phil rucker, peter baker, melissa murray. thank you, all three of you, for joining us tonight. >>> coming up on this busy night, new reporting on what's keeping the secret service up at night. with one week to go until the inauguration. that when we come back. >>> we're looking at significant felony cases tied to sedition and conspiracy. these are significant charges that have felonies with prison terms of up to 20 years. in addition to that, we're looking and taking a priority with cases in which weapons were involved and cases in which destructive devices were involved. >> in other words, if you took part in the looting of our capitol last week, expect a call or a visit from the feds. as the doj goes after last week's rioters, nbc news has new reporting on the migration of extremists among us to back channels in order to plan for the inauguration day. "right-wing extremists are using channels on the encrypted communications app, telegram, to call for violence against government officials on january 20th with some extremists

phil rucker, peter baker, melissa murray. thank you, all three of you, for joining us tonight. >>> coming up on this busy night, new reporting on what's keeping the secret service up at night. with one week to go until the inauguration. that when we come back. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪♪ in a year of changes. don't take chances on your taxes. be 100% certain with jackson hewitt. we'll get your taxes done right, guaranteed. ♪♪ california phones offers free specialized phones... like cordless phones. we'll get your taxes - ( phone ringing )ranteed. - big button, and volume-enhanced phones. get details on this state program. visit right now or call during business hours. now california phones offers free devices and accessories for your mobile phone. like this device to increase volume on your cell phone. - ( phone ringing ) - get details on this state program visit right now or call during business hours. >>> we're looking at significant felony cases tied to sedition and conspiracy. these are significant charges that have fe

peter baker, because of your seniority on the beat, i want to begin with you. we have been told the list of pardons would be within the hour. what do you think the president has been doing on the last day, this last night in office? >> well, the pardon power is one of his favorites over the last four years because it's uncheckable. it's the one power he has where he doesn't have to ask anybody else for permission. he doesn't have to win over allies. convince a congressman or issue an agenda rule. he can sign a piece of paper. the lives he affects are people ho are close to him or close to people who were close to him. he has not used it in great measure for people he don't know or had a connection with. and what we hear, the last few hours, he is going through the list. he has a list of dozen, maybe a hundred or so possible recipients of the pardons, including the latest report, possibly steve bannon, his strategist who was arrested for scanning trump supporters. we are going through the list, to see who he is going to give forgiveness to, who he is not going t

peter baker, chief white house correspondent for "the new york times." and john meacham, pulitzer prizewinning author, the professor on the american presidency at vanderbilt, unofficial advisor to the president-elect, and once again relevant to this conversation both peter and john are among the authors of the book, "impeachment and american history." here we are again. well, susan, you get the big starting question tonight, the task of summing up as a long time washingtonian, as a citizen of this country how it felt to watch what transpired in the capitol this week. and further, and this may call for speculation, what's the real chance this guy not serving out his term? >> you know, i've covered six presidents. i've seen assassination attempts, launches of war, disputed elections, impeachments two of them already. but i've never seen anything as shocking as what we saw on wednesday. marauders rushing through the congress, some of them armed carrying ties apparently to take hostages while members of congress fled, cowered, it was, i've just never seen an

susan page, peter baker, jon meacham we're in your debt for helping us start out our broadcast on this friday night. thank you. >> coming up, we'll go behind the curtain. we will sadly dive into the murk of the dark web and find out what the rioters who stormed the capitol are saying now and what they could do next. >>> and later, they were once the president's greatest defenders, some of them outright sold their souls and their seats in congress to donald trump, but now begins the great migration as they start to distance themselves from their president. the 11th hour is just getting underway on this friday night as we bring this consequential week to an end. see every delivery... every yikes... and even every awwwwwwww... wait, where was i? introducing self protection from xfinity. designed to put you in control. with real-time notifications and a week of uninterrupted recording. all powered by reliable, secure wifi from xfinity. gotta respect his determination. it's easy and affordable to get started. get self protection for $10 a month. >>> i believe that some of the delays we're s

joining me for inside analysis are peter baker, nbc news capitol hill correspondent leeann caldwell and jeff bennett. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is "meet the press with chuck todd". >>> good sunday morning and a happy new year to everyone. 2020 is finally in the rearview mirror, sort of. january is providing a bit of a 2020 hangover, if you will. donald trump's entire presidency is a stress test on the democracy and remains true even now. consider what has happened since election day. mr. trump refused to concede the election. he and his allies have declared wide spread fraud where none exists and tried and failed in court to overturn joe biden's victory with trump appointed judges turning away the lawsuits. at least 12 senate republicans plan to challenge the electoral college vote on wednesday with mike pence's encouragement and trump is urging supporters to show up in d.c. to protest, create a disruptive environment. this week rupert murdoch's protrump new york post headline

peter baker, first to you, your response to that. does that signal anything about what might happen with the coming trial? >> well, it's striking because he didn't have to open the session by talking about it in that terms. that seems to signal to people he remains very open to the idea of conviction, perhaps, of the president for incitement of that mob attack. i think that, you know, mitch mcconnell is off the train from the trump point of view. he was a loyal ally for four years. the two of them had a lot of shared interests in getting conservative judges on the courts and other legislation through the congress. but i think he was so angered by what happened on january 6th that he -- and angered by what happened on january 5th, too, the georgia runoffs, where many republicans say the president undercut the candidates and helped contribute to their loss there. so i think that the fact he opened with those words is, in fact, interesting. i don't know if, you know, we can't say for sure which way he's going to go. but if mitch mcconne

peter baker, chief white house correspondent for "the new york times," nbc news capitol hill correspondent leigh ann caldwell and msnbc news correspondent geoff bennett. okay, guys, the theme of this will simply be president trump's dividing of the republican party. peter baker, in the last ten days, he's called on the republican governor of georgia to resign, essentially called the entire runoff campaign illegal, threatened john thune with a kristi noem primary challenge. president trump here -- we knew that he might burn it all down. apparently, he wants to divide his party right to the very end here. >> well, i think that's right, chuck, and i think it's rather remarkable. you know, we have to put this into historical context. it's rather -- we just keep acting as if this is almost normal. it's obviously not normal. i think about 220 years ago, john adams was the first incumbent president to lose an election and gracefully hand over power to his successor without trying to keep control. that set a precedent for this country that has been the most important bedrock of democracy, arguably

. >> reporter:ers including peter baker. we'll get a lot of names here and some will be more controversial than others. while you are watching, what sort of red flags will you see? people that aren't just routine pardons, but people who are defying the norms, people who would offend some americans. >> well, i think what you are talking about is pardons that are being given for improper reasons. the president's pardon power is broad. he can essentially do all whatever he would like to here. but that doesn't mean that pardons can't be given, that we would commonly view as abusive. and i think he in that category of pardons are pardons given out to politicians who have been convicted of corruption. we saw it with rod blagojevich, we would look for that tonight along with other pardons that are given to people who engaged in high dollar or serious frauds. for instance commutation for a florida businessman who defrauded investors in his real estate investments out of almost $300 million. these are people who are not repen tent, p

peter baker, those names are yet to be seen. but this idea that there were those around donald trump that were getting paid to lobby him for pardons on behalf of their clients, while not illegal, certainly pretty swampy. >> not illegal, not even really very new. but certainly not the actions of a reforming class of political folks, right, who said they were going to change the culture in washington. but they've taken advantage of it, and profited from it themselves. we don't know if the people who paid these trump associates will get pardons. that's something we'll pay attention to, but it's a big story. i think you're right to point that out, mike schmidt and ken vogel wrote that this week. and it goes to, you know, the way the pardon process under this president has been transformed. other presidents have made political pardons, but they still used the pardon office in the justice department for what they did. this president has mostly ignored that process. they've basically been shut out completely. the people who get to the

to do that, let's begin with you and your beat, peter baker. i note there is some resume polishing already underway among those who are departing and might normally have the stain of having worked for this president. let's talk about one alex azar, the hhs secretary who got up from his normal position of trump genuflect long enough to write his resignation letter. it is when everyone is supposed to leave on the 20th. after telling falsehoods about our vaccine reserves, here's what he says in part. unfortunately, the actions and rhetoric following the election, especially during this past week, threaten to tarnish these and other historic legacies of this administration. i implore you to continue to condemn unequivocally any form of violence, to demand that no one attempt to disrupt the inaugural activities. meanwhile, peter, the president is meeting with the my pillow guy in the oval office where fdr once sat. how does the chief white house correspondent for the "new york times" sum this up? >> well, it's hard to sum up. you're right. it's fasc

