Transcripts For MSNBCW All In With Chris Hayes 20170223

Remarkable scenes at gop town halls across the entire country, as the first congressional recess of the trump era is marked by the sort of turnout and mobilization we have not seen in this country since the tea party protests of 2009. This was the scene outside a town hall held today by Louisiana Republican bill cassidy where people reportedly lined up more than two hours early and hundreds could not get in. Those who did get in the door chanted where is he when cassidy did not show up at the scheduled start of the event. Once he arrived he gotten a earfu earful. Under this plan, my child, this child sitting in front of you is completely uninsurable. Th is not an abstraction. This is let her finish okay, folks this child is uninsurable under this plan. Uninsurable, this plan. Were ready to roll right now. What im going to do is uninsurable under this plan. Uninsurable under this plan. Uninsurable child uninsurable child sitting in front of you as you smile. This is an uninsurable child. Shame shame on you shame on you shame on you cassidy went on to effectively filibuster much of his own town hall, speaking at lengths while constituents shouted for him to answer questions. He didnt take one for nearly 40 minutes. Meanwhile, in arkansas, more than a thousand people lined up to get into a town hall by senator tom cotton, a huge crowd despite the fact he changed the venue ovmultiple times over the past few days. This happened just a short time ag ago. I would like everyone affected by the Affordable Care act and affected by health care to stand up. [ crowd chanting aca ] three members of my family, including me that would be dead dead and homeless if it was not for aca. [ cheers and applause ] im an angry constituent. You work for us. [ cheers and applause ] my husband with dementia, alzheimers plus multiple other things and you want to stand there and hem and haw and expect us to be calm, cool and collected. Well, what kind of insurance do you have . [ cheers and applause ] another constituent said to cheers she was not a paid protester and described herself as a life long arkansan whose Family Members served in the military. She said he was worried about the president trampling constitutional rights. I want to know if you, like senators john mccain and graham [ cheers and applause ] will call for an independent bipartisan [ cheers and applause ] the short answer is, im already part of that very inquiry youre talking about. [ audience reacts ] this sort of thing has been happening inside and outside town halls across the country. This was the scene tonight outside new Jersey Republican leonard lances town hall this evening where hundreds protested. Senator Mitch Mcconnell who was dressed down by a constituent faced a similar scene outside his luncheon today. Fairly small venue. Virginia representative david brat was booed for suggesting Economic Growth was the best way to protect the environment. Tennessee representative Marsha Blackburn jeered for deflect ago question aboutteve bannon who a constituent called a notorious white nationalist. Those are republicans who, to their credit, were willing to show up. A lot of gop lawmakers spooked by such scenes are refusing to hold towns at all prompting Hillary Clinton to tweet today if you cant stand the heat, get out of congress. In an attempt to side step the issue, some lawmakers are choosing to hold small round Table Discussions and facebook chats, virtual town hall, formats that can of course be more easily be controlled. Thats not stopping mobilization. Outside senator ted cruzs houston office, protesters held what they billed as a town hall without cruz. In allentown, pennsylvania, a literal empty suit was used to protest senator pat toomeys absence. You can see it right there. In california, a huge group of constituents mocked congressman darrell issa for refusing to answer their questions. [ crowd chanting where is darrell . ] where is darrell indeed. . Nevada, dean heller was heckled a a chicken for refusing to do a town hall. He said hed do a town hall if only there is no applauding and no booing. In virginia, constituents asked questions to a cardboard cutout of representative bob goodlatte, in california, milk cartons of paul cook with the heading missing. When corey gardener didnt show up to a town hall meeting, a teacher took it upon herself to characterize his position. He believe its important that fossil fuel production on federal land is essential for Holding Public office. [ laught ] thats a direct quote. Hey, okay. Some republicans, including the president , have sought to diminish the legitimacy of the protests by saying those attending the town halls are organized and unrepresentative. Despite this scene where citizens held up their i. D. S to prove theyre constituents and signs like this outside cottons event where people proclaimed they werent paid to be there. I think some people are clearly upset but there is a bit of professional protester manufactured base in there. But theyre obviously people that are upset but i also think that when you look at some of these districts and some of these things that it is not a representation of a members district or an incident. It is a loud Group Small Group of people disrupting something in many cases for media attention. No offense. Its just i think thats that necessarily just because theyre loud doesnt necessarily mean there are