Welcome, everyone to The Beat. I'm Ari Melbert. This is the final Friday before President

Elect Trump returns to the White House. It marks the first time a former president returned for a

non-consecutive term. Here we had Trump, then Biden, now Trump again. This is the first time

that's actually happened. We checked since 1893 when Grover Cleveland did that same thing, term, term off, return for that second

term, and that was 132 years ago. President of the Cleveland rode back into office, partly with

concerns around the country about the economy, rising inequality, calls for more efforts to protect

labor rights against rich industrialists. There were recent worker strikes, indeed. There were

also new calls for tariffs, demands for a more populist confrontation against elites,

the incoming president vowing fewer foreign entanglements?

A lot of overlap, right? These are the echoes of history, except it was then a Democrat,

Cleveland, riding that anger. Now it's a Republican billionaire, former TV host,

promising to wage the uprising against the elites. History's vantage point does bring lessons. That era's concern about

rich plutocrats evolves over time in unexpected ways. There was also shifting technology changes

in the press that had long-term unpredictable impacts. And those who demand revolutionary change

still often object if it's turned against their own power and wealth.

And so tonight, as President Biden has been bidding farewell this week, he tackled several of those issues in this new, final, major interview with MSNBC's own Lawrence O'Donnell.

Here are some of the key points that came up

in the exchange with Lawrence along with recent factual context.

Both of the people in the world begin to control all the apparatuses from the media to the

economy. And who do I get to fight back for me?

Do you think that the people voting for Trump understand this quote-unquote temporary hardship

that will come, at least according to Elon Musk?

...