in effect installed in a way that seems illegitimate to the vast majority of the population, do you really expect the country to hold together? this is a question chiefly by the way for republicans because republicans in these last year or so have been thrown back entirely to tactics. they are thinking just about power. they are thinking just about how to game the system. if you game the system hard enough it stops being the system and i think it will be a very good thing if folks on that side took a deep breath and thought, okay. if this actually unfolds the way we want it to, will there be a country at the other end of it which we actually get to -- >> so, i mean, unfortunately they're not doing that, tim. i think they've always downplayed the threat their own party leader plays. let me ask you this. what is the right way to remember and describe 1-6 the anniversary we just marked? on the right their best case argument is that, yes. it was a horrible and violent three-hour riot that should be condemned but in no scenario do they say it was going to take over the united states government and therefore it is wrong to call it a coup or insurrection. what is your response to that line of argument? >> it was a failed coup. not every coup succeeds. we're still learning more about it every day. it was a coup attempt which had several parts. there was the part by very local level officials, some of whom were willing to tip toward mr. trump. there was the part in the justice department where at least one important person was willing to work for mr. trump. there was mr. trump himself who was encouraging both the violence and the legal attempt to overthrow a democratic election. there were many parts to this. one is the strange way our government fail to protect the capitol building which is still not adequately explained and which led to the tragedies just discussed. it is a failed coup attempt and what history shows is failed coup attempts are practice for successful coup attempts. there are some republicans who don't want to see the country collapse. let's not go too far with this. there are some folks on that side who probably don't want to actually see the country fall apart. i think there is time to talk about that scenario because i think some people are just looking away from it. >> so joe biden the president is going to give a big voting rights speech in georgia on tuesday. another big visit. another big speech. people like you and me are tearing our hair out saying authoritarianism, facism are around the corner. at what point do the democrats and specifically the president go beyond speechifying? >> look, it can't, i mean, i guess i would resist the premise of the question. we can't expect the democratic party or even the president to do these things without a lot of pressure coming from other directions. if we sit back and expect the democratic party with all due respect and love to save us then we're probably in a pretty bad position. what has to happen is the idea of voting rights is something that comes not just from above but from below. what has to happen is that people understand the elections of 2022 not just 2024 are also existential. for us it is a matter of living in trump land again but in a much worse version the second time around. i am not going to put all the responsibility on the shoulders of the president. a lot of the responsibility is with us. >> i think that is a fair point. i think activists have been doing a lot to pressure this president and i just hope we can see more action and fewer speeches this year. to be fair to the president as well that is senator joe manchin and kyrsten sinema in the senate. thank you so much for your analysis and time. next former cdc director tom freden joins me to talk through the impact of the mixed messages being sent by his former agency the cdc. i'll ask what she thinks the best path forward is to keep both students and teachers safe. first richard lui is here. >> we're continuing to follow breaking news. the new york city fire department announcing that a deadly fire in the bronx was caused by malfunctioning space heater, electric one. 19 people were killed including nine children. here is msnbc news correspondent kathy park with the latest. >> reporter: officials say this is one of the deadliest fires in new york city history. the fire broke out shortly after 11:00 this morning and was knocked out around 1:00. this was a five-alarm fire but did some extensive damage. the fire officials are telling us that it started somewhere on the second or third floor and while the fire spread quickly so did the smoke. 19 confirmed dead. nine of them being children. ten adults. several people are suffering from smoke inhalation at this hour. right now officials say this is still under investigation but early reports suggest the fire was sparked by a malfunctioning space heater. tonight the community is in mourning. this is a largely immigrant population. the red cross is on site to register the displaced. back to you. >> kathy, thank you. we'll have more on this later. we've also just learned beloved comedian and actor bob saget died at the age of 65. according to the orange county, florida sheriff's office he was found dead in his hotel room earlier today. detectives found no signs of foul play or drug use. more of "the mehdi hasan" show right after this break. by creating allowances and assigning chores, they can practice earning every day. with a debit card just for them, they'll learn smart spending firsthand, while you monitor and set account alerts. and using their own chase mobile app, they can set big savings goals. all with no monthly service fee. chase first banking. how bout sushi? 