many. Im joined by carin jeanpierre and david jolly, former republican congressman from florida. David, let me start with you. This whole idea that, well, theyre organized or socalled anger. This is like the way politics works, right . We can all agree that maybe theyre not representative, its not a poll, but this is how politics works. Sure, yeah. Look, chris, the things that a former member of congress doesnt miss, right . Getting shouted at at a town hall. Spicer could not be more wrong, nor could the white house or republicans who are trying to dismiss this. This reflects a bigger point. This was not a mandate election for donald trump. He did lose the popular vote and half of america wants to keep the aca. They probably want to fix it. You know, the bigger issue going on here as well is if youre spicer or republicans taking on the voters instead of taking on the issues, voters see through that. Republicans are being asked to do these town halls, theyre going out there to try to defend repeal. But chris, dirty little secret, and i have been in the meetings in congress. There is no replacement plan. Right. Theres been six years to come up with this. There is not one. If youre a republican member, you have nothing to rely on except saying Less Government and free markets. Thats a great point and i want to return to that. I think that cuts both ways, carin, heres my question to you. If we can put up that tom cotton b roll again. It was an astounding scene. Its a low bar that a member of the United States senate faces constituents. Everyone should do that as a matter of Democratic Practice but hat tip to those who clear the low bar, including the senator in arkansas who is a quite composed individual. My question is, theres something about what spicer said thats true, right . The people in that room dont represent the Broad Spectrum of arkansas public opinion. The question is, how much does that actually matter . Well, i would have to say this. I mean, majority to the congressmans point. Of voters did not vote for donald trump or vote for the policies that he stands for. And people are indeed very angry. Theyre angry about the ban, angry about losing their health care, angry about deportation. Theyre angry about russia. Theyre concerned about the direction this country is going. And so it didnt take much. There was not much organizing here. People wanted their voices to be heard, they wanted to know how do they get in touch with their congressional member. Where is the town hall and they did that. Theyre doing that. And so this is whats happening and the republicans need to reize you cant continue to live in the fantasy bubble of d. C. People around the country do not in particular want to lose their health care and they wanted to tell their story, their personal stories, their family stories about losing their health care and thats what were seeing. David, i want to talk about health care but one more question on the sort of psychology of this. I will never forget a conversation i had with a Democratic Congressman back in 2009, it was after the infamous august recess. We should be clear, in 2009 the big town hall protests happened much later in the calendar. It was that august recess, it had been months they were crafting the aca, it was a developed piece of legislation at that point that they were fighting about. And this Democratic Congress person i spoke to was spooked. Now, this was a person in a safe district, they got reelected that year but they were spooked. They dont people dont like getting yelled at. And i wonder from a psychology standpoint, tom cotton is pretty safe in arkansas but how much does it get in your head when people stand up and say youre going to kill my Family Member if you rekneel bill . So the electoral science here is do you have to rely on just the voters who brought you there or do you say you know what . I might have just been elected by republicans by my job is to represent everybody and these stories matter. Are these new voters coming out or the voices of those who voted . Chris, in my first election there were three candidates. I won the popular vote but i only won 48 and that night i stood in front of the voters i said i realize more people tonight asked to be represented by somebody other than me and my job is to prove that i can represent everybody. The Trump Administration and many republicans in congress have taken the exact opposite approach which is to the winners go the spoils and were going to repeal this and were going to ignore what were hearing at the town halls and theyll face consequences for that. Its interesting, too mobilized minority. If you were choosing between with having a mobilized minority, you want the mobilized minority instead of the apathetic majority. Thats one of the lessons of the last several years. Thats right. When we talk about the tea party, that was a minority, that was an extremist right wing minority that came out and look what they were able to accomplish. What were seeing today is very different. I dont think theres much of a comparison. This is the mainstream this is a mainstream broad uprising by majority of voters of americans who did not vote for the president or did not vote at all or just said, hey, we do not want these hateful policies. Thats what were seeing and i think to you know, i think to your point, chris, elections have consequences. And this is it. David, lets talk now about specifically the health care