yamiche: and now joining us is peter baker. he's the chief white house correspondent for "the new york times." thanks so much, peter, for being here. there is really -- president trump is weighing the liability that he has here. and he's releasing these videos. i want -- if you can, talk to us a little bit about what's goinon inside the white house. the calculations being made and who is in the white house and sources tell me offices are empty and people are sort of done with this. but president trump is still standing. peter: well, he's almost a man alone, exactly right, yamiche. the people have begun to leave. some left obviously under protest of what happened right after the capitol mob attacked. others have been cycling out because it's the end of the administration. and you have a president who basically is focused on one thing alone which is, you know, vindicating himself in an election that he lost and trying to in some way figure out what to do now that the house has impeached him and he's being blamed for something tha

peter baker, chief white house correspondent for "the new york times." and susan page, washington f bureau chi "usa today." yamiche, let's start with stacy abrams and other democrats down there helped biden in the statethe presidential election. can that coalition be re-assembled in early january? yamiche: democrats are really, really hoping they can get that alition back together. the pitch from democrats is this. that this is really extension of the 2020 general election. you heard vice presidist-elect hahen she went down to georgia, she said this year isn't ove 2020 isn't over until january 5 making the pitch that her agenda and of course the agenda of president-electiden could not really go forward in a robust way without the help of democrats in geo turning out to elect both those democratic senators. and when i talkedo biden sources in the traition, they say the senateli repn control, the senate being controlled by republicans is real the difference betwe a biden agenda having a big backing, being able to have a robust agenda and possible not only

peter baker, you're following all of this. what are the chances that mike pence would do something that crazy for donald trump? my gut is no. >> well, you know, it's hard to say. i don't know what he could do. i mean, i honestly don't know what they see as the genuine option. the department of justice has already said that this louie gohmert lawsuit ordering pence to take action was out of bounds. he doesn't really have a role. his role is to open up the box, hand the piece of paper to the senators who will be the tellers, who will read the results out loud. and that's it. you know, josh hawley and the republicans in the house can object and if they get one member of the senate, one member of the house to object, they'll go their separate ways, separate chambers and they'll vote. obviously the democratic house is not going to agree to unseat electors for joe biden. obviously, we have now seen more than enough republican senators say they wouldn't vote to do that either. we know there's a majority in the senate as well. so we'l

with that, let's bring in our leadoff guests on this wednesday night, peter baker, chief white house correspondent for the "new york times." he's among the coauthors of the book which so far becomes relevant about every two years. that's called "impeachment: an american history." chuck rosenberg back with us. former u.s. attorney. former senior fbi official. also happens to be host of the msnbc podcast "the oath." and katie benner, justice department reporter for the "new york times," fresh off her big exclusive on trump's efforts to leverage the justice department to somehow change the election results. good evening and welcome to you all. peter, i would like to start with you and your beat. here is a quote in the "new york times" from roy blunt of missouri, republican senator who became a trumper voting 90% of the time with donald trump. "anybody surprised by that vote," the test vote in effect, "wasn't paying attention before yesterday." so in light of that, peter, for this and other reasons, is what i call the plea deal gaining traction, where you would censure the guy, you would

kelly o'donnell, peter baker, leigh ann caldwell and jeh johnson. >>> the growing talk of removing of the president or impeaching him again. with 13 days left in his term is that a realistic way to restrain him? a democratic house member inside the chamber yesterday joins us next. see the difference, after being washed with tide hygienic clean. for a deep clean, try tide hygienic clean! if it's got to be clean, it's got to be tide. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a shortlist of quality candidates from a resume data base. claim your seventy-five-dollar credit when you post your first job at indeed.com/groomer i've been involved in. communications in the media for 45 years. i've been taking prevagen on a regular basis for at least eight years. for me, the greatest benefit over the years has been that prevagen seems to help me recall things and also think more clearly. and i enthusiastically recommend prevagen. it has helped me an awful lot. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. >>> president-elect joe biden will be sworn i

