fascism how close america is to it right now. plus, as omicron spreads like wildfire, i'll ask former cdc director dr. tom frieden what the cdc under joe biden could do to improve its messaging. and as the row of school closures escalate, the parent, the american federation of teachers randi weingaten believes needs to be taken toe educate both students and teachers from the virus. >> good evening. i'm mehdi hasan. we just marked one year since the horrible, deadly january 6 assault on the united states capitol. and now as the insurrection rolls on, we are getting ready for the next national election. no, not the 2024 presidential election. the midterm congressional elections that happen later this year. it is 2022 already. and 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 shot down any further congressional investigation into donald trump and his allies? and 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. and here is the kicker. what if that republican congress decides to install trump as the next president in january 2025, should trump lose that election? that's the scenario envisioned by professional timothy snyder of yale, who studies autocracies and fascism, and how authoritarian governments have taken hold in places like eastern europe. if trump cheats his way back to power, it will be catastrophic. have a listen to what he wrote. 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 will know neither who they should obey or whom they should arrest. with traditional authority broken, those wearing uniforms and baring 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 protest that looks like ethnic cleansing. the stock market and the 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. and in a moment, i'm going talk to professor tim snyder about whether this is for real. because everyone knows i'm someone who keeps warning about this. but even i have 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 6 begged donald trump by phone to call off the rioters. and in the immediate days that followed said that trump, quote, bears responsibility for the attack on congress by mob rioters. so it was surprising when only two weeks later, mccarthy visited trump at mar-a-lago. say cheese! here's 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 the paddles that you see on the tv shows and resurrected donald trump back to life. and i think that one -- i think when history looks back, it will be kevin's meeting with donald trump which actually made him as immediate of 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 6. just yesterday, the state senator who led the charge to overturn biden's election in pennsylvania, doug mastriano launched his bid for governor. general michael flynn was there and trump campaign lawyer janice ellis. in wisconsin today, a big lie purveyor ron johnson announced he is running for reelection for his u.s. senate seat. oh joy. thin 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. i mean even his brother in arms ted cruz admitted that what happened on january 6 was domestic terrorism. until that is, tucker carlson on fox bullied him into back down live on air. >> it is an 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, they 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 6 was over, he died the next day. his partner of 11 years, sandra garza, she joins me now. sandra, thank you so much for being here at such a difficult time. we really appreciate it. and i have to start by asking, what was the one-year mark like for you? what was that anniversary like for your? how did you remember brian on thursday? >> well, mehdi, thank you for having me on your show again. it was very difficult. it was 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 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. and i have to ask, sandra. >> thank you. >> when you hear ted cruz being bullied by tucker carlson into saying this wasn't terrorism, when you hear republicans say stop politicizing all of this stuff. as someone who lost someone on that day and knows how much violence went down that day, what is your response to them? >> well, you know, i've said before that i think that they have no spines. you know, they were talking over and 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're bend agony for tucker carlson, who is just a news anchor, you know, obviously tucker carlson is also bending a knee to the orange blob, and they're kissing donald trump's butt. but it's ridiculous. you know, if it wasn't so atrocious and awful, it would almost be comical. you have these very powerful people in these very powerful positions that are groveling and begging, you know, for forgiveness and for 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 livingood's suicide. and the one-year anniversary of jeffrey smith's suicide. so for ted cruz to backpedal and all these others. i know matt gaetz and marjorie taylor greene were as saying all these kinds of ridiculous things on the 6th. they just couldn't help themselves and keep their big mouths shut. why don't they go and talk to them and visit them and tell them to their faces that january 6 wasn't a big deal? because, you know, they're really suffering. >> last quick question. we're out of time. >> i'm sorry. >> 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 that transpired that day escalated his death. donald trump is a scumbag. he instigated that event absolutely 100%. >> sandra garza, we are so sorry for your loss. we appreciate you taking time out 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 snyder. you heard me reading from his chilling subsat letter at the top of the hour. he is author of "on tyranny: 20 lessons from the 20th century." he joins me now. tim, 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, january 9th, 8:00 p.m. eastern. >> i think right now it's the most likely scenario, but it