component of this. You made this point and i think its an interesting one. It occurred to me as i watched these town halls. Theyre not even defending a specific thing. People are saying this is what the aca has done for me, this is the status quo i want to protect. Theres some ways in which that hurts them because they dont have anything to point to. But they also dont have to defend the specifics of something. Legislation is messy, theres going to be parts of it people dont like. Remember the death panel mythology of the Affordable Care act, right . Sure, sure. So it strikes me that in some ways it almost gets almost more difficult once theyre actually defending an actual living piece of legislation. Sure, thats it. Listen, we have to recognize, millions of people do oppose the aca. Politifact called it the lie of the year saying you can keep your doctor, people have seen premiums go up and be canceled. The fact is, millions of people are covered as a result of this. I will say this, there are members of congress who have offered solutions, i never felt comfortable as a member to say feel market Less Government. So i talked about creating a Term Health Insurance market. I talked about early enrollment in medicare for those with preexisting conditions. I talked about covering 26yearolds with a private sector rider. Its not good enough for republicans to say the free market. The problem is now, though, look, at a very basic human level obamacare has subsidized something for the American People and if republicans say were going back to strictly private markets, there are people in are going to lose as a result of that. And thats why republicans are having a tough time messaging this. To that point, Vice President today tweeting about individual responsibility. Were going to restheer ore tha the health care market. Do you want individual responsibility as an ordering principal when someone has Breast Cancer or is born with a congenital disease . The same thing with paul ryan talking about freedom. Karine, theyre going to have to get past these ideological slogans at some point. Thats right. Theres another saying ill throw out there. Theres a football saying, famous football saying that says when you have quarterbacks, you really have known. And i think that plays into what the republicans are dealing with. They have so many plans or i think the white house is working on something that they really dont have anything at all and one thing and ive said this many times i think the republicans have been able to do something that democrats were not were not able to do in six, seven years which is actually make obamacare important. Yup. And thats what they did. They made it important and popular or at least above water for the first time basically in the history of the legislation. Karine jeanpierre and david jolly, thank you for being with me. Good to be with you, chris. Michael moore will be here to talk about resistance in the trump era. Why he wants you, yes you watching this right now, to run for office. And new signs the revised executive travel ban order is coming very soon. It seems as though it is similar to the original. Washington state solicitor noah purcell who successfully fought the original joins me right after this break. With car insurance, and i was not happy with the customer service. We have switched back over and we feel like were back home now. The process through usaa is so effortless, that you feel like youre a part of the family. I love that i can pass the membership to my children, and that they can be protected. Were the williams family, and were usaa members for life. Call usaa today to talk about your insurance needs. Today White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the administrations new version of the executive order on refugees and immigration from seven muslim nations is basically complete. While the president s new order was expected to come out at the end of this week, tonight a senior white house official tells nbc news the timeline has shifted. The order now only expected early to midnext week. The question is whether this new order will meet the same fate as the original travel ban which was halted by federal judges multiple ones earlier this month. That could hinge on the courts view of the orders intent. The ninth circuit cited trumps call for a muslim ban during his campaign and today sean spicer was asked if the president regretted using the term muslim ban. Hes made it very clear, noah, from the beginning that this was a countryfocused issue, a safetyfocused issue. We should note trumps original Campaign Statement calling for, and i quote a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the United States. Its still on his web site. During the ninth circuits arguments, a judge also referenced Rudy Giulianis remarks on the travel ban several weeks ago saying trump asked him how to do a muslim ban legally. And just as those comments were relevant in analyzing the legality, the First Executive order, so may the remarks last night of white house Senior Adviser Stephen Miller on the upcoming order. Fundamentally, youre still going to have the same basic policy outcome for the country but youre going to be responsive to a lot of very technical issues that were brought up by the court and those will be addressed. But in terms of protecting the country, those basic policies are still going to be in effect. Joining me now, Washington State solicitor