peter baker, where do you think this is going? there are republicans, not just mitch mcconnell, not just lindsey graham. you have significant republicans, all ten former defense secretaries, trying to warn president trump against using the military in an election dispute saying, we've got to move on from here. where do you think this thing is headed? >> well, i think that's the unknown, right? that's why those defense secretaries put out that letter. these defense secretaries include not just democrats but also dick cheney, no liberal there and mark esper who served this president as defense secretary. you presume they put this letter out because they themselves are concerned and might have reason to be concerned, that there might be some effort by this president to try in some way or another find, you know, a method to get the military involved. whether to invoke the insurrection act to street violence or what have you. this is a president who has already hosted mike flynn, his former national security adviser, retired lieutenant

joining me now, peter baker and joyce vance, former u.s. attorney and professor at the university of alabama school of law. welcome to you both. joyce, you first, here, republicans are arguing that it's unconstitutional because trump is out of office. is there anything explicit or implicit in the constitution that would support or reject that notion? you may have heard my conversation with patrick leahy in which he outlined that the process began while he was president. it went through the house. this is merely a continuation of the process to get to the senate. >> senator leahy is absolutely right here. a president can't just resign in order to avoid the consequences of his action. and i spent some time yesterday afternoon and went back and re-read the portions of the federalist papers that talk about the powers of the senate and impeachment to see if there was anything explicit. there's not. but the clear tone and the agreement among legal scholars is that a president can proceed to an impeachment trial after he's resigned. otherwise the

we're here because the president sent us. >> jill, peter baker, thank you. we appreciate you making time for to us make more sense. up next, the security breakdown on capitol hill. what happened? who knew about the possible attack? were the warnings ignored? plus, you have sent us hundreds of emails after a week that gave us way too much to talk about. we'll share some of your thoughts on the state of our country before we go. but first, richard louie is here with the headlines. >> good evening to you. stories that we're watching. amazon suspended parler from its web hosting service. earlier google and apple removed the social network from their app stores. they cited unmoderated vital posts as reasoning. folks on parler called for violence ahead of the raid on the capitol. the u.s. set a record for daily covid cases for the second day in a row. nearly 280,000 cases reported saturday. over 3,600 americans have died. and nasa's rover curiosity is nearing 3,000 martian days on the red planet. next on the new rover gets to mars. 300 million miles over seven mon

. >> joining me now is peter baker, msnbc political analyst, chief white house correspondent for "the new york times" and good friend to us here. peter, welcome, my friend. what is your reaction to what mary trump had to say there? by the way, she echoed what senator ben sasse said last week, he had heard from the white house aides he was delighted as the rioters attacked. >> he loved the idea people were standing up for him, that people were in fact disrupting the electoral college count process, which he wanted to find a way to block. now, did he encourage the violence? he would say no, he said that he was not condoning the attack on police officers and so forth. but as he's watching the television, we're told, in the white house during the initial moments and minutes of this attack on the capitol, his initial reaction was to be pleased people were standing up to him -- for him. >> can you tell me what the current mood is of the white house? what do you know about that? >> well, it's pretty demoralized among the staff that's still there. a lot have left, of course. some did so immed

peter baker, thank you so much. always a pleasure. and we're going to pick up and go further with this conversation and head inside the mind of president trump, what is he thinking and what might he do next? two people who know him very well weigh in next. dream sequence ending no! in three, no! two, keep packing! one. the protein on any footlong. or on any new protein bowl! so many ways to go pro at subway®! it's not amateur-tein, it's pro-tein, baby! go pro and get double the protein for just $2 more. subway. eat fresh. >>> this is his ability to communicate with the masses that he has created this fiction in his head that he has a hundred million supporters. you're taking away the oxygen for him to breathe by removing him from twitter and social media. >> michael cohen talking about the president being cut off from twitter and it's not the only platform he's lost. several sites taking action against the president and his allies leaving trump with fewer options to speak out during his final days in office and joining me now is tony

