Today on Velshi dispatches from a very changed political landscape. We've gathered some of the best doers and thinkers we know to talk this morning about big lies, political violence, and the fight for democracy. Plus, we're supposed to be just living with COVID now, but 500 people are still dying from it every day. And much of America is about to return to the office for the first time in more than two years.

What you need to know about the risks and the new COVID boosters.

Then an almost prophetic conversation with the one and only Margaret Atwood.

We've got a special edition of the Velshi Band Book Club coming up.

Velshi starts now.

Good morning to you. It is Saturday, September the 4th. Happy Labor Day weekend. I'm Ali Velshi. We talk, as you know, a lot on this show, about how imperiled our democracy is after the

lawlessness of the Trump administration, the damage caused by the inter-insurrection

on January 6th, the ongoing menace of the big lie, and the slow-boiling threat of another

coup that comes along with it. But whether or not Donald Trump is prosecuted, whether or not he

runs for president, we are living in a changed America. For one thing, the threat of violence

now that it's been carried out

on the Capitol grounds and ignored or excused or even defended by Trump and Republican leaders

who are still too cowardly to take a stand against insurrectionist ex-president, the idea of

political violence is being normalized. The Hill newspaper published a piece this weekend,

underlying in stark terms, what this new post-Trump post-January 6th world looks like.

The number of threat investigations launched by U.S. Capitol Police in 2021 was 150% higher

than it was in 2017, Trump's first year in office. Quote, lawmakers who are critical of Trump

remain among those most frequently targeted for violence. The long and diverse list includes

Republicans who voted for an infrastructure bill he opposed, Democrats who managed the former

president's impeachments, Republicans who supported his ouster after the January 6th Capitol

attack, and most recently the nine lawmakers on the select committee investigating the 2021 riot,

all of whom have round the clock security details, end quote.

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