general noah purcell who argued the challenge that led to that temporary restraining order of trumps executive order which is still in place. Mr. Purcell, respond to Stephen Miller there. Is that going to be in your feature in your next brief . I saw a few lawyers joking about essentially miller handing the opposition ammunition. It i mean it is a troubling statement if theyre going to put back into place as he put it the same basic policy that the courts have already held, raised serious constitutional questions, thats a problem. Thats a real problem. How much does intent matter . I think thats its something you said to me the last time we spoke, it stuck with me. The intent alone canender something unconstitutional. A policy that would be perfectly fine if the intent was to discriminate can be render eed fully unconstitutional simply because its motivated out of unconstitutional animus or desire to discriminate. Thats absolutely true. That is an accurate statement of the law. I dont remember if i used this example last time or not but an example ive used with people is if a city says you have to shovel all the snow on your sidewalks on saturday morning, that might be a perfectly valid policy proposal. But if the reason they did it is to keep Orthodox Jews from living in the city, its patently unconstitutional. So intent does matter to both our establishment clause claim and our equal protection claim and theres some troubling evidence of intent that continues to develop. I want to ask you about the time line here. Are you confounded by the fact with that the white house, the president himself made arguments this was rushed out because of what an urgent matter it was . That it had to be put into effect while people were literally in the air, causing chaos and disruption we saw. They then lose a series of court battles. Really get their butts handed to them. And then there just seems like a delay, like the urgency just sort of went away. Well, i mean, i think hopefully part of whats happening now is this sort of consideration and thought that should have happened the first time, right . I mean, its deeply troubling that an order that had such a huge impact on peoples lives, including so many people who already live in this country, the 500,000 lawful permanent residents in this country from these seven countries, its troubling that an order that had such a huge impact on these people was issued with so little consideration for how it would affect those people, their employers, the universities that they work at or attend. And so hopefully theyre being moe infmal the sense of thinking through whats actually necessary to protect National Security and whats not. But at the same time, the statements coming out of the administration about how its the same basic policy, how there are minor technical changes, thats very troubling. The department of justice in a court filing in your case, i believe it was, said rather than continuing this litigation, the president intends in the near future to rescind the order and replace it with a new substantially revised executive order to eliminate what the panel erroneously thought were the constitutional concerns. I love that adverb there. Now, theres some word from the white house today they may not rescind the original order but supplement it with another one. Does that make sense to you . It doesnt really make sense to me, chris, and i you know, i dont know what to make of that. You know, normally you can rely on what the other side says in a court filing, especially with the department of justice traditionally. You know, they filing . A brief, that typically means its going to happen. I dont blame the lawyers. Its not their call ultimately, clearly, but, yeah, those are troubling signs if theyre not really going to rescind the order. I think its important also for your viewers to understand how much the white house has already conceded in the changes theyre making in what weve heard of the new order. Its an important victory already that theyve admitted they cant apply these rules to green card holders, people who were already here with visas. That will make a huge difference to employers in this country, to our universities, to families. Thats a big victory regardless of whether they rescind the order or not. We hope they do and it would be stunning if they dont given what theyve already said, but youre absolutely right, that those are the indications most recently. Washington state solicitor general noah purcell, thank you so much. Thanks. Coming up, a preview of whats in store with attorney general Jeff Sessions whos taking on the rights of transgender students as one of his very first issues. The latest just ahead. Made it through many market swings. Sure we could travel, take it easy. 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In one of the first major acts of attorney general Jeff Sessions, the Justice Department has just an hour ago rescinded antidiscrimination protections for transgender students, protections that had been advanced by the Obama Administration. This comes after a littlenoticed court filing by the Justice Department just one day after sessions became attorney general in which the doj withdrew a challenge to the texas judge who had temporarily blocked the Obama Administration transgender guidelines nationwide. Given Jeff Sessions record, this is perhaps not surprising. What is interesting is that newly confirmed education secretary betsy devos was opposed, apparently, to the administration withdrawing these protections from transgender students, at least according to the New York Times reporting. Ms. Devos resisted signing off on the order and told President Trump she was uncomfortable with it according to three republicans with direct knowledge. Mr. Sessions pressed her to relent because he could not go forward without her consent since the order must come from the justice and education departments. Its important to remember the rhetoric of candidate trump was notably muted on the subject saying the issue of trans rights should be left to the states. He never expressed it to anything close to a priority. But President Trump sided with his attorney general telling ms. Devos that he wanted her to drop her objections. White House Press Secretary sean spicer today claimed betsy devos was on board with the new guidance coming from the Justice Department 100 . Joining me now, julie fernandez, former Deputy Assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, now a senior policy analyst of the society foundation. First lets talk about this the Justice Department rescinding this. This was the administration giving schools guidelines basically to what they said was obey the law, title ix, which protects against discrimination for students. Title ix is still there. So this is ultimately going to be decided by the courts, right . Yes, theres a case in virginia now, as you know, chris, where the issue is whether or not a student who is presents as male, a male student who was born not a male but now presents as a mail should be allowed to use the male bathroom. This issue is about children and whether children are going to be protected against discrimination in schools. Jeff sessions was siding against children. What is striking to me is the amount of power the doj has and something people opposing Jeff Sessionss nomination were talking a lot about. Obviously the people supporting him recognized the power of it. You work in the Civil Rights Division. How much latitude, how much power does an attorney general have in terms of what civil rights laws get enforced . It has a ton of power, chris. And certainly in the title ix context and in title vi, the doj has authority to advise all the agencies what about the law is, what their obligations are, what theyre required to do. They on some statutes, the doj enforces, theyre the only people who can do the enforcement. In the Voting Rights context, in the Police Misconduct context, in suing states to meet their obligations under olmsted, the disability rights case about placement. Doj has power that is sometimes exclusive to ensure the protection of civil rights laws. And this situation you have, its just striking to me, this is the first thing that this attorney general is doing, essentially. The first big action by this Justice Department is to essentially rescind civil rights protections for children. It completely fits, though, i have to say, chris. And it fits sessions and his world view because its interesting that spicer and the executive order talking about the executive order was talking about this is a states rights matter, that this should be left to the states. What we decided at the time of the civil war and then had to tremendous decide again at the time of the Civil Rights Movement in the 60s is that the federal government has a role to define what civil rights are and how we protect them. And this whole idea that this should be up to the states is just really anathema to the way weve understood what our country about and how we protect civil rights. In fact, the department of justice as the unique tool of the government, the police, the locus of power by which e feral government reaches down sometimes into the stas to force compliance with federal civil rights law. Absolutely. It is our it is their core role to ensure that the states are complying with the 13th amendment, the 14th amendment. Look, the states were defined when we had the constitutional amendments, states spent a lot of time defying compliance and it was only when we had federal laws and federal enforcement that we really had uniform application about what this protection means. Without that, really, students, other groups, are left really vulnerable to not being able to be adequately protected against all of this discrimination. Its a new world. Its a new world for us. Do you worry about, say, the supreme court, say, finding in favor of the plaintiff here in the upcoming case and then the doj essentially not enforcing it . Well, look, we have two big sets of concerns around doj. One is what theyre going to do and one is what theyre not going to do. So, yes, im very concerned about their doing bad things with some of the power they have, the enormous power, as you said, but also their not enforcing things. Not reporting live from these municipalities. This is going to be applied in the voting context, in the policing context, disability rights, housing, lending discrimination, going after banks. Its huge. Julie fernandes, appreciate your time. Thank you. Still ahead, the great Michael Moore is here to talk about resistance. Plus, why it doesnt hurt to have a backup plan. Thats tonights thing 1 thing 2 after the break. Thing 1 tonight, the new head of the Environmental Protection agency, a man who sued that agency 14 times, often in coordination with the energy industry, used his first day at the