joining me now, peter baker, an msnbc analyst. also with us is dr. ebony hilton, a critical care physician, an associate professor of anesthesiology at the university of virginia. peter, i will start with you. you have been covering this white house for a long time now. what did you make of those remarks from dr. fauci? what does it signal that we will likely be seeing from a biden white house? >> i think the first thing is signals is just how repressed that scientists like dr. fauci felt in the last administration. right? the worry that if they said something that in some way provoked the ire of the president of the united states that they would be exiled, they would be publically slammed, they might face repercussions of some sort. the tightrope they were clearly walking. dr. fauci i think was the most notable version of this where he tried very hard to stay true to what he believed scientifically the case without intentionally aggravating the president. he was on the receiving end of so many attacks from the president himself and from the presiden

also with us, nbc national political reporter, and peter baker, chief white house correspondent for the new york times. he is also an msnbc political an list. let me start with you. what's the latest with this dear colleague letter from the speaker? >> it's the first time speaker pelosi has explicitly stated her intent to impeach president trump again which would make him the first president in american history to be impeached for a second time. now this comes as the speaker is finding the passive resolution to most likely hit the house floor tuesday urging vice president pence. and with the support of cabinet remove president trump from office. there is no indication that will happen. speaker pelosi said the next step for her is to bring up articles of impeachment and there is one particle article circulating among democrats charging the president with incitement of insurrection against the united states government. the expectations is that the democratic led house will take that up and pass it. there are, however, disagreements among house democrats about the practicality of it. speci

we are joined by peter baker, msnbc political analyst. leeanne, the senate is not around. they are not in session. so walk us through the next steps and the crucial role mitch mcconnell will play within it -- when it comes to president trump. >> i will say a big caveat. that all depends on when house speaker nancy pelosi sends articles over to the senate. we got information and -- go ahead. >> i was going to say, explain that piece. she has to send it over be every that happens. are you saying we don't know when that's going to occur, right? >> that's right. so we are waiting on that, when she is going to do that she indicated yesterday that she wasn't going to hold it for a long time. she would do it relatively soon. but here's the thing, if she does it before the 19th, that's next tuesday, the first day the senate is in session. that means that according to senate rules the senate would have to take up impeachment articles on wednesday at 1:00 p.m. everyone knows what's happening on the 20th. that is right when joe biden is being inaugurated. so, we do not think she is g

peter baker, back to you on one point, this was just brought up by bill krystol. and the tweet says, the pardon of bannon makes it a lot more likely that donald trump is going to be convicted in the senate. let's talk about bannon in terms of who he is to the republican party, the establishment republican party, who he has been to somebody like mitch mcconnell. >> remember, of course, steve bannon, the 2018 midterm elections vowed to take out a lot of establishment and incumbent republican senators. he was very vocal in his criticism of mitch mcconnell. and mcconnell's primary mission as majority leader has been to preserve his majority, keep those incumbents in office. he didn't take kindly to bannon threatening his members. so he's never had a soft spot for bannon. and kristol's point is that bannon doesn't have a lot of friends in the republican caucus in the senate, if the president was worried about attracting votes there, wouldn't necessarily help. i don't know if it will change anybody's mind, but it will not be a popular idea with some republicans who felt

captioning sponsored by cbs >> peter baker and his colleagues at the "new york times" report on the blowup between trump and pence last wednesday, shortly before pence headed to the capitol. >> this is a quote: "you either go down in history as a patriot or you can go down in history as a pussy. >> i debated about saying this, but i have to. this is the news. i apologize for the language here but...

peter baker, msnbc political analyst also with us. also joining us, "washington post" contributing columnist and msnbc contributor, former democratic congresswoman and olivia troye ands former coronavirus adviser to vice president mike pence and now contributor to the anti-trumpism group defending democracy together. matt, i want to start with you and you peter as well on the briefing that just wrapped up from the dc u.s. attorney. some stunning words that we're not used to hearing even after the most disturbing acts of violence in this country, matt. >> look, the dc u.s. attorney is intimating he's really coming after the people who participated. he talked about how a huge number of folks who they have on their radar, they brought in many folks. some of whom have been charged with misdemeanors, as mentioned but all these specific units looking to upgrade to sedition. i think they have a lot of questions to answer for maybe their own failure to detect and act on this in advance to prevent the violence that occurred but certainly do se