doesn't have to happen. and one way to prevent it from happening is to recognize it as a possibility. if we just think that america is automatically a democracy and the institutions are automatically going to function, or if we just think the country is automatically going exist, then we can sleepwalk ourselves into trouble. i think what we need to be able to do is just right now look back from january 2025. imagine what would happen in this country if a president is installed rather than elected. this doesn't have to happen, but it could very well happen. and we're going to be better able to prevent it from happening if we can look back and say hmm, 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're thinking just about power. they're thinking just about how to game the system. but if you game the system hard enough, it stops being the system. and i think it are 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 unfold, will there be a country at the other end of it which we actually get to. >> so unfortunately they're not doing that, tim. and i think they've always downplayed the threat that 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? because on the right, their best case argument is that yes, it was a horrible and violent three-hour riot that should be condemned. but this no scenario they say was it going to take over the united states government, and therefore it's wrong to call it a coup or insurrection. what is your response to that line of argument? >> it was -- it was a failed coup. not every coup succeeds. it was a coup attempt that had several parts there was the part by very local level officials. some of whom were willing to tip towards mr. trump there was the part in the department of justice where at least one important person was willing to work for mr. trump. there was mr. trump himself who was encouraging both the violent and the legal attempt to overthrow a democratic election. there were many parts to this. one of them, by the way, is the strange way our government failed to protect the capitol building, which has still not been adequately explained which led to the tragedies just discussed. it's a failed coup attempt. and what history shows is failed coup attempts are practice for successful coup attempts. >> yes. >> going back to your last remark, there are some republicans who don't want to see the country collapse. lets 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, and 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 authoritarian, fascism, they're around the corner. at what point do the president go beyond speechifying? >> look, it can't -- 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 people understand that the elections of 2022, not just 2024, but also 2022 are also existential. for us, it's a matter of living in trumpland again, but in a much worse version the second time around. i'm not going put all the responsibility on the shoulders of the president. a lot of the responsibility is with us. >> i think that's a fair point. but 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. but of course to be fair to the president as well, that's joe manchin and kyrsten sinema in the senate. so many obstacles. tim snyder, thank you so much for your final and your analysis tonight. i appreciate it. >> glad to. >> next, former cdc director tom frieden joins me to talk through the impact of the mixed messages being sent by his former agency, the cdc. and i'll ask randy weingaten who represents nearly two million teachers through her union what the best path forward to keep students and teachers safe. first, the latest on the five-alarm fire in new york. >> we're continuing to follow breaking news that you mentioned. the new york city fire department announcing that a dead lie fire in the bronx was caused by a malfunctioning space heater, an electric one. 19 people were killed, including nine children. here is nbc 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 down 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, 10 adults. several people are suffering from smoke inhalation at this hour. right now officials say that this is still under investigation, but earlier reports suggest that the fire was spark bade malfunctioning space heater. tonight the community is in mourning. this is a largely immigrant population, and the red cross is on site to register the displaced. back to you. >> kathy, thank you. we'll have more on this later. and we've also just learned that beloved comedian and actor bob saget has 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. reak ♪ superpowers from a spider bite? 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(robert) thank you. subaru. more than a car company. moving is a handful. no kidding! fortunately, xfinity makes moving easy. easy? -easy? switch your xfinity services to your new address online in about a minute. that was easy. i know, right? and even save with special offers just for movers. really? yep! so while you handle that, you can keep your internet and all those shows you love, and save money while you're at it with special offers just for movers at xfinity.com/moving. playback! the feel great event of the holidays is still in theaters. i love you! and now it's hit home too. oh, hah, hah. oh boy. one thing many americans might agree on is that the cdc has not had a great pandemic i think it's 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 mask, even as asian countries did. and then a few weeks later, as it became clear how pervasive the spread of the virus was among the asymptomatic, they changed their minds. get masked. then we're told last year if we're fully vaccinated, we could stop wearing mask. the cdc was warned it was too soon. and only a few months later that guidance was once again reversed. and the rise of omicron has only led to more confusion and criticism. the cdc shortened