Hello there, I'm Chuck Todd and this is the Chuck Todd cast.

This is our last live podcast for 2021.

I know what you're saying live.

These are never live.

I always hear them on Re tape.

But next week we're going to share with you a mini series of alternative political histories.

Starting with this thought experiment, how would history have changed if Bill Clinton

had resigned in the height of the Lewinsky scandal in 1998?

After all, with today's culture, he probably would have.

But today we're going to look back at the first year of the real history that we're living.

That's the Biden presidency, which is also the second calendar year of COVID and take

stock of where things stand in Washington.

And as we wrote in first read this week, 2021 was a year of big accomplishments and big

disappointments for the Biden administration.

So today we're going to dig into a little bit of those accomplishments, disappointments,

with the NBC News political unit, Mark Murray, Ben Kammissar and our newest member of our

team, Bridget Bowman.

So Mark, Ben and Bridget, welcome to and back for most of you to the Todd cast.

Happy holidays.

Happy holidays, Chuck.

So let me start with this premise.

We end 2021 politically in what looks like is going to be the beginning of a long,

...