Transcripts For MSNBC The Rachel Maddow Show 20240711

Former Vice President , heritage will continue to support and defend our Policy Accomplishments while also fighting back against a socialist agenda pushed by those on the left. Thats what mike pence is going to be doing. Hes going to be fighting socialists. Full timeish. On a visiting basis. Congratulations, mr. Pence. Heres an unexpectedly awkward thing, though. The Heritage Foundation in this announcement today repeatedly describes their new hire as the former Vice President and, indeed, mr. Pence yesterday unveiled new letterhead proclaiming that he has opened an office now which he is calling the office of the former Vice President. The reason that is surprisingly awkward right now is that no matter what he does with his postwhite house life, it is going to be hard for former Vice President to mike pence to assert that he ever served in the administration of former President Donald Trump because apparently were not supposed to admit there is such a thing as former President Donald Trump. Mike pence, so far, is happy to call himself the former v. P. Donald trump is not calling himself the former president. And its not just with the name of the office. There were two statements released today by dy mr. Trump, awkward about what to call him. One was actually a real laugh out loud statement, im sorry to say, i did actually laugh out loud today, but in which he signed a letter announcing that he was quitting the actors union, s. A. G. Aftra, because theyre about to strip his membership from him because he incited a violent insurrection against the u. S. Capitol. His letter resigning before they could fire him is this is a real thing. I write to you today regarding the socalled Disciplinary Committee hearing aimed at revoking my union membership. Who cares he really says that. While im not familiar with your work, im very proud of my work on movies such as home alone 2. And it goes on from there. This letter is to inform you of my immediate resignation from s. A. G. Aftra. You have done nothing for me. He sent that on letterhead under the president ial seal. Seriously. Its worth noting that s. A. G. Aftra, the union, sent back to this letter a twoword response. What they said, their response, was two words. It said, thank you, which made me laugh out loud again. That was one statement from him today. Second statement from him today was a letter from his lawyers, his Defense Lawyers in the Impeachment Trial, declining a demand that mr. Trump testify under oath at his Impeachment Trial next week. In the letter mr. Trumps lawyers bend over backwards to describe him in this very specific way. Your letter only confirms what is known to everyone, you cannot prove your allegations against The 45th President of the United States. And then they sign it, bruce castor and david schoen attorneys to The 45th President. It is technically accurate, of course, to call donald trump The 45th President but its just as accurate to call him the former president. Apparently, though, that is something that can never be said. At least not in front of him. Today, his spokesmen for his postpresident ial office said on newsmax tv, i do not expect The 45th President to be in washington next week. You mean the former president . No, no, no, that cannot be said. Ive been sort of picking at this for a few days now, but it is now going on for long enough and it is insistently consistent enough that this is worth noticing. In part because mr. Trump really does appear to be insisting on this and that could get very weird very quickly. I mean, the very first statement he put out from his 45th president s office at the beginning of the week had this as the headline. The headline said, 45th president donald j. Trump announces his legal team. Statement was four paragraphs long. In those four paragraphs it kept repeating that exact same ungainly phrase. The first line, 45th president donald j. Trump today announced then quotes one of his lawyers saying, its an honor to represent The 45th President then it quotes the other lawyer saying i consider it a privilege to represent The 45th President. Its the same thing in his lawyers formal written response to the impeachment charges levied against him. Repeatedly and insistently calling him The 45th President even when it tortures the grammar and makes everything impossible to read and makes the sentences not work, but apparently they have to insistently call him this because they can never call him the former president of the United States. I think it is possible, and i think we should start getting our heads around the prospect, that donald trump doesnt think of himself as the former president. He is not allowing anybody around him to use that phrase about him. Does that mean he thinks hes still president . He used to call maralago the southern white house, which was weird for all sorts of reasons, but maybe thats what he thinks it is . In the impeachment response from his lawyers, the lawyers claim that it was not necessarily a false statement when an January 6th Trump told the mob that would attack the capitol that day that he had won the election in a landslide. They are contending in their written defense to the impeachment that that is a false statement. They describe the Election Results as contested and say its not necessarily false that he won in a landslide. When he said that, maybe that