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[collision beeping warning] [silence] how bout tacos? tacos. automatic emergency braking — one of six advanced safety features standard on every 2022 chevy equinox. find new technology. find new roads. chevrolet. new year, new start. find new technology. and now comcast business is making it easy to get going with the ready. set. save. sale. get started with fast and reliable internet and voice for $64.99 a month with a 2-year price guarantee. it's easy... with flexible installation and backing from an expert team, 24/7. and for even more value, ask how to get up to a $500 prepaid card. get a great deal for your business with the ready. set. save. sale today. comcast business. powering possibilities. one thing many americans might agree on is that the cdc has not had a great pandemic i think it is fair to say whether it was the cdc under president trump or now under president biden this is an institution which has tripped up again and again giving misleading or confusing guidance on how to stay safe. first we were told not to buy masks even as asian countries did. then a few weeks later as it became clear how pervasive the spread of the virus was among the asymptomatic they changed their mind. get masked. then we were told last year if we're fully vaccinated we could stop wearing masks. the cdc was warned it was too soon and only a few months later the guidance was once again reversed. the rise of omicron has only led to more confusion and criticism. the cdc shortened its isolation period for those who test positive from ten days to five days if asymptomatic or symptoms have improved and no need for a negative test to exit quarantine. a policy change that delta airlines had been lobbying the cdc for by the way. after facing backlash including from the uk's health agency which said the shortened isolation period would be counterproductive, the cdc edited the guidance noting that if people have access to rapid test they should test themselves after five days and continue to isolate if the test comes back positive. while the cdc in public continues to justify its chaotic and controversial decisions in private it's well aware it has a serious messaging problem. according to new reporting its director has been receiving media coaching for months. i'm joined now by former krd director under president obama, thanks so much for coming on the show tonight. a gallop poll last year found only 1 in 3 americans agreed the cdc has communicated a clear plan of action in response to the coronavirus. we're now in year three of the pandemic. how poorly do you believe your former agency is doing in terms of guiding the public, educating them, messaging? >> the bottom line is the virus is adapting and we need to adapt also. in fact, i think the cdc guidance is getting better, more timely. the biggest problem they've had is a communication problem. we have a failure to communicate. i really hope friday marks an inflection point, a turning point because for the first time in really memory of this pandemic cdc held a briefing from atlanta independently with technical experts, answered dozens of media questions, and that is what is needed regularly. so the cdc can explain what we know when we're learning it, what we don't know, what we're doing to try to find it out. the issues haven't been always the guidance so much as the communication but both need to get better. we need to see simple, clear, practical guidance and communication. >> it is not just the messaging. it is also the guidance. we know delta airlines for example lobbied the cdc to cut its guidelines on isolating from ten days to five and without a negative test which a lot of epidemiologists have criticized. other governments like the uks haven't done. when you were head of the cdc did you get lobbied by big business to change public health guidelines? >> all the time. but what is happening here is the virus is changing. omicron is behaving a lot more like influenza than the delta variant or the alpha variant from last year. we have a very different situation. where the vast majority of people do have very mild infections but we must do better with vaccinating, masking up, protecting the vulnerable, testing, and making sure we're not exposing the vulnerable and protecting our health care system. we can make a really big difference but omicron has changed and we need to change also. >> so you mentioned the omicron is more like influenza. you did a tweet to that effect recently. some people don't like that view. some people don't agree. there is an implication it is milder. the head of the w.h.o., have a listen to what he said about people who say omicron is mild. >> while omicron does appear to be less severe compared to delta, especially in the vaccinated, it does not mean it should be categorized as mild. just like previous variants, omicron is hospitalizing people and it's killing people. in fact, the tsunami of cases is so huge and quick that it is overwhelming health systems around the world. >> do you disagree with the head of the w.h.o. especially given omicron is overwhelming american hospitals right now much more than it has european hospitals? >> what we're seeing is not so much a wave as a flash flood. omicron is different because it is so stunningly infectious. i've never seen a virus this infectious. we're seeing positivity rates of 20%, 30%. we're seeing what are called epidemicic curves or the number of cases per day that are straight up huge numbers of cases and with that the real risk of overwhelming hospitals. that is why it remains really important that we do everything possible to blunt transmission so we don't have overwhelmed health care systems. that doesn't mean that omicron isn't very different. we don't know for sure but everything we're seeing so far suggests that it is not just a little bit but substantially less dangerous, less lethal. part of that is because almost everybody, maybe 90% of people, have either been vaccinated or gotten the virus before. either of those forms of immunity are probably going to make it less likely that you get severely ill or die but there are many aspects of omicron that are very different from the prior waves. and one of them is that a lot of those people in the hospital now are probably in with omicron not from omicron. look, if a huge proportion of the population has it then a huge proportion of people hospitalized -- >> we also know, dr. frieden, that more than a thousand