its isolation period for those who test positive if they're asymptomatic or symptoms have improved. and no need for a negative test to exit quarantine. a change delta airlines had been lobbying the cdc for by the way. after facing backlash, including from the uk's health agency said the shortened isolation period would be counterproductive, the cdc edited that guidance, noting if people have access to a rapid test, they should test themselves after five days and continue to isolate if their test comes back positive. while the cdc and 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 dr. rochelle walensky has been receiving media coaching for months. i'm joined by former cdc director under president obama dr. tom frieden. thank you so much for coming on the show tonight. dr. frieden, a gallup poll last year found only one in three americans have agreed that the cdc has declared a clear action plan in response to 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 that the virus is adapting, and we need to adapt also. in fact, i think the cdc guidance is getting better. it's getting more timely. the biggest problem they've had is a communication problem. what we have here is a failure to communicate. and i really hope that friday marks an inflection point, a turning point. because for the fist time in really memory of this pandemic, cdc held a briefing from atlanta independently with technical experts, answered dozens of media questions, and that's what's needed regularly. cdc can plain what we know, what we don't know and what we're doing to try to find it out. the issues haven't always been the guidance so much as the communication. but both of them need to get better. we need to see simple, clear, practical guidance and communication. >> but it's not just the messaging. it's also the guidance. we know that delta airlines, for example, lobbied the cdc to cut its guidelines on isolating for ten days to five. and without a negative test, which a lot of epidemiologists have criticized, a lot of other governments like the uk's haven't done. when you were head of the cdc, did you get lobbied by the big business to change public guidelines? >> all the time. but what's happening here is the virus is changing. omicron is behaving a lot more like influenza than like 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 infectioned, 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. and some people don't like that view. some people don't agree with that view. there is an implication that it's milder. you hear this word, it's 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 those 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 epidemic curves or the number of cases per day that are straight up, huge number of cases. and with that, the real risk of overwhelming hospitals. that's 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 that of is because almost everybody, maybe 90% of people have either been vaccinated or gotten the virus before. and 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, a huge proportion of the population are going to have it. >> doctor, we know more than a thousand people are dying every day. we don't know how much of that is dealt tax, how much of that is omicron, partly because the cdc doesn't have the data. i guess we need to wait for that. a lot of people are still dying. i think you and i can agree that it being less lethal than delta is undeniable. that doesn't mean yeah, we don't know for sure, it's like the flu. look at the long-term implications we're learning every day. something else i want to ask you about, something your successor did that got criticized. cdc director rochelle walensky is supposed to be having this media training. she made this bizarre remark. i want you to listen. >> i want to ask you about those encouraging headlines, this new study showing how well vaccines are working to prevent severe illness. given that, is it time to start rethinking how we're living with this virus, that it's potentially here to stay? >> the overwhelming number of deaths, over 75% occurred in people whoa 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 someone from the cdc they encouraged by deaths from comorbidities. it sounds almost trumpian. well, it was their fault. >> what it found is it was looking at breakthrough. and what's encouraging is how well the vaccines are working. of the very few cases of fatal covid after vaccination, more than 3/4 were in people who had multiple comorbidities. that's why it's so important that we protect the vulnerable. and you're absolutely right. a thousand deaths a day is nowhere near out of the woods. we're still in the midst of a pandemic. we wish it were over, but it's not. and so we need to adapt, vaccinate, mask up, and figure out what we can do to go about our lives without endangering ourselves or others. >> indeed. i think we also need to take on board the fact that for people with comorbidities, people with disabilities, covid is a very serious issue, even now, even with omicron. it's very important, 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. t go anywhere. i've got moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now, there's skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months, after just 2 doses. skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms such as fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches, or coughs or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine. ♪nothing is everything♪ talk to your dermatologist about skyrizi. learn how abbvie could help you save. talk to your dermatologist about skyrizi. ♪ ♪ ♪ hey google. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ snacking can mean that pieces get stuck under mike's denture. but super poligrip gives him a tight seal. to help block out food particles. so he can enjoy the game. super poligrip. ♪♪ three times the electorlytes and half the sugar. ♪♪ pedialyte powder packs. feel better fast. want your clothes to smell freshly washed ♪♪ all day without heavy perfumes? 