baker of the new york times has reported that privately many republicans in the senate are fuming at trump but voting to convict trump would require that republicans on capitol hill do something publicly that they haven't been willing to do throughout all of the scandals and challenges of trump's last 4 years that is upset a sizable fraction of trump's base by revolting against him i think that it's certainly going to reinforce political divisions that already exist and i think that there is legitimate concern that if trump is impeached that this will make him a martyr to the far right it will further insight violence or spates of social unrest and it will continue to create this aura around trump among his supporters that lead to the kind of incidents that we saw this week certainly all of that is part of calculus among republicans when they decide whether to support this initiative or not while the 50 people are now facing charges for taking part in stalling capitol hill thanks angele who was seen wearing holmes during the siege and also this man named says adam christian johnson w

peter baker is back. also joining us is nbc news correspondent heidi przybilla, and neil katiel, msnbc contributor, a favorite of leslie jones, who is a favorite of mine. neil, please start and take me to school on the law. the republican talking point is that you can't try someone who is no longer a president. that seems -- is that the case? >> no. it's kind of like saying you shouldn't prosecutor a murder, because the victim is already dead. it's hilarious the same people who, for two months, have been complaining about the election fraud litigation, saying courts aren't reaching the merits, deciding it on all these procedural grounds, are the same guys saying let's run this procedural defense that you can't impeach a sitting president and not reach the merits of the thing. so the text of the constitution, nicolle is very clear. one is the one we have talked about before, removal from office, but the other is a lifetime ban on future office holding. that is all about this kind of thing. i mean, removal

captioning sponsored by cbs >> peter baker and his colleagues at the "new york times" report on the blowup between trump and pence last wednesday, shortly before pence headed to the capitol. >> this is a quote: "you either go down in history as a patriot or you can go down in history as a pussy. >> i debated about saying this, but i have to. this is the news. i apologize for the language here but... >> thank you, mr. president. >> announcer: it's "a late show with stephen colbert." tonight: impeach me baby, one more time. plus stephen welcomes. samantha bee and paul mescul featuring jon batiste and stay human. and now, live on tape from the ed sullivan theater office building in new york city, it's stephen colbert! >> stephen: well, hi there. welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to add a. "a late show." i'm your host, stephen colbert. aso, welcome to the afterscape. and it's not even a cool afterscape, where spice tribes in face paint fight each other in suped-up muscle cars across the forbidden zone-- but we are in the dystopia. here's the situation, fellow american citizens: overnight, members

joining me now is leanne caldwell, peter baker, and co-author of "a very stable genius." impeachment essentially on the hill. there could be a vote on wednesday. democrats seem to be on board, where does the republican support for this stand? >> that is definitely the question. how much republican support, if any, these articles of impeachment will receive. of course it was introduced today. house democrats are holding a conference call with speaker pelosi right now. it just started two minutes ago. they're going to talk about this and we could, after this conference call get a clearer path of the way forward and what is going to happen, but as far as this one article of impeachment is concerned, it does talk about the president at the elipse saying we won this election by a landslide. going on to stay "if you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country any more." using this as evidence for incitement of insurrection. it also mentions the foal call that the president had with the georgia secretary of state on january 2nd about overturning those election resul

and peter baker joins us this morning as well. so a lot to get to, joe, this morning. we have of course the impeachment of the president. no word yet on when house speaker nancy pelosi will send the article to the senate. but we will be asking what the schedule is and how the senate will deal with this. nancy pelosi said soon. it will be sent soon. >> willie, just breaking, "washington post"/abc poll, overwhelming opposition to capitol hill attacks. god, you would hope so. and the majority of americans oppose the actions of the rioters who stormed and ransacked the capitol january 6th. a smaller majority say president trump bears responsibility for the attacks and should be removed from office and disqualified from serving again. the results, though, are sharply partisan. one in eight republicans say trump should be criminally charged in his role for the attack. should donald trump be removed from office and disqualified from future elections? 56% say yes, 42% say no. so here we are. i said the other day that if we had an election today that, no, donald trump wouldn't

peter baker and msnbc political analyst is back and joining us, a.b.st stoddard and eugene robinson from "the washington post." a.b., i'm going to put it to you. susan's point is so right. the republican party abandoned all policies when the platform became just for trump and now trump is for an illegal coup. so what -- is it fair to say that you're not for trump and his illegal coup and now a deadly insurrection that results in the death of five people, you should get the hell out, lisa murkowski, it is not clear why you were there in the first place. >> i wrote about this weeks ago in the bulwark. that trump was going to have to break the republican party. he simply with his psychological needs has no choice. he's always on offense. he always has enemies and somebody always must pay a price and be blamed for usually the mistakes he's making. he doesn't lead or unite. he has no organizing principals in terms of apolicy or agenda. it is about him being in the spotlight and people submitting to him and punishing people who don't. the idea that he could go after last night's hostage video

peter baker over at "the times" wrote trump expressed no regret or any sense that he had any responsibility for any of this by stoking the politics of division. not just last week but for four years. my friend eugene robinson writes in "the washington post," to save american democracy, truth needs to beat fantasy. eugene, isn't there but one guy who can say to maga world, weaponized or not maga world, look, it was a big lie, i lost the election, it wasn't stolen? >> right. donald trump could say that. he could have said that last wednesday in his various statements then. he could have said it at any point between then and now. he could have said it today in the statement he released, the hostage video. again, that's what makes all these calls for peace and kumbaya from the president and from other republicans empty, absolutely empty because we will never begin to get back on track until we deal with the big lie that the election was stolen from donald trump. there are millions of republicans, not just the hard core trump cultists but millions of everyday republicans who believe there was so

senator claire mccaskill, our friend peter baker, "new york times" chief white house correspondent, also joining us, basil smikle and our friend joy is still with us. claire, there is so much here to joe biden simply letting people feel the loss. >> as i look at these pictures, first of all, i have an incredible sadness about how empty washington is right now. as someone who was on that podium that you just pictured a few moments ago for the last three inaugurals, even when donald trump got inaugurated, there was something that is calming about the crowds that gather to celebrate the election of a new president and also the peaceful transfer of power. the irony is, we have a president who began his presidency with the big lie about his crowds, and a president who has been fixated on the size of crowds more than the deaths of americans. the size of his crowds and the ratings on tv, way more concerned about that than what is happening to americans in terms of this pandemic and other crises they face. so, how ironic that joe biden is going to have a very powerful moment with no crowd. with

and joining me now is david ignatius and peter baker. both msnbc political analysts. good to have you both here. as we look at the big news from yesterday, there are at least 12 senators on board reportedly up to 140 house members. there is speculation that rand paul may join that group as well. so david, what is your reaction to this? >> well, i think that this is a last ditch effort to challenge an election that trump lost at the polls, lost in court, and now there is an attempt to challenge it both in the count that takes place formally in the joints session of congress on january 6 and more worryingly in the streets. social media are full of appeals to trump supporters to come to washington on the 6th, arrive at 7:00 in the morning, come to the elipse, gather by the thousands. where that leads is impossible to say. but i know that people in law enforcement and our military are deeply worried as they watch the thousands converge on washington with every possibility that this could get out of hand and become a dangerous situation. >> absolutely. so peter, how about

baker, and his wife of the new victory institute honored house speaker nancy pelosi for her work on repealing ask don't tell policy. on the 10th anniversary, speaker pelosi accepted the honor and talked about her work on the issue. you can see that saturday night on c-span at 8 p.m. eastern. on tuesday, the balance of power and the senate will be decided by the winners of the two georgia runoffs. republican senators david perdue and kelly loeffler are defending their seats and the gop's control of the chamber. the challengers are jon ossoff and raphael oc

joining me now to discuss is peter baker, chief white house correspondent for the "new york times" and nbc political analyst. peter thank you for joining us on this. i read through this entire thing this morning. it was astounding to read, especially some of the pieces with rudy giuliani. i want to get into that. i want to be clear here. the report is not saying the president or his allies have critted a crime. what's the latest from your perspective in covering the white house that you are hearing on these possible commutations or pardons? >> in the last 72 hours of course before this president leaves avs he talked about pardons with his staff, pardons members of his family, pardoning ju joule and pardoning -- rudy giuliani and pardons himself. associates are collecting lots of money from people to secure these pardons. this is a president who has long subverted the normal pardon process. normally presidents use the justice department to vet pardon applications before ever considering them. there are guidelines that the justice department applies to them. they go beyond being friends

next week, the next program, speaking of the new york times, will feature one of its ace reporters, peter baker, and his wife of the new 20 20, virginia became the 38th state to ratify the equal rights amendment to the constitution which would outlaw discrimination based on sex, but the original deadline passed in the early 1980's, and several states have repealed their approval of the amendment. tonight on c-span at 8 p.m., a debate between supporters and of the era.c-span 's washington journal. every day we take your calls on news of the >> coming up saturday morning, concerned veterans for america senior advisor dan caldwell discusses his group's priorities for the new congress and incoming biden administration. researcher julio kaufman talks about her recent study on how the pandemic is impacting both teaching and learning in america's elementary and secondary schools. watch c-span's "washington journal," live at 7 a.m. eastern saturday morning. be sure to join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments,, text messages and tweets. >> the u.s. has always been

baker, and his wife of the new ♪ >> c-span's "washington journal." every day we are taking your calls on news of the day and discuss policy issues that impact you. up, concerned veterans for america, dan caldwell discusses his group's priorities for the new congress and incoming biden administration. policy researcher, julia kaufman, talks about her recent study on how the pandemic is impacting "teaching and learning" in america's elementary and secondary schools. watch "washington journal" live at 7:00 a.m. eastern. be sure to join the discussion with your phone calls, text messages, facebook comments, and tweets. 2020, virginia became the 38th state to ratify the equal rights amendment to the constitution, which would outlaw discrimination based on sex. the original deadline passed in the early 1980's and several states have repealed their approval of the amendment. between a debate supporters and opponents of the e.r.a. on whether it should become part of the u.s. constitution. >> it is now a great pleasure to welcome you to our program tonight ab

baker, and his wife of the new on tuesday, the balance of power in the senate will be decided by the winners of the georgian runoffs. david perdue and kelly loeffler are defending their seats. there are democratic challengers. follow the results and hear from the candidates in these final races of campaign 2020. live coverage on c-span

chief white house correspondent for the new york times peter baker. member of the new york times editorial board, mara gay and author, historian and journalist, evan thomas joins us on this very important morning. >> well, it is a morning that every four years throughout our lifetime has been a morning where, as barack obama said in the inaugural address clip that we showed, that most americans have chosen hope over fear. that has not always been the case over the past four years. and willie, many of those promises of extended hands are efforts to reach out to the other party have fallen apart quickly. and we've especially seen it time and again over the past 30, 40 years as politics has become more toxic in washington, d.c. these last four years, of course, have been especially toxic. but this is the morning -- i can only speak for myself, this is the morning, this is the day when i have throughout my life done what mark thiessen, a conservative writer for the washington post said he was going to do today, and that is look at the incoming president a

but it's symbolic, because pence peter baker and his colleagues at "the new york times" report on the blowup between trump and pence last wednesday shortly before pence headed to the capitol. "the times" quotes trump as warning his ardently loyal sidekick to, "you can either go down in history as a patriot or you can go down in history as a --" and here the president uses his go-to "p" word. earlier tonight pence sent a letter to speaker pelosi explaining his refusal to invoke the 25th amendment against his boss. it reads in part, "i do not believe that such a course of action is in the best interest of our nation or consistent with our constitution. i urge you and every member of

"the new york times'" peter baker and maggie haberman report that trump initially resisted taping the video and agreed only after being pressed by his aides. according to the "times," quote, he appeared to suddenly realize he could face legal risk for prodding the mob, coming shortly after the chief federal prosecutor for washington left open the possibility of investigating the president for illegally inciting the attack. joining us now, co-founder of punch bowl news, john bresnahan. he was in the white house press gallery when it was evacuated and stayed through the night until the certification of joe biden's election victory. bres, as everyone calls you on capitol hill, it's great to have you on the show. you and i have talked many times over the years, but i think this is the first time we've ever had a conversation in this forum, so i really appreciate you getting up early with us. let's talk a little bit about what comes next here. we showed everyone what speaker pelosi said about the 25th amendment. clearly, something was going on behind the scenes to prompt president trump to