people are dying every day. we don't know how much of that is delta, how much of that is omicron partly because the cdc doesn't have the data. a lot of people are still dying. i think we can agree it being less lethal than delta is undeniable. that doesn't quite mean yet we just don't know for sure it is like the flu. look at the long covid implications we are learning about every day. i want to ask you about something else the cdc director, your successor did that got criticized. rochelle walensky is supposed to be having this media training and made this bizarre remark the other morning. have a listen. >> i want to ask you about those encouraging headlines we're talking about this morning this new study showing just how well vaccines are working to prevent severe illness. given that is it time to start rethinking how we are living with this virus, that it is potentially here to stay? >> the overwhelming number of deaths over 75% occurred in people who had at least four comorbidities so really these are people who were unwell to begin with and, yes, really encouraging news in the context of omicron. >> dr. frieden, 60% of americans have an underlying condition that increases their risk of severe illness from covid-19. why would anyone especially the head of the cdc say they are encouraged by the deaths of people with comorbidities? it sounds almost trumpian. well, they died. it was their fault for being unhealthy. >> i know the study dr. walensky was referring to and it is a very important study. it was looking at breakthrough. and what is encouraging is how well the vaccines are working. of the very few cases of fatal covid after vaccination more than three-quarters were people who had multiple comorbidities. that is why it is so important we protect the vulnerable. you are absolutely right. a thousand deaths a day is nowhere near out of the woods. we are still in the midst of a pandemic. we wish it were over but it is not so we need to adapt, vaccinate, mask up, and figure out what to do to go about our lives without endangering ourselves or others. >> indeed. i think we need to also take on board the fact that for people with comorbidities, people with disabilities, covid is a very serious issue even now with omicron. it is very important we as you say tackle it. thank you, dr. frieden, for your time. appreciate it. >> thank you. coming up next, my 60-second rant. this time it's about former vice president dick cheney who appeared to be a uniting force on capitol hill this past thursday. just a reminder he is still dick cheney. don't go anywhere. my car insurance,ustomize so i only pay for what i need. how about a throwback? 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(excited yell) woo-hoo! ensure max protein. with thirty grams of protein, one gram of sugar, and nutrients to support immune health. welcome back. dick cheney accompanied daughter liz on to the house floor on wednesday to commemorate the 1-6 attack. democrats led by nancy pelosi lined up to shake his hands. i get it. all hands on deck. it is good even when republicans we dislike stand up to trump and the authoritarianism of the modern gop. but i'm sorry. dick cheney is beyond the pale and deserves no rehabilitation. let me remind you why in 60 seconds. it was dick cheney who was the driving force behind the illegal invasion of iraq which led to hundreds of thousands of deaths. he lied about saddam and bin laden and ridiculously declared we'd be greeted as liberators. i was instrumental in authorizing the use of torture and said years later he would do it again. it was dick cheney who pushed for u.s. citizens to be detained. he was the mastermind to spy on american phone calls and e-mail and got halliburton millions in government contracts and was ceo. it was dick cheney who pushed for a so-called theory which basically said the president can do whatever they want. he endorsed trump in 2016 and was part of fundraising efforts for trump's election campaign. war crimes, corruption, abuse of power? dick cheney in my view should be on trial not shaking his blood-stained hand with congressional democrats or pretending to be part of some sort of pro democracy coalition. next i'll ask the president of the american federation of teachers what she thinks should be done to protect educators two years into the pandemic. plus did you know the mehdi hasan show is available as a podcast? now you can listen to the show on the go any time. listen for free wherever you get your podcasts. among my patients, i often see them have teeth sensitivity as well as gum issues. does it worry me? absolutely. sensodyne sensitivity & gum gives us the dual action effect that really takes care of both our teeth sensitivity as well as our gum issues. there's no question it's something that i would recommend. there is nothing particularly novel about conservatives bashing america's teachers. we've been watching them do it for years. any time the gop needs to whip up their base for an off year election especially any time some bargain bin william f. buckley wants to go viral on twitter america's teachers are there, to be villainized. this week we saw attacks against educators ramp up again as the chicago teachers union voted to walk out rather than return to classrooms while omicron is surging. imagine my surprise when i saw joining the predictal right wing chorus of trolls a number of self-proclaimed liberals. the atlantic ran a piece this week titled "why i soured on the democrats." "covid school policies set me adrift from my tribe." david axelrod the chief strategist for barack obama's presidential complain followed up by implicitly suggesting teacher efforts to secure decent covid-19 protections will harm children. the biden administration weighed in, too. press secretary jen psaki said this week it is time for schools to be open in person and she went the extra mile to note how children in chicago specifically will suffer if they do not return to the classroom. after a year where u.s. labor unions saw so many victory and enjoyed so much public support think kellogg, john deere, it is depressing