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dick cheney in my view should be on trial, not shaking his bloodstained hands with congress or part of some pro-democracy coalition? next, i'll ask randy wine guarantee, 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. so you won't have a medicare in the world. ♪ ♪ plus, 90-day refills and same day delivery. larry? that's even less to medicare about. fill your medicare prescriptions with walgreens and save. ♪ ♪ (burke) with farmers auto multi-policy discount, the more policies you have with us, the more you could save on your auto insurance. 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(naj) one that we don't take lightly. it's why our fees are structured so we do better when our clients do better. fisher investments is clearly different. there's nothing particularly novel about conservatives bark 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, ever ripe to be villainized and slandered. this week we saw attacks against educators ramp up yet again as the chicago teachers union voted to walk out rather than return to classrooms while omicron is surging. but imagine my surprise when i saw joining the predictable right-wing chorus of trills a number of liberals. the atlantic ran a piece this week titled "why i soured on the democrats." covid school policies set me adrift from my tribe. followed up by not so implicitly suggesting that teachers' efforts to secure decent covid-19 protection also harm children. the biden administration weighed in too. press secretary jen psaki said it's time for schools to be open and notesed how children in chicago will suffer if they do not return to the classroom. after a year where u.s. labor unions saw so many victories and enjoyed so many public support, think john deere and kellogg, it's 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. schools opened for in-person learning and operated normally. and the handful of districts that moved to remote learning did so because of covid-inflicted staff shortages. let me repeat that for you. the few schools that are close ready not closed because teachers are lazy. they're closed because there are too many sick teachers to keep them open. and number two, it's absolute bs to suggest there isn't a covid threat to kids in school. in fact, new and alarming data from the cdc suggests children who recover from covid-19 have somewhere between a 30% and 2.6-fold increase risk for diabetes. long covid is real. this pandemic isn't over. and keeping schools open no matter what, throwing kids back into unsafe classrooms, no matter the costs, and condemning any underpaid or overworked 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 massive and fatal fire in the bronx. hello, richard. >> we've been watching the latest coming in on the story. the fdny saying the ooh 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. now the fire department says this all started in a duplex apartment on both the second and third floors. then it spread throughout the building. it started around 11:00 a.m. this morning and was under control around 9:00 p.m. the mayor says this is the fire the city has seen in some 30 years. more of "the mehdi hasan show" after a short break. an show" after a short break. yeah? i respect that. but that cough looks pretty bad... try this robitussin honey. the real honey you love... plus the powerful cough relief you need. mind if i root through your trash? now get powerful relief with robitussin elderberry. 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. ♪ 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 you get to know her. eugh. as if. ♪♪ well, he was asking for it. prime changes everything. fries or salad? well, he wasalad!ng for it. good choice! it is. so is screening for colon cancer. when caught in early stages, it's more treatable. hey, cologuard! hi, i'm noninvasive and i detect altered dna in your stool to find 92% of colon cancers even in early stages. early stages. it's for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk. false positive and negative results may occur. ask your provider if cologuard is right for you. 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(vo) yep, it's our best plan ever. verizon is going ultra, so you can too. i don't just play someone brainy on tv - i'm an actual neuroscientist. and i love the science behind neuriva plus. unlike ordinary memory supplements, neuriva plus fuels six key indicators of brain performance. more brain performance? yes, please! neuriva. think bigger. 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 rather predictably many republicans, but also a number of democrats, including the mayor of chicago. so who better to talk about all of this with than randi weingarten, the president of the american federation of teachers. she joins 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. she writes about how she feels school covid policies, closures are pushing her out of the democratic party. it seems there are a lot of parents who are quite fired up about this situation right now, including in chicago. what would you like to say to them? >> first off, everybody is really frustrated about the situation with omicron. and i'm really glad that the cleveland system is reopening tomorrow after they fix the shortages that kept them closed this week. but it's the teachers who are helping our kids. and i've seen all across the country that when you actually go to local schools, it's teachers and parents working together to deal with the unprecedented disruption that has happened to our kids. i read the david leonard article too. he was as mad as people who didn't get vaccinated, and 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 