office to lay out his priorities. I really believe that we can be better as a country. I believe that we as an agency and we as a nation can be both proenergy and jobs and proenvironment. That we dont have to choose between the two. Scott pruitt knows all about being proenergy. Today a judge released thousands of emails showing that pruitt, while he was attorney general of oklahoma, closely coordinated with major oil and gas producers, electric utilities and political groups to roll back environmental regulations. The collusion was first revealed in the Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times report more than two years ago. And now scott pruitt is in charge of enforcing the rule he is tried so hard to weaken and in charge of regulating the same fossil fuel industries he so closely supported. If youre feeling a little pessimistic about the future of the planet, there is good news tonight. New planets. Thats thing 2 in 60 sexds. Uh, yeah. Its over, larry. What is . The whole wheelie thing. What do you mean . I just got this baby to get around the plant floor. Right, but now Ge Technology monitors every machine. Yeah, it brings massive amounts of information right to you. So you dont need that. Well, it makes me look young and uh. With it. Time to move on. Oh ill move on. Right into the future. Backwards. Youre going backwards. The futures all around us not just on your little tablet, my friend. Huge announcement from nasa today. Astronomers have found seven previously undiscovered rocky earthsized planets all orbiting an ultra cool dwarf star in the aquarius constellation. Thats a hell of a sentence. The star, called trappist one, is about the size of jupiter, smaller and colder than our own son. Three of the planets are in the socalled goldilocks zone, orbiting a safe distance from the sun, neither too hot nor too cold. But astronomers say all seven planets are potentially habitable which makes this the largest batch of possible livable planets ever found in another solar system. Only one little tiny catch for any would be human kohl lists, theyre far away, 39 light years, 12 par s. E. C. Secs, and if no ship that could make that run. If there is one story in the Democratic Party and Center Left Politics more broadly right now in this country it is this the unprecedented levels of opposition and mobilization against this president. Massive crowds have taken the streets since Donald Trump Took Office starting the day after he took the oath and not just in major metropolitans like new york and washington, d. C. Youre seeing anxious constituents showing up at town halls across the country, pressing lawmakers on things like immigration policies, cabinet selections and the repeal of the Affordable Care act. Recently, congressman tom mcclintock, republican from california told the hill that hes never seen anything like it. If theres one lesson from the first month of trumps presidency, its that all of this opposition is working. Which brings us to Michael Moore who launch add resistance calendar where people can get information and post news about events happening in their community and also posted his own tenpoint plan on how to stop trump. Well walk through some of those points with Michael Moore himself. Next. With every early morning. Every late night. And moment away. With every click. Call. Punch. And paycheck. Youve earned your medicare. It was a deal that was made long ago, and aarp believes it should be honored. Thankfully, President Trump does too. I am going to protect and save your Social Security and your medicare. You made a deal a long time ago. Tell them to protect medicare. Cmohappy birthday i survived a heart attack. Im doing all i can to keep from having another one. And im taking brilinta. For people whove been hospitalized for a heart attack. I take brilinta with a baby aspirin. No more than one hundred milligrams as it affects how well it works. Brilinta helps keep my platelets from sticking together and forming a clot. Brilinta reduced the chance of another heart attack. Or dying from one. It worked better than plavix. Dont stop taking brilinta without talking to your doctor since stopping it too soon increases your risk of clots in your stent, heart attack, stroke, and even death. Brilinta may cause bruising or bleeding more easily, or serious, sometimes fatal bleeding. Dont take brilinta if you have bleeding, like stomach ulcers, a history of bleeding in the brain, or severe liver problems. Tell your doctor about bleeding, new or unexpected shortness of breath, any planned surgery, and all medicines you take. Talk to your doctor about brilinta. Im doing all i can. That includes brilinta. If you cant afford your medication, astra zeneca may be able to help. Dont ever let anyone tell you you cant change. That is what life is. Change. Its not some magitrick. Its your will. Your thoughts become your words become your actions become your reality. Change is your destiny. Now go chase it. Just like the people every business is different. But every one of those businesses will need legal help as they age and grow. Whether it be with customer contracts, agreements to lease a space or protecting your work. Legalzooms network of attorneys can help you, every step of the way. So you can focus on what you do and well handle the legal stuff that comes up along the way. Legalzoom. Legal help is here. [ crowd chanting do your job ] that was the scene from a town hall earlier