was true. I think were underestimating the potential for crazy here. I mean, republicans right now are heading into the Impeachment Trial which starts at the beginning of next week and they think that they are mounting a defense against the conviction of donald trump on the technical grounds that the senate shouldnt even be holding an Impeachment Trial for him because hes not president anymore. Because hes a former president. Im here to tell you, dude does not agree that he is a former president. And he is not allowing anyone to describe him that way. If thats the trapdoor theyre going to use to try to get him out of a Senate Impeachment conviction, hes going to fight it. He insists he cannot be called a former president. He must be called The 45th President. Hes still using the president ial seal. Theres no sign that he concedes that theres now a 46th president so hes an ex. I mean, how many ticks are we away from him claiming that he is still in office, that he still has the powers of the presidency . That hes rightfully still president . I mean, i would love to hear him cross examined on this subject in a senate trial, say, perhaps by Lead Impeachment Manager and Distinguished Constitutional Law Professor jamie raskin. I would pay good money to see that. But mr. Trumps lawyers today said no. They said, no, The 45th President will not testify in washington next week. Heads up that theres no reason they couldnt subpoena trump to testify. I mean, on his behalf his lawyers are denying factual claims in the charge against him. Somebody should have to back up those disputations of fact under oath. We shall see. Honestly, i think if you asked mr. Trump directly, he would love to testify. Nobody listens to him anymore. He has no outlet. He doesnt have a social media platform. He doesnt have anybody meeting with him. He doesnt have anybody taking his calls as far as we can tell. I mean, he insists that he hasnt really left office and hes not a former president and nobodys listening to him and the Democratic House Impeachment Managers are now demanding that he come to washington and explain the events of january 6th. Dont you think hes desperate to do that . Oh, please, let the man speak under oath. I dont know what would happen if they subpoenaed him. It would be a new test for our country, but thats not in anything new during the trump era. We shall see. Trial begins next week. Im not sure if capitol hill republicans have noticed yet that they are all planning to vote to acquit him at his trial on the basis of the technical fact that hes out of office while the defendant, himself, doesnt agree and doesnt accede to that technical fact. I dont know if theyve noticed that train coming down the tunnel yet. You can forgive them for their attention being divided. Theyve had their own problems to mishandle over the course of this week. I think it would be helpful if you could hear exactly what she told all us, denouncing qanon. I dont know if i say it right, i dont even know what it is. From the shootings, she said she knew nothing about lasers or all the Different Things that have been brought up about her. She knew nothing about the lasers. The leader of the republicans in the house, Kevin Mccarthy, trying to convince everybody in congress that republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor greene of georgia has essentially been falsely accused. He says that she told him in a private meeting, looked him in the eye and told him that a lot of the things that have been brought up about her, she doesnt know anything about them. The lasers thing. He says, she told him, she assured him, quote, she knew nothing about the lasers. Here in her own words is Congresswoman Greene on the lasers from her facebook post. There are too many coincidences to ignore. I find it very interesting that roger kimmel on the Board Of Directors of pg e is also vice chairman of rothschild inc. What a coincidence it must be Governor Brown signed a bill protecting pg e, allowing them to pass off the cost of fire responsibility to its customers. It must also be a coincidence the fires are burning in the same projected areas the highspeed rail project is to be built. What are the odds feinsteins husband, richard bloom, is the contractor to the rail project . Then oddly there are all these people who said they saw lasers or blue beams of light causing fires and pictures and videos. Solar Space Generators collect the suns energy and beam it back to earth. If theyre beaming the suns energy back to earth, im sure they never would miss a transmitter receiving station, right . . . what would that look like, anyway . A laser beam coming down to earth. I guess. Could that cause a fire . Hmm. Thats her in her own words on the lasers. She told Kevin Mccarthy she knew nothing about these laser. Her contention is the jews are amazing with the space lasers to start the fires as a false pretense to help the other jews with their conniving plots which she told Kevin Mccarthy she knew nothing about the lasers. Kevin mccarthy says he looked her in the eye and told her that. Her post there is from november 2018. That matters because today on the floor of congress right before all the democrats and 11 of her fellow republicans voted to strip her from all her Committee Assignments, Congresswoman Greene gave a Speech Saying that by then, late 2018, she was done with all that Conspiracy Stuff. I mean, that