to see democrats turn around and slam teachers and teachers unions because let's be clear. number one the debate that is currently swirling around school closures is not the same debate we had in 2020. as the "new york times" reports the vast majority of u.s. public schools opened for in-person learning and operated normally this past week. the handful of districts that did need to close and move to remote learning did so because of covid inflicted staff shortages. let me repeat that for you. the few schools that are closed are not closed because teachers are lazy. they are closed because there are too many sick teachers to keep them open. number two it is absolute b.s. to suggest there isn't a covid threat to kids in school. in fact, new and alarming data from the cdc suggest children who recover from covid-19 have somewhere between a 30% and 2.6 fold increased risk for diabetes. long covid is real. this pandemic is not over. and keeping schools open no matter what, throwing kids back into unsafe classrooms no matter the cost, and condemning any under paid or over worked teachers who may raise an objection is not the answer to our problems. still, can teachers and their unions win this argument? coming up after the break i'll talk live to randi weingarten the outspoken president of the american federation of teachers. but before we go to break richard lui is here with the latest on the massive and fatal fire in the bronx. >> we've been watching the latest coming in on the story the fdny saying the fire was sparked by an electric malfunctioning space heater in a bedroom. 19 people are dead including nine children. they were 16 years old or younger. in total more than 60 people were injured. the fire department says this started in a duplex apartment on both the second and third floors then spread through the building. it started around 11:00 a.m. and was under control around 1:00 p.m. the mayor saying this is the worst fire the city has seen in some 30 years. for now more of "the mehdi hasan show" after a short break. for people living with h-i-v, keep being you. and ask your doctor about biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in certain adults. it's not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v to help you get to and stay undetectable. that's when the amount of virus is so low it cannot be measured by a lab test. research shows people who take h-i-v treatment every day and get to and stay undetectable can no longer transmit h-i-v through sex. serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and kidney failure. rare, life-threatening side effects include a buildup of lactic acid and liver problems. do not take biktarvy if you take dofetilide or rifampin. tell your doctor about all the medicines and supplements you take, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, or if you have kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis. if you have hepatitis b, do not stop taking biktarvy without talking to your doctor. common side effects were diarrhea, nausea, and headache. if you're living with hiv, keep loving who you are. and ask your doctor if biktarvy is right for you. welcome back. earlier in the show we discussed a decision by the chicago teachers union to walk out rather than return to classrooms while omicron continues to surge. that move outraged many republicans but also a number of democrats including the mayor of chicago. who better to talk about all of this with than randi weingarten the president of the american federation of teachers joining me now. thank you so much for coming on the show this evening. you may be familiar with this recent atlantic piece i mentioned. a mother from cleveland writes about how she feels school covid policies, closures, are pushing her out of the democratic party. seems there are a lot of parents quite fired up about this situation including in chicago. what would you like to say to them? >> first off, look, everybody is really frustrated about the situation with omicron. and i'm really glad that the cleveland system is reopening tomorrow after they fixed the shortages that kept them closed this week. but it is the teachers who are helping our kids and i've seen all across the country that when you actually go to local schools it is teachers and parents working together to deal with the unprecedented disruption that has happened to our kids. i read the article too. he was as mad as people who didn't get vaccinated and his policies that didn't keep schools open first instead of bars and restaurants last year. but this is the bottom line. we want schools to open and it used to be that 95% was a really good grade. chicago is an exception because of the testing issues and what we're trying to do all across the country is keep schools open, get the mitigations, deal with the logistics, and deal with the shortages, which are happening because of this huge spike in omicron. >> and the shortages you're right. a lot of the schools just can't stay open if 1 in 3 teachers is sick or whatever it is and we are ignoring that. in chicago as you point out there was a specific decision made by the union. have a listen to the chicago mayor lori lightfoot a democrat criticizing that decision. >> what i won't do is allow the teachers union to politicize this surge or the pandemic in general. people are nervous. they are scared. we get that. the thing to do is to lean into the facts and science and not abandon them in a panic. >> are teachers abandoning their students right now and ignoring the science? >> no. i mean, not at all. i know the teachers in chicago. they care about our kids. they love our kids. what they asked for all last week and frankly for the last few weeks is get us enough testing so that we're not running after the virus. so we know how much is in the schools, who is going to be there, who isn't going to be there so we don't have the mess that chicago had the week before christmas. the testing debabbling is what led to chicago tuesday saying -- debacle is what led to chicago tuesday saying we can't do this right now. frankly i am asking