the podcast and you watch the show, this is a taste of what we do on the podcast. it gives us an opportunity to go deeper with guests. we will share two conversations that i had with two people who have been on forefront of what i think is in some ways the most important story of 2021. which is american democracy on the knife s edge. of course, the year 2021 begins with the first ever insurrection. the second time in american history that we had sustained violence around the transfer of power. the first being fort sumpter, the second january 6th. the aftermath of that insurrection, attempts by the republican party to put into place means of stopping future peaceful transfers of power. the on rush towards a future and a president which the republican party, one of the two major parties, has become essentially anti-democratic in a profound way. that s the big story of 2021. in this episode tonight, two people who have been really at the forefront of identifying, warning and fig
succeeded yeltsin and showed what kind of ruler he would be, nemsov became a vociferous critic of putin. in 2015 he was planning owe opposition march to protest against the regime. it was two days before that march when nemtsov was shot, four times in the back while he was walking across the bridge. press reports at the time called it the highest profile assassination since the stalin era. he wasn t the only target. days before nemtsov was assassinated, russian authorities had thrown one of his allies in jail. another vocal putin critic. his friend was put in jail for 15 days for the high crime of handing out leaflets inviting people to join the opposition march, the one that got nemtsov killed. the guy who was put in jail just for handing out leaflet about the march, his name was alexei navalny. here he is leaving jail after boris nemtsov s death. he left jail that day, went home, took a shower and went straight to visit boris nemtsov s grave. he said of his assassination, t
and a major focus on the events of january 6th and the former president s role in the violence on that day. we have to have peace. so, go home. we love you. you re very special. you ve seen what happens. you see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. i know how you feel. but go home and go home in peace. we are also following the fallout from devastating colorado wildfires. i ll talk to the boulder mayor about the situation that had people running for their very lives. we stayed up all night long just hugging each other, just glad that we have each other and we have our kids. and we re going to take a look at the legacy of betty white and the impact that she had on generations of female comedians. daily show cocreator lizz winstead will join me later on this hour. we want to start, though, this hour with the omicron surge that forced so many americans to change the way they rang in the new year. as the pandemic enters its third calendar year, the ne
minister of russia under yeltsin, but after putin succeeded yeltsin and then showed what kind of ruler he would be, boris became just a vociferous and fearless critic of vladimir putin. in february of that year, february 2015, boris was planning an opposition march to protest against the putin regime. it was two days before that march when nemtsov was shot four times in the back while he was walking across the bridge. press reports at the time called it the highest-profile assassination in russia since the stalin era. and he wasn t the only target. days before nemtsov was assassinated, russian authorities had thrown one of his key political allies in jail, another vocal putin critic who had worked alongside boris nemtsov. nemtsov s friend was put in jail for 15 days for the high crime of handing out leaflets inviting people to attend that opposition march, the one that got nemtsov killed. the guy who was put in charge just for handing out leaflets just about the march, his na
a mob surrounded the building. as the hour grew later, the crowd grew larger. inside peering through the curtains was a young kgb lieutenant colonel named vladimir putin. he was terrified that they were going to storm the building. putin was a junior officer, but the boss was away. he was in charge. the berlin wall had come down. police weren t going to help, and he called for instructions. desperate for help, putin dialed kgb headquarters in moscow over and over again. finally one official told him simply moscow is silent. and i think it felt like a deep betrayal to him. vladimir putin was on his own. he went down into the bowels of the building and fired up the fur furnace. he finds himself in the basement with a furnace shoveling documents as we hears demonstrations down on the street. they are burning the files as fast as the furnace is blowing up. putin torched thousands of pages of kgb documents and so credits as the crowd closed in. with the fire stil