tonight with arkansas senator tom cotton. The mood is indicative of what were seeing at town halls across the country. Joining me now, Michael Moore, activist, Academy Award winning filmmaker, muckraker, troublemaker. I said its working. Is it working . Ive never seen anything like this in my lifetime and i go back to the antivietnam war days in my youth. This is an incredible, incredible turnout. You just said the word arkansas. That footage thats back up on the screen right now, arkansas. This is going on two days after the womens march, 2,000 people in the state capital in salt lake city, in utah, this is the most massive incredible really unorganized bause there was no time, there was only a few of us who thought what would happen would happen on election day so everybody else thought hillary was going to win and this was going to everything was going to be okay so everybody has had to come outside the bubble, organize, and get busy. And whatever despair people fel 9th is gone, the despair is gone. Theres a lot of justifiable fear. Yes. But people are active and mobilized, there are so many things going on on the internet, so many and people, when i was on the stage of the womens march and i asked the crowd, how many of you are at your first demonstration, id say 80 raised their hand. Yes. This is a first time and im telling you folks, who are younger, this hasnt happened since 1970. Youd have to go back that far, before kent state, before where you saw crowds like this and even then you didnt see middle class. You didnt see grandmas. Right. You didnt see you see everything at this. Its just the most amazing thing. It is very striking, too, to hear this kind of terminology the paid process, yada yada, but this is just arkansas voters basically. Obviously we should say they have the certain politics they have by and large. Right. But you know, these are the people that live and work in fayetteville or wherever. You can see just watching the footage there that nobodys being paid. They are there because they love this country, and they are coming out and you know what . Youre just seeing really the first week of these town halls. Thats whats crazy to me. We were going back and looking at footage, talking about this today, the big town hall thing was august in 2009. That was the august recess and when the town halls happened, people getting yelled at and a bill that was about to be passed. This is only a month in. Right. This is way no, no, this makes the tea party lo like preschool seriously and when you get on congressman sanford from south carolina, last night it. Two nights ago. Two nights ago. He had to listen to are that for three hours. You satisfied what do you think . He said well, im paraphrasing, the obamacare people have sort of won. Theyre going to get their main, everythings going to be, and i was sitting here watching your show going whoa, he just admitted. It was a big concession. Youve already won on a bunch of stuff and you can see this in terms of where the rubber hits the road on this you can see theyre moving the line on what they think they can do away with and not do away with because of this mobilization. Right, when he says youve already won on a lot of this im thinking thats right, we have and we have no power. We dont control a Single Branch of government. Right. And yet they know the power because we are the majority. Thats the key factor here. We are the majority. Were the majority at the voting booth, were the majority of this country, and thats why they know they arent going to get away from it. You have this tenpoint plan about trump resistance. You talked about running for office yourself. Not myself but everybody. Theres the runforsomething. Net is a site trying to recruit people to do exactly this. One of the things, theres big news out of the Democratic Party of virginia, they were going to field a candidate, this was the news. Were going to field a candidate for every race. It is shocking the degree of races that happen in this country at the local level, state rep. State senate, city council are unopposed. Theres no one to run. I live in one of the areas in northern michigan. I go into the voting booth and theres a democrat for congress thats running and then thats it. There was a Green Running for county commission, in one of the seats, thats it. It was all republican, and i ca out of there and i said this feels like a soviet style election. We only need one candidate. Why do you need two candidates . But these soviet style elections occur they happened in the other direction, you have the republicans not contesting a huge loss in the country i have a show on the real nbc, you know, over there. Thanks, michael. No, this is like spring training. Youll be doing nightly news in five years when lester retires. Great show. When i had my show here, we did congressman in new jersey had not been primaried but never a democrat running against him. I went out there and got on the ballot a ficas plant and we ran the literal plant in the Doctors Office against the congressmen. They wouldnt let us put the thing so we had to do a writein campaign. We went down to trenton the capitol when they counted the votes. They took all the cameras off because the ficas tree was getting some precincts as many votes as the congressman. Even in a district people running unopposed, contesting an election makes a huge difference in terms of what issue gets discussed. This is my point, people watching this, you got to think about running for office. Dont leave it up to somebody else. This is why were in the state were in, because the genetic gene pool of political politicians talk about an ace in the phone room can we give a shout out to all the producers here . How did they do that that requestic . I never mentioned that to anybody. There i am, im running and im actually in the State Capitol signing up. Shes like youre going to run this against the congressman . Yes, i believe this plant can win. If youre watching this you have more of a chance to win than ficas. Run for precinct delegate, precinct delegate. You can go to the county convention, its a commitment of three hours once a year. I want to talk about one of the interesting things about this mobilization that we watch is certain things i feel like im not surprised people mobilized around, certain things have been sort of surprising so one of the things i think that was really interesting, and not surprising but the level of mobilization against betsy devos and the way that the secretary of education is generally not a super high wellknown position. Everybody knows her name. Everyone knows her name, huge amounts of interest. Quick name that secretary of education in george w. Bush. I cant either. Heather something, shes from texas. All right, you went to college. Not fair, you have a degree. Ding, yes. You know what im saying youre right. Nobody knew now Everybody Knows we have a secretary of education that has never entered a public school. Someone in the control room was telling me ficas plant. Watch tom cotton get a question about betsy devos because the fight has ended it hasnt gone away. My question deals with education. In your facebook post, according betsy devos you stated [ booing ] seems like betsy devos may not be the most popular secretary of education. So i would if you feel that strongly about the secretary of education, maybe the department of education has too much power. So yeah, tom, thats the wrong takeaway from those jeers in the crowd. Ideological fidelity i guess he knew how to read the room. He clearly got it. He got it early on in the town hall but theres a situation where you know, there was real mobilization around her, it is sustained now and you know it seems to me this is something if they try to do anything with education, the capital accrues from previous fights to future ones. Right, right, and thats why this mobilization is just beginning, as huge as it is, its going to get bigger and bigger and this thing you mentioned that i put online today and yesterday that there are some very simple quick easy things for people to do. You dont have to give up your day job. Make that daily call to congress. Theres this app called five calls, get it at the app store its free and you get it and it will actually, it pulls up all the numbers, it pulls up the issues of today that you should talk to them, give you some talking points, five calls. It will dial your member of Congress Like typing in your zip code, dial it for you. Cool. Its so cool, and so many other things, joint groups, regions of resistance. Cuomo announced in new york free universal college for everyone, thats what hes going to push for. California will push for universal health care. Theres blue states, dont say you live in a blue state and i cant do anything. You can show the rest of the country just like new york and california did with roe v. Wade three years before roe v. Wade these two states made abortion legal and made it the new normal and got the rest of the country used to it. Thats what you can do in massachusetts and the other blue states. I want to ask you a final question about the dnc race. I know you support keith ellison. Yes. The vote will happen soon, seems contested between tom perez and keith ellison. What are the stakes here to you . Theyre huge, absolutely huge. The Democratic Party and god love tom perez and all the old guard, unfortunately its the old guard that will be doing a lot of voting on saturday for the dnc chair, we need keith ellison, grew up, in the midwest, detroit, we lost wisconsin, michigan, ohio, pennsylvania and barely ekeed out minnesota. Keith ellison turned it from a red state to a blue state. He needs to be the dnc chair. If the chair is going the same old way, losing twice in the last 16 years when we won the popular vote that the republicans got im done with that. Everybody else has to be done with it. Dnc people, come on, do the right thing here. You got to do this, and i know were out of time, we dont want to go into rachels time like we did last night, i wrote you up. Please. I got it sweater at nordst m nordstrom. That is all for this evening. The Rachel Maddow show starts on time. You can have my seconds any time you need them. Hes taking notes, i hit the post there. Thanks my dear and thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. Id like to introduce you to a man named mike foal lows, the chair of the Libertarian Party in the state of montana every single election in montana held over the span of the last 20 years mike fellows ran for something. He ran for supreme court, he ran for secretary of state. He ran for state legislature, he ran for congress. Hes run for everything. Hes run in every single election in the last 20 years and he never won anything ever, but hes committed political activist and he put his money where his mouth was and did the work and made sure his