lori, you know, you know how to run this city. get us the testing. the governor has given us that testing. get it into schools on monday and i bet if you get that into schools on monday we'll have schools open this week. this is what others have done all across the country. that is why l.a. is opening. that's why d.c. is opening. that's why new york is opening. if i sound frustrated this is a terrible way. parents need teachers and they need teachers to embrace their kids and that's what we need to do together and what we are seeing all across the country is that when we are allowed to do our work and get the support that we need to get, we can do this. the teachers are spent. we have to treat them like heroes instead of actually blaming them. >> so you mentioned of the testing debacle. early in the pandemic there was a lot of issues in schools. the american rescue plan comes along in 2020. the biden administration provides $190 billion to aid schools in staying open. in adapting to covid-19, mitigating. the white house a lot of prominent democrats say that money combined with vaccinations means schools are safe now in a way they weren't in 2020. they say therefore there is no excuse for any schools to be closed given all the spending. what is your response? >> well look. that is part of the reason why virtually a hundred percent of the schools were open september, october, november. we now have a completely different variant and i hope that your last guest was right that it sounds like very transmissible but not -- but mild even though the w.h.o. is saying something different. what is happening is that if we get the testing and we get the better grade masks, we believe that with vaccines and boosters that we can keep schools open even with this omicron as long as we don't have too many people sick in schools. and that is why you've seen 96% of schools opened this week. think about last year and this is where the biden administration is really good. last year about 40% of schools were open in the winter surge. that's before we had vaccines. it's before we ad boosters, before we had the ventilation fixes. this year there has been a huge difference because we have a different administration. but there is an underlying fear and a huge shift because of omicron and the teachers are trying the best they can. they need to be respected not vilified. they are really doing everything they can and they're overcoming their own fears and trying to do the best they can. again, chicago is the exception that proves the rule. >> respect and not vilify. i hope we can all agree on that. thank you so much for your time tonight. appreciate it. next my thoughts on one single text message between fox's sean hannity and chief of staff to donald trump mark meadows leading up to the attack on the capitol just over a year ago. stay tuned. ovt er a year ago. stay tuned a spider bite? 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♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ thanks for watching. we will be right back here next sunday at 8:00 p.m. eastern. catch me monday through thursday at 7:00 p.m. eastern live on the choice on nbc streaming channel peacock. now it is time to hand it over to my good friend, ayman, good evening and before i go i want to read to you one of those texts between sean hannity and then trump chief of staff mark meadows released by the january 6 committee last week. on december 31st hannity texted meadows i do not see january 6 happening the way he meaning trump is being told. ayman why is hannity saying that? if january 6 did play out the way trump wanted he hannity would be totally fine with it? also he is a, quote-unquote, news anchor. imagine the backlash if one of us had sent a text like that to a white house official. >> it is important to put aside the notion that fox news is a news channel anymore. in my opinion i think it is the communications arm of both the republican party and quite honestly you and i know this just from what we see overseas if there was any news channel in the world that had the kind of collaboration and coordination between its, quote-unquote, news anchors and the white house and the people running this country it would be considered state run propaganda channel. it wouldn't even be considered a news organization. here we are in america living under the facade this is a news channel of sorts. >> we need to stop calling it fox news and just call it fox. lawrence o'donnell made that point a long time ago and we need to follow his foot steps. one thing i would say is the fox people say those of us on msnbc or cnn or the liberal media we have contempt for red america for fox viewers. no one has more contempt for fox viewers than fox hosts who say one thing in private texting the president and the chief of staff saying this is bad on 1-6 and publicly saying oh, it was all antifa, all the democrats. it was fine. it was peaceful. >> yeah. the hypocrisy is just absolutely striking. it is a good point as well. they have contempt for their viewers. when you take into consideration the fact that they're all vaxed and still pushing the agenda of not getting vaxed to the rest of the american public. good to see you. enjoy the rest of your evening off. >> thank you. good evening to you at home. welcome to ayman one year later and so many questions left unanswered from the january 6 insurrection. i'll ask a sister and brother-in-law to roseann boilin who died during the insurrection what accountability would look like for them today. plus imagine introducing yourself to your colleagues while hiding under chairs and fearing for your life. that was the experience freshman congresswoman sarah jacobs had during her first week on the job. she'll join us live to share her story. then as we were just discussing there, new texts reveal the even more concerning influence that fox news host sean hannity had on the previous administration. we'll break it down with our sunday night panel. let's get started. with every day that has passed since the january 6th attack

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