was from her Facebook Page in late november 2018. Her fomentating about the rothschilds, the space beams that caused the forest fires. Today in the house she said by that time, by late 2018, shed actually put all the Conspiracy Stuff behind her. Later in 2018 when i started finding misinformation, lies, things that were not true in these qanon posts, i stopped believing it. So i walked away from those things and i decided im going to do what ive done all my life, im going to work hard and try to solve the problems that im upset about. So i started getting involved in politics. I also want to tell you 9 11 absolutely happened. I remember that day crying all day long watching it on the news. And its a tragedy for anyone to say it didnt happen. And so that i definitely want to tell you, i do not believe that its fake. That was Congresswoman Greene speaking today on the floor of the house. She says, its a tragedy for anyone to say 9 11 didnt happen. I definitely want to tell you i do not believe its fake. Shes telling you shes definitely never propounded that. The socalled plane that crashed into the pentagon, its odd, theres never any evidence shown for a plane in the pentagon, but, anyway, im not going to dive into the 9 11 conspiracy. She stood on the house floor and said that shes never denied that 9 11 happened. Its a tragedy for anybody to say it didnt happen. This is a problem for the Republican Party not just because shes now the mascot for the Republican Party because they brought her into this National Role and kept her there, but while in Congress Talking to the republican leader oneonone in a private meeting, talking on the floor of the house today to the entire congress, she keeps denying that she said any of these things. Shes denied that she said any of them recently. And when all but 11 republicans today voted to keep her in full standing as a member of congress, maybe the most generous interpretation of that is that they naively believed her denials . They shouldnt have because the denials are not true. This is what i ran for congress on. I never once said during my entire campaign qanon. I never once said any of the things that im being accused of today during my campaign. I never said any of these things since i have been elected for congress. These were words of the past. I never once not during my campaign, not since ive been in congress. Here she is four days ago saying online that anybody who opposes donald trump is a pedophile. The list of the antitrump pedos. Thats four days ago. Thats the qanon stuff. Thats since she has been in congress. Thats since it has been pending against her that she was going to lose all of her Committee Assignments. But she is fluent in this stuff. This is how she became a prominent enough republican in Georgia Republican circles that she was able to win a seat in congress. Okay. So, again, just to go over it, highlevel officials will soon be arrested and hopefully thats what were seeing from all those federal sealed federal indictments. And it will be a type of corruption. Now, what type of corruption would it be . I mean, is it going to be the stuff thats rumored, the things that people dont want to talk about, the things that people dont want to think about . I mean, is it going to be true that the child pedophilia in the elites in the washington, d. C. , is that what were really going to see come out . Is it true, is the type of corruption were going to see come out, is it going to be satanic worship that possibly all these people are involved in . We already saw there was an email came out of the wikileaks emails where was it cheryl mills, she told Hillary Clinton in an email she was going to sacrifice a chicken to moloch in her backyard. That was proof right there that theres possible satanic worship and maybe all these scary things that that people talk about on whats considered conspiracy sites and conspiracy theories really may be true. But thats thats what q has been telling everyone. Were talking about who is q so im going to tell you what he says. According to him, many in our government are actively worshipping satan or they call moloch. If thats not evidence that theres Satan Worship in our government, and if Hillary Clinton was not involved in it then why would someone someone that is involved in worshipping satan, why would they tell hillary that in an email . So Hillary Clinton is obviously involved, too. The other thing that q says, and this is the stuff that we dont we just dont want to think about, and Many Americans dont want to know about, that q is saying that they participate in pedophilia and Spirit Cooking. And Spirit Cooking, they had that Spirit Cooking dinner. Something else he has talked about is an interesting triangle. Saudi arabia, the rothschilds, and soros. He says are the Puppet Masters that fund this global evil. Okay. So i definitely would believe that. The old saudi arabia was funding child trafficking. Hillary clinton, false flags, and various other evil activities. All those princes and so many of them had ties to the clintons. Many of them were had made huge donations to the clinton foundation. So that was also very, very interesting. They also had ties to podesta, huma, obama, mitt. Because i really think it might happen. So im very excited about that. Now, theres a Once In A Lifetime opportunity to take this global cable of satanworshipping pedophiles out. They also had ties to huma, obama, mitt, mitt, she says. Did you know that mitt romney was in on it, too . With the space lasers. And the moloch and the Great Awakening and the chickens and all the things that q told us. Here she is on the las vegas gun massacre. How do you get avid gun owners and people who support the Second Amendment to give up their guns and go along with antigun legislation . How do you do that . Maybe you accomplish that by performing a mass shooting into a crowd that is very likely to be conservative. You make them scared. You make them victims. And you change their mindset and then possibly you can pass antigun legislation. Is that what happened in las vegas . Are they trying to terrorize our mindset and change our minds on the Second Amendment . Is that whats going on here . I have a lot of questions about that. I dont believe Stephen Paddock was a lone wolf. I dont believe that he pulled this off all by himself. 11 republican members of congress sided with democrats today in voting to remove Congresswoman Greene from her Committee Assignments. Just as white supremacist republican congressman steve king of iowa was removed from his Committee Assignments just a couple of years ago. That was more than enough to remove her. This means she will now have no actual work to do in congress. Theres no point, actually, in her even showing up. But the House Republican leader, Kevin Mccarthy, apparently believed her denials when she told him to his face that she didnt say all these things that she was accused of, definitely at least never said them recently. In believing her when she denied those things to him, leader mccarthy let down his caucus in believing her, in not checking that, and repeating her denials, repeating them as his endorsed assurances that he hadnt said any of these things that shed been accused of. She definitely didnt know anything about that laser thing. She hadnt been talking about the q stuff in a long had he checked on whether her denials were accurate, had he bothered to check on whether she was lying to him, he could have then told his caucus, hey, i went to her, confronted her about this stuff and lied to me about it. That could have been reason enough for him to tell all the republicans in the house, hey, listen, theres all this criticism of her. Maybe you side with her on some of this crazy stuff. When i went to her about it, she lied to me about it and we cant have that. Instead, he just believed her without checking. Didnt check what she said. Thereby, excused her behavior to his caucus, defended her behavior to his caucus. Believed her false denials. And so now theyve got the worst of both worlds. Only 11 republicans voted to strip her of her committee. She is stripped of her committees. She will not be a working member of congress. She will be an ongoing source of humiliation and scandal to all but 11 of her republican colleagues because all but 11 of them didnt act to distance themselves from her. The democrats had to do it for them, which is humiliating. The senate today moved forward with the covid relief legislation. Republicans, theyre at the part of the process where republicans are offering lots of what they call messaging amendments that are not designed to pass. Theyre just supposed to be embarrassing votes hopefully and to slow the thing down. Democrats will defeat all of those and then pass the legislation likely without the republicans. Today saw the white house face down its first real policy controversy on the issue of whether teachers should be vaccinated before schools can safely reopen. Were going to have more on that later in the show tonight. But the cdc Director Yesterday at the white house then here on this show last night talked about the Science Behind her assertion that whether or not teachers are vaccinated shouldnt be seen as a prerequisite for whether or not schools can safely reopen. That is a very controversial assertion, particularly among teachers. The white house interestingly today said that they will wait until the cdc as an Agency Releases its official guidance on schools before they make any decisions on that. So this is kind of their first real bump in the road on controversial covid policy. Again, we will have more on that later, but it is playing out in public. And well have more tonight on the president s landmark Foreign Policy speech and his trip to the state Department Today and the stern words that he had for the russian government as the russian government, today, in its second day of locking up for the long term the main opposition political figure in that country. So the work is happening, right, but we remained we remain split screened with the democratic side running, i mean, both at the white house and on capitol hill. Foreign policy, a new course. Russia, back off. Covid legislation. The first Substantive Covid Policy fight on their hands. Senator Bernie Sanders today bringing in all new staff for the first time in years because now hes going to be running Budget Committee. If you dont think that Bernie Sanders running the Budget Committee is a big deal, then we should talk more about the Budget Committee. In the house congressman jamie raskin leading the Impeachment Managers in their Historic Second Impeachment Trial of a former president , now confronting the question of whether they can subpoena him to testify despite his lawyers saying that he wont come. So all that work happening on the democratic side. Some of it backward looking toward the disastrous last administration. Almost all of the rest of it forward looking. Theyre moving. On the republican side, when are they ever going to be able to stop looking back . With the tsunami looming behind them, with something that seems funny but may end up being a big, hairy, crazy deal. The former president from their party refusing to admit he is a former president. Refusing to be described as a former president. Contending implicitly that, what, hes still in office . Hes not a former president . Are you going to make republicans back you up on that and use that as a litmus test and campaign against them if they dont think they dont pretend that youre still president . And the house really did make democrats clean up their mess. House republicans really did make democrats clean up their mess by just letting it ride, assuming it really wasnt that bad, believing the denials and deciding to continue to lend the imprimatur of the u. S. House of representatives to the craziest Stuff Imaginable including a member who has publicly urged the murder of the house speaker. The split screen here is not like watching two different parties at work. Its like watching two different planets circle two different stars. And the consequences resonate here way beyond d. C. In a lasting way. And thats next. Stay with us. Stay with us your Home Insurance, heres something you shouldnt try at home. Look, Liberty Mutual customizes Home Insurance so we only pay for what we need. Its pretty cool. That is cool grandma very cool. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Our son says, since tide antibacterial fabric spray kills 99. 9 of bacteria, he wants us to spray everything every time we walk into the door. Its just to be sure. Just to be sure tide antibacterial fabric spray. At jackson hewitt, we offer safe and easy ways to file with a skilled tax pro. Securely drop off your documents, have them picked up, or upload them, and work with a tax pro online from home. Safe and easy ways to file that work around you. Among the 11 House Republicans who broke with their party and voted with democrats to strip representative Marjorie Taylor greene of her congressional Committee Assignments tonight, 3 of those 11 republicans represent South Florida. In fact, its all three of South Floridas House Republicans. South florida, of course, is home to parkland and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School which was the site of an unimaginably Horrific School shooting in February 2018 in which 17 people were killed. In breaking with most of their party tonight, those three South Florida House Republicans stood instead, with a group of Parkland Victims families who urged them to vote yes to strip Congresswoman Greene of her committees. Congresswoman greene, of course, has said online that that shooting in parkland didnt really happen, that it was staged. Media matters found a facebook threat from 2018 which has since been removed where congresswoman green enthusiastically agreed that parkland was a, false flag planned shooting. She tried to backtrack that today on the house floor before the vote to punish her. South florida House Republicans were not buying it. Out of tragedy in parkland, a movement was born thanks to students who survived the massacre, who turned their grief and their rage into activism with those unbelievable marches all across the country. That tragedy also galvanized parents, turned them into activists, too. Parents like Fred Guttenberg whose daughter, jaime, was among the 17 victims of the shooting of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman douglas high. For nearly three years mr. Guttenberg has worked as an activist against gun violence. As you can imagine Congresswoman Greene agreeing that the mass murder that took his daughters life was some staged event is not something that he has taken lightly. Joining us now is Fred Guttenberg who lost his daughter, jaime, in parkland nearly three years ago. Mr. Guttenberg is an activist and mr. Guttenberg is an activist and author. His new book is called find the helpers. Fred guttenberg, its a real honor to have you with us tonight, sir. Thanks for taking the time. Thank you for having me. Im honored to be on your show tonight, rachel. I will tell you, i have struggled in recent days and i really struggle today with whether or not to play sound from Congresswoman Greene Purporting her theories, whether or not to highlight the things that she the false things that she has said and propounded and advocated that have built her into the sort of celebrity that she is because i dont think shes worth the attention and i dont want to give her a bigger spotlight than she ought to have. At the same time, it feels wrong to ignore her. Do you struggle with that at all . How do you balance those feelings . No, im so glad you did because, listen, ive been sharing those videos now for weeks. She is a fraud. Uhhuh. And everyone who was paying attention knows she is a fraud. Those videos do exist. So to hear her lying to the members of congress and to hear, i guess, the current version of this Republican Party buy into the fraud, buy into the lie because they are so afraid of their voters, boy, makes them pathetic, but im glad you showed the videos because she did say these things and not only did she say things like parkland or sandy hook or las vegas or 9 11 are false flags and didnt happen, she had these conspiracies around them. I mean, you cant say shes crazy because everything she said is so intentional. In terms of the position that shes got in congress, shes going to hold a Press Conference tomorrow. Shes been raising lots of money based on the, you know, attacks from the liberal mob. Shes got lots of support in her caucus. Yeah. Although i think a lot of people were surprised to see 11 votes against her. What do you think is the best potential outcome here . She is an elected representative. She now has officially no work to do in congress. Where do you hope this lands and how this ends . Listen, if she wants to keep referring to people like me as a liberal mob, have at it. Im a dad. My daughter died in parkland. And i will keep responding. Every dollar she brags about raising is costing the gop money. Theres no question this is hurting their donations. If this is the path they want to go down, let them go down it. I am shocked. I remember a day in this country not long ago where two parties maybe disagreed on policy and they would argue things out, but they didnt disagree on facts. They didnt disagree on working for the american people. This party today gave up on that. It is it is shocking. So if they want to keep her around, if they want to continue to give her this platform, it only hurts the bigger party which is why you saw some folks in the senate and even 11 in the gop say, we dont want this. Uhhuh. Fred, i would say that one thing that i have found very heartening is the ability of individual people and people of like mind working together in small numbers to change peoples hearts and to move people on this subject. So to see congressman diazbalart, congressman gimenez, congresswoman salazar, all from South Florida, all three of them as a bloc, all republican South Floridians saying were not going along with our party on this, were instead siding with the parkland parents, that to me feels like a vindication of the kind of work that you and other families have done in the wake of the tragedy that you have been through. But it also feels like a template for all of us in terms of thinking about how to get through hard things. You know, listen, im super proud of what they did and im shocked that it was only 11. You know, her story is so clear and her lies are so obvious. And the idea that it was only 11, and i have to comment on Something Else that she said because a big part of her story that convinced a lot of these republicans to vote her way is she has talked about something that happened to her 30 years ago. Its all part of the fraud. Because 30 years ago she says she was a victim of gun violence, and im not denying that, but heres the thing. We have 400 million weapons on the street today. It was a fraction 30 years ago. So the risk is so different today versus what she went through. And there was no chance of an ar15 coming into her high school the way one happened with my daughter. So to use that as an example for why she is the person she is is dishonest. But ill say one more thing. She says it convinced her that she had to be a good guy with a gun. Thats what she took away from her incidents 30 years ago. Who says shes a good guy with the gun . Shes threatened to put a bullet if pelosis head, threatened other elected leaders. Shes chased down the kids like david hogg telling them, i have a loaded weapon in my purse. Shes not a good guy with a gun. She is a threat. If she lived in a state like florida with red flag laws, shed be losing her weapons. No wonder why shes so against them. But we cant let her get away with using that incidence as part of her recovery. She is a fraud. Fred guttenberg, author, father of Parkland Shooting victim jaime guttenberg, coming up on three years since that happened, sir. Thank you so much for speaking with us tonight. I know that this is personal and hard and you being here and being so articulate about what you know on the subject is an invaluable public service. Thank you. Rachel, thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Have a wonderful night. All right. You, too. Thank you. Senator chris murphy is going to join us ahead tonight. Stay with us. To join us ahead tt stay with us brush, the answer is yes. The clock may be ticking towards worse. Parodontax is 3x more effective at removing plaque, the main cause of Bleeding Gums at jackson hewitt, we offer safe and easy ways to file with a skilled tax pro. Securely drop off your documents, have them picked up, or upload them, and work with a tax pro online from home. Safe and easy ways to file that work around you. Crankypated a bad mood related to a sluggish gut. And work with a tax pro online from home. Miralax is different. It works naturally with the water in your body to unblock your gut. Free your gut, and your mood will follow. It reads, i urge you, do not let yourselves be intimidated. Do not let yourself be fooled by illusions of power and toughness. What kind of power do they have if they need to secretly poison people and lawlessly imprison them . Where is their nationwide support if they can only win elections by preventing independent candidates in the race . They can only hold on to power using it for their personal gain by relying on our fear. Therefore, we, by overcoming our fear, can free our motherland from the handful of thieves who occupy it. The truth is on our side. Stay free. That was a portion of a letter from prison released today by russias main Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny. Navalny survived an assassination attempt months ago that very much appears to have been the work of the kremlin only to wake up from his coma, fight through his rehabilitation, and defiantly announce a return to russia. They followed through, they did lock him up. Two dies ago they sentenced him to years in prison. His letter from prison today comes after navalny gave an impassioned speech from the dock in court just as he was sentenced before he was whisked away in handcuffs. Since then that speech has circulated far beyond moscow. It was reprinted today in the new york times. Here was President Biden today during his first inperson visit to any agency since he has been president. Today, he went to the United States state department. I made it clear to President Putin in a manner very different from my predecessor that the days of the United States rolling over in the face of russias aggressive actions, interfering with our elections, cyber attacks, poisoning its citizens, are over. We will not hesitate to raise the cost on russia and defend our vital interests and our people. The politically motivated jailing of Alexei Navalny and the russian efforts to suppress Freedom Of Expression and peaceful assembly, are a matter of deep concern to us and the international community. Mr. Navalny, like all russian citizens, is entitled to his rights under the russian constitution. Hes been targeted. Targeted for exposing corruption. He should be released immediately and without condition. He should be released immediately and without condition. Words directly from the president of the United States on camera looking straight into the camera speaking directly to moscow. Those remarks from the president came within hours of the new secretary of state, antony blinken, saying he had a oneonone. According to the readout of that call blinken made it clear the Biden Administration will, quote, act firmly in defense of u. S. Interests in response to actions by russia that harm us or our allies. Its only been 2 weeks, 15 days, since President Biden took office but, boy, you could not mistake this administration for the last one even in the dark. Joining us now is senator chris murphy, democrat of connecticut. Member of the Senate Foreign relations committee. And a Leading Light in his party on Foreign Affairs. Senator, i really appreciate you taking time to be here tonight. Thank you. Thanks for having me. So, President Biden today had those sharp words about navalny and about the russian government generally. We also saw a Big Policy Announcement Today from the Biden Administration stopping all support for the war in yemen, which youve been so outspoken about. I just wanted to get your reaction. Today was such a huge day on Foreign Policy. Listen, it is really wild to see how much has changed in a short period of time. Rejoining the world health organization, the paris accord, extending the new s. T. A. R. T. Nuclear agreement with russia for the next five years and now these announcements today. You mentioned the strong words about navalny. Russia should let him go and we should take action if they dont. That could include sanctions. But maybe the bigger news was the decision today to pull the United States out of the disastrous civil war in yemen. This has been a National Security nightmare for the United States. Weve been helping the saudis bomb yemen for about six years. 100,000 kids have died of starvation and disease. Yemenis are being radicalized against the United States because they perceive us to be bombing them. And al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has gotten stronger. So it was a real clear signal that our policy in the middle east is going to be change. Were not going to be part of war crimes and we may sort of step back and think twice about constantly getting involved in these proxy battles in the region between the iranians and the saudis. A really great speech today. A signal that biden is moving past moving fast to try to restart american influence Around The World. Senator, one of the reasons i wanted to talk to you tonight is i really do im not just flattering you i really do think that you are in many ways the future of the Democratic Party on Foreign Policy issues not only because of your clarity on these issues and your intense interest in them, but because i think you hold sway with a lot of your colleagues in terms of being just respecting your views. Given that, given what biden has done thus far, making his first agency trip to the state department, cutting off those arms sales to saudi and uae, cutting off all offensive support for that war in yemen, putting the pause in terms of the global force drawdown, which also stops pulling u. S. Troops out of our allied germany, the decision on russia, the potential leaving the potential open for sanctions maybe, specifically on the navalny issue. Seeing all these actions so quickly, i have to ask if there are other things you want to be sort of in the first ten things you want to be in the first month of action that you think the Biden Administration should be doing or do you think theyre taking all the right steps . Well, listen, i would add two more things to this list. I think its important that we get back into the Iran Nuclear Agreement really fast. Irans, you know, about a month away from a Nuclear Weapon and its important for us to show the world that, you know, we still believe in diplomacy. So i think that thats important that they continue to move on a path to reentering the agreement. The second thing, rachel, though, is i think an intersection of Administration Policy and what we can do here in congress. This president needs new tools. We are not properly resourced Around The World today when were spending 20 times as much money on Military Hardware as we are on smart power, especially when we have just seen a virus attack us. I think its time for a complete reorientation of Foreign Affairs spending, putting more money into nonmilitary tools Around The World, including pandemic prevention, and my hope is the Biden Administration very quickly is going to make some of those recommendations to congress. I think every president is probably going to fail in protecting america so long as we have more members of Military Bands than we have diplomats in the state department. Senator chris murphy, democrat of connecticut. Member of the Senate Foreign relations committee. At work tonight as the work continues there on the covid relief bill. Sir, thanks for taking some times in the middle of all these votes tonight. I appreciate getting a few moments with you. Thanks, rachel. All right. Coming up, we got some actually encouraging news about a covid vaccine, stay with us. The lexus es, now available with allwheel drive. This rain is bananas. Lease the 2021 es 250 allwheel drive for 349 a month for thirty six months. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. As someone with hearing loss i know what a confusing and frustrating experience getting hearing aids can be. Thats why i founded lively. Affordable, highquality hearing aids with all of the features you need, and none of the hassle. 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Last night here for the interview we had the new director of the cdc dr. Rochelle walensky. We talked about comments she made at the white house yesterday about School Reopening specifically about teachers and vaccination. Dr. Walensky said yesterday at the white house to the consternation of many courters that when it comes to schools reopening it may not be necessary for a scientific perspective for many teachers to be vaccinated before schools can reopen. She reiterated that here last night and said there are other Mitigation Efforts definitely necessary for schools to reopen, and those are must do even if teachers are not vaccinated first. I asked her about that last night, and she told us here cdc is working on official comprehensive guidelines for how and when schools can safely reopen. Those are not ready yet. But today asked about this subject White House Press secretary jen psaki said pointedly that the white house will wait from that official guidance from the cdc as an agency to decide whether or not teachers do need to be vaccinated as a prerequisite for the School Reopening. They will wait before they make any pronouncement on that. Were keeping an eye on that. Obviously lots of teachers around the country are worried that schools havent taken the other mitigation measures that would make things safe for them to go back into the classroom. And if you cant solve things like density and Kids Mask Wear [ventilation particularly in february then moving from those onto the issue of vaccination may be premature in thinking about how to protect teachers. Anyway, this is the first big substantive policy fight of the Biden Administration on covid. We are watching that. Other big piece of covid news that broke today is on the vaccine front. Johnson johnson officially applying for Emergency Use Authorization with the fda. If their vaccine is granted that authorization it would be the third vaccine approved for use here. Unlike the two deployed right now Johnson Johnson requires only one dose, can be stored in a regular fridge. The Chief Science Officer from Johnson Johnson says as soon as they receive the authorization from the fda theyll be ready to ship immediately. We think the fda is going to meet February 26th to discuss that application. That means the authorization could come by the end of the month and vaccine to ship immediately thereafter. That would be a very big deal. Watch this space. Wanna build a Gaming Business that breaks the internet . That means working night and day. And delegating to an experienced live bookkeeper for peace of mind. Your books are all set. So you can finally give john some attention. Trusted experts. Guaranteed accurate books. Intuit quickbooks live. That is going to do it for us tonight on this friday eve. I will see you again tomorrow. Now its time for the last on. I will see you now its time for The Last Word with Lawrence Odonnell evening lawrence. Good evening, rachel. Fred guttenberg was on your show in the last hour. Of course hes the father of jamie guttenberg, who was killed in parkland in that School Massacre which was so relevant to todays vote in the house. And he used a phrase a couple of times that has just been reverberating for me when he osaid only 11. Only 11. That there were only 11 republicans who voted against the statements of Congresswoman Greene today in the house of representatives. And he was so disappointed in that, that 199 voted to support everything shes ever said