them 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 these schools can't stay open if one in three teachers is sick, or whatever it, and we're ignoring that. in chicago, as you point out, there was a specific decision made by the union. it grabbed a lot of decisions. have a listen to 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. but the thing to do is to lean in to the facts and the science and not abandon them in a panic. >> randi, are teachers abandoning their students right now and ignoring the science? >> i mean note 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 the last few weeks is get us enough testing so that we're not running after the virus, that 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. so the testing debacle is what led to chicago tuesday saying we can't do this right now. and frankly, i'm 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're going to have schools open this week. this is what others have done all across the country. that's why l.a. is opening. that's why d.c. is opening. that's why new york is opening. and if i sound frustrated, this is a terrible way -- parents need teacher, 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 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 the testing debacle. early on 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 and a lot of prominent democrats say that money combined with vaccinations means schools are safe now in a way they weren't in 2020. and they say therefore there is no excuse for any schools to be closed, given all the money, given all the spending. what's your response to that? >> well, look, that's part of the reason why virtually 100% of the schools were open september, october, november. we now have a completely different variant, and i hope that, you know, your last guest was right, that it sounds like very transmissible, but not -- but mild, even if the w.h.o. is saying something different. what's 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's why you've seen 96% of schools opened the week. think about last year. and this is where the biden administration is really good. last year about 40% of schools who were open in the winter surge. that's before we had vaccines. it's before we had boosters. it's before we had the ventilation fixes. and 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 they're trying to do the best they can. again, chicago is the exception that proves the rule. >> respected, not vilified. i hope we can all agree on that. randi weingarten, thank you so much for your time tonight. i 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. go stay tuned lift and push and push! there... it's up there. hey joshie... wrinkles send the wrong message. help prevent them with downy wrinkleguard. feel the difference with downy. they say durable is the new black. okay, no one says that. but, it's true. just ask sharon. after three years these barstools still look brand new. even with these crazy lovebirds. 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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. thanks for watching. we will be right back here next sunday at 8:00 p.m. eastern. you can catch me monday through thursday at 7:00 p.m. eastern, live on "the choice kwloe on nbc's streaming channel peacock. now it's time to hand it over to my good friend ayman mohyeldin. before i go, i want to read to you one of the texts between sean hannity and trump chief of staff mark meadows. it was released last week. on december 31st, hannity texts meadows, "i do not see january 6 happening the way he, meaning trump, is being told. ayman, how is he saying that? if january 6 did play out the way trump had wanted, he hannity would be totally fine with it? also, he is a quote, unquote news anchor. imagine the backlash if one of ours had sent a text like that to a white house official? >> first of all, i think it's important, mehdi, to put aside this notion that fox news is a news channel anymore. in my opinion, it's the communications arm of both the republican party and quite honestly, you and i know this just from what we see overseas. if there is 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 prop and the da. it wouldn't be considered a news organization. here we are in america living under the facade that this is a news channel of sorts. >> we need to stop calling it fox news and just call it fox. i think lawrence o'donnell made that point a long time ago. we all need to follow in his footsteps. one thing i will say is the fox people that those on cnbc 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 then publicly saying oh, it was all ant fault. it was all democrats. it was fine. it was peaceful. >> yeah, the hypocrisy is striking. it's a good point as well. they have contempt for their viewers. even when you take into consideration the fact that they're all vaxxed and pushing the agenda that they're not vaxed to the american agenda. good to see you. enjoy the rest of your evening evening. >> good evening to you. welcome to ayman one year later. still so many questions are left unanswered from the january 6 insurrection. i'm going ask alana and justin cave, sister and brother-in-law to roseanne boylan who died during the resurrection, what accountability would look like for them today. plus, imagine introducing yourself to your colleagues while hiding she is going to join us live to share her story. then as we were just discussing their new text revealed the even more concerning influence that fox news show host, sean hannity, had on the previous administration. we are going to break it down with our sunday night panel. i'm ayman mohyeldin, let's get started. get started. so with every day that has passed since the january 6th attack, it has become more and more clear just how damaged we ou

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