Transcripts For MSNBCW The Beat With Ari Melber 20190628

On getting rid of journalists, not normal. And later in the hour, the one and only Melissa Etheridge is a special guest for fallback friday. We have a lot tonight. We begin with the debate that you can now see whats happening in america. We can clearly report that we are at the start of the democrats 2020 race. Think about it like this. Before this week, most americans had not heard from any of these Democratic Candidates for any extended amount of time and polls show even most selfidentified democrats said they just werent watching the race yet. That just changed. 20 democrats marching on these stages this week. And there were some you may have heard who criticized the dnc for letting the debates get too large supposedly. Voters didnt seem to mind because tonight we just got the figures. And learned this was the most watched democratic debate ever. More than 18 Million People watching, another 9 million streaming it and they saw a party thats clearly moving left on immigration and health care and they saw new faces like Pete Buttigieg addressing a saluting in his hometown and Marianne Williamson speaking the language of spirituality and love and how she thinks democrats should run against trump and Elizabeth Warren. And then people saw a civil rights dlash could echo long past last night. Joe biden found himself today defending his record after that Kamala Harris attack speaking at an event with jesse jackson. I heard and listened to and respect senator harris. We all know that 30 to 60 seconds on a Campaign Debate exchange cant do justice to a lifetime committed to civil rights. I fought my heart out to insure that civil and Voting Rights and equal rights are enforced everywhere. Its a constitutional question to protect the civil rights of every single american. And thats always been my position. That is what is joe biden looks like on defense. Here is what Kamala Harris looks like setting the tone today. She was doubling down on that debate moment sharing this picture captioned simply that little girl was me teeing off this moment that many say defined this widely watched debate. Were going to get to you. Hang on. I would like to speak on the issue of race. And i will say also that in this campaign, we have also heard and im going to now direct this at Vice President biden. I do not believe you are a racist. And i agree with you when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground. But i also believe, and its personal and i was actually it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country. And it was not only that but you also worked with them to oppose bussing. And you know, there was a little girl in california who was part of the second class to sbeg sbeg sbreg integrate her pluck schools and she was busted to school pre day and that little girl was me. Was quite a moment. So what was senator harris doing . First, she was defining her personal story as the embodiment of americas progress on civil rights. Thats a delicate but ultimately accurate political project for her. Its a style perfected by the last democrat to the occupy the oval office, barack obama. Second, she increased the stakes of bidens recent gaffe making it about more than just maybe poorly chosen words linking his an apparent nostalgia for the democratic caucuses yet ter years to civil rights remedies arguing its one thing to talk about civil rights, another to act on the challenges of Education Integration and bussing. Third, harris did what many politicians do. She simplified and defined bide noon a corner at the cost of some policy nuance. The legal challenges of bussing are not binary. Skepticism isnt the same as sket timmism toward all integration. Thats why derek bell, who was the first tenured professor at hafrtd law concluded mandatory segregation and bus diagnose not automatically benefit civil rights arguing they could be advantageous, irrelevant or disadvantagious in 1976. And that debate was roiling long before the court rule how schools are allowed to use race to integrate in a 2007 decision which changes what you can do today. Both harris and biden know all of that, everything i just said because they are skilled and experienced attorneys as well as politicians. And i think they know their positions may not be as far apart as they appeared on stage last night. But they also appeared to both recognize that harris has the upper hand right now because with or without that nuance, she is arguing she is going after joe biden for something she views as very real and that she stitched together several of his vulnerabilities, not only his record or his age or the age of his idea but her argument he has an apparent nostalgia for good old days that many in todays Democratic Party would much rather leave behind. Right to the big conversation, britney cooper, rutgers, political commenter and activist sally cohen and basil smikle, former director of the new york Democratic Party and strategist. Thanks to you for being here. Your view of what happened and whether that moment will last. It absolutely will last. Io biden deserved to be the challenged. There are two issues here. One is the issue of how ep takes care of and will take care of black voters and issues around race. We can get into the granular debates about the failures of integration and whether bussing was the most proper remedy pore dealing with generations of africanamerican children pushed out of public schools. I think thats a reasonable debate. I think that we dont have to take Kamala Harriss endorsement of bussing in her own life as the becould be where we should go. That isnt the point. What she was saying is your poses have real world impacts on actual people and because, if you had won your debate, i might not be standing on this stage. Thats something that white folks have to reckon with the way in which they have been and know dine and often cowards on issues of civil rights has real world impacts about who gets to lead the country today. What we needed biden to do if he wants to be in in fight is too say i categorically condemn people who were were antiimmigration, antientgration, i condemn the ways that they lipped life chances for black students and want to say this was a policy debate, not actually a debate about what kind of life chances i want you to have. He is terrible getting the moral argument right and that makes him feelquiv cal to the American Voter in a way that it makes him not trustworthy. It was a powerful moment masterfully executed. There are a lot of folks that look at biden and said he wasnt prepared. Kamala hair race was prepared. This was a specific strategic decision to go after him in this way. It was done very, very well. And what i have said is look, she has essentially taken his message of i can work with anyone because thats essentially what hes saying and twisting it. She took the years of experience that hes had, she took all of the stature that hes had within the party, embraced it and in the same breath, used it against him. That was incredible. Did she need bussing to do that and how accurate was she, in your view, on the civil rights content of the complex bussing . She could have used a lot of things. He has gone since then and talked about his record. She could have, but im asking you about the bussing part. Well, look, i agree with what was said. I think there are a lot of people that cut bussing very differently. Thank you for using derek bell because hes a hero of mine. Hes widely known as a law school g. My common law professor. He left harvard because they wouldnt continue now since were getting into it, derek bell is someone who is unassailable on this and fought for women of color to get tenure of color at harvard. Gave up his harvard. Biden in the time period were talking about in his record, biden said that desegregation is not the same thing as integration and he spoke about against integration. That was not one gaffe or statement, that was in opeds, in speeches. This isnt about bussing. This is about bussing as a remedy for integration. Im going to moderate a little bit. To that point, senator harris though made it about bussing and explicitly his position on bussing. Theres many things we can talk about. But it was a symbol of his position on entgration and on civil rights and whether we can trust hes going to govern in a way that benefits allamericans. I think derek bell would have a problem with the idea we should give biden points because of the debates and disagreements about bussing. Let me clear. Absolutely be on the side of black women having access to educational opportunities. I am not saying, i am not saying or reporting that derek bell gives biden any points. Indeed, the late derek bell isnt here to give anyone any points. Im pointing out there was nuance at the time in the sechbs even within core and naacp and impact litigation separate from whether this was oh, my god, we should do Court Ordered bussing in every city. Having said that, it still remains the question you raised which is where does biden stand for todays Democratic Party. Also biden is often on the wrong side of lift on major histories. On the wrong side of history with anita hill, with the crime bill, with the iraq war. And the challenge is that what people are asking him to do is say, as a career politician, will you reckon with your record and be willing to say there are places i screwed up and in this moment i would think in a more progressive thoughtful way how we educate africanamerican children. He can say that and he keeps leading opportunities on the table. This is one thing about having his record. When you have this long resume, you have to explain it to people that dont know you. When youre explaining youre losing. It seems like hes back on his heels over and over again. At the end of the day, i dont know whether or not he loses africanamerican support as a result of this in and of itself. But over time, all of these little not so little but all of these gaffes, all of these moments where he could turn the message around and say, you know what . This is where i was but this is where i am because this is where we are today as america, he hasnt been able to make that pivot. Thats the challenge that his campaign will have to address. Otherwise, hes going to lose support. You both put it so well and the professor talks about the time machine part, if its one incident it may be nuanced. When you add them together over decades, he would appear to have a bigger problem in todays party. The calendar biden is interested in is post 2008. He is not interested in the crime bill, the super predators. Take a look. Characterization of my position across the board. I did not praise racists. That is not true. Number one. Number two, if we want to have campaign litigated who supports civil rights, im happy to do that. I was a public defender. I didnt become a prosecutor. In south bend is now 6 black in a city that is 26 black. Why has that not impatrioticed over your two terms as mayor . Because i couldnt get it done. My community is in anguish right now because. The quickest fastest way to do is it is build on obamacare. I think youre so underestimating what barack obama did. President obama did a heck of a job. We went through a couple of moments from last night but the key one name checking obama. He is trying to run as the addendum to obama. We have moved past the obama years. Trump reset the territory here. I think that the real challenge for biden is he wasnt expecting to have to contend with a left leaning Democratic Party. Hes hoping that americans will play the safe bet and trying to argue hes the safe bet. And this is why he deserves to be pushed. We want a president that is actually going to reininvigorate a progressive agenda. I think that moment between Kamala Harris and bide. Was important for this election because it ruptured this notion of electability. Right . Going into this, the rope if you talked to people why they liked bide, not necessarily his baggage or his personality, its we think he can win. Last night she sure seemed like the one who would be unruffled by a trump. She was collected and thoughtful and prosecutorial and powerful. He was sure ruffled. He got defensive. He was fumbling for his words in that moment which he should have been prepare for. In an election, it ruptures and puts electability on the table. The other reason that conversation was important is for the country. I think what we want to see now, dont get me wrong, trumps base are fine with a guy who does these horrific things and never apologizes. Thank god democrats and i think the majority of americans want to see people ho grow and learn and change. Its not that you cant be forgiven for the crime bill or for the racist horrific sexist misogynistic, homophobic but learn and grow and change. Transform. Say this is how ive grown better because we grow and change as a people and as a country. Thats more consequential than this election and a bad role model where we need to go as a nation. Just go to mayor pete for a second. When he was asked about the representation of his police department, he has a 26 africanamerican city and 6 africanamerican police department. He said i couldnt get it done. I left that thinking to myself, did you try because that is a massive disparity there. And i think the overall, the point that i would make to sort of bring that together with biden here is that you cannot come to this debate stage in 2019 and be race neutral and get away with a lot of rhetoric you used before. Im good, i tried but i couldnt get it done. The stakes are too high. If you are a small town mayor and mot getting the job done, obviously sometimes you have to go off and run for president. Thats what you do. That is the fundamental assumption of white male mediocrity. I should fail up. While were on the topic of privilege, white folks, beto. Exactly right. Its a hot panel. Because i would tell you, all of the conversation about him and i said can he ever live up to the expectation of him having run the senate race and then being launched into this president ial race and i kept saying why not Andrew Gillum or stacey abrams. They look rather pressure yent by staying out. He did a lot of damage to himself. You get back to this question of maybe he should have actually run for senate instead of president this year. So it also it reinforces this point we cant just accept you and say youre going to get all the support. You speak a certain way and carry yourself a certain way. So we have to support you. Doesnt work that way. Part of what youre talking about is where the democratic electorate feeling like theres work work to be done and theres going to be a competitive primary. This was a deep conversation. My thanks to britney, sally and basel. Up ahead, donald trump says lets get rid of journalists while he stood by putin. Pressure off the debate stage, 2020 dems at a Detention Center and reaction to the debate you have not seen yet including coverage from around the world. Joe biden. This is the spin room where candidates compost debate to redirect their failures or compound their successes. Joe biden. All eyes on miami and tonight, 50 years after stonewall, Pride Edition of fallback friday with Melissa Etheridge. Youre watching the beat on msnbc. If you have a garden you know, weeds are lowdown little scoundrels. Draw the line with roundup. The sure shot wand extends with a protective shield to target weeds precisely and kill them right down to the root. Roundup brand. Trusted for over 40 years. But prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Cancer is the ugliest disease mankind has ever faced. We got the idea that if we took two dimensional patient imaging and put it in holographic displays, we could dissect around the tumor so we can safely remove it. When we first started, we felt like this might just not be possible but verizon 5g ultra wideband will give us the ability to do this. With three extrairst absorb channels. R they stay up to three times drier so babies can sleep soundly all night pampers bills back needed a afvacation from his vacation. An amusement park. So he stepped on the dr. Scholls kiosk. It recommends our best custom fit orthotic to relieve foot, knee, or lower back pain. So you can move more. Dr. Scholls. Born to move. Theyre americas biopharmaceutical researchers. Pursuing lifechanging cures in a country that fosters innovation here, they find breakthroughs. Like a way to fight cancer by arming a patients own tcells. Because its not just about the next breakthrough. Its all the ones after that. Heres Something Else that happened today. The president of your country talking to the leader of russia about that country meddling in our elections. Take a look. Mr. President lurks tell russia not to meddle in the election . Dont meddle in the election. Dont meddle in the election. Dont meddle in the election. But you this leads to another dynamic on display. Donald trump has long said everything regarding this meddling is basically fake news. Today he shares this joke with putin about their dislike of the press. Watch this moment thats caught on camera by russian state media. This was before the United States pool cameras were even rolling. And. You dont have that the problem in russia. We have it, too. Its the same. A little camaraderie. Reuters reporting moments before, trump joked with putin about journalists and said you could get rid of them. Lets be clear. The president may say hes joking but for putin, this is no joke. 26 journalists mysteriously killed since he took office in 1999. What the are americans to make of this . What does this mean . Julia ioffe is a russia expert and correspondent with gq. How you doing . Good, how are you. Im great. It seems pretty unusual to say the least for a president to be joking with a leader who is a accused of this kind of mistreatment. Stay with me and well have the con vo in 30 seconds . Sure. Okay. N vo in 30 seconds sure. Okay. And im back with juliaoff if i discussing the president joking around about getting rid of journalists. Julia, when you look at that moment, does it matter . Oh, absolutely. And it matters because its not you know, its not a oneoff and i cant say its a joke for our president. Hes talked about the press constantly talked about the American Press being the enemies of the people. He incites his fans and supporters to boo the press at his rallies. He has stood by mupd bin salman of saudi arabia despite his had obvious connection to the murder of saudi journalist and oppositionist jamal ca shoji. I think he has said this, for example, about kim jongun of north korea that when he speaks, his people sit up and listen. He and his ambassador said about victor or bahn of hungary that donald trump would like to see an environment like this in the u. S. Where the states werent fake news. Ie anything remotely unfavorable about writing or covering anything unfavorable about donald trump but giving him the glowing coverage that kim jongun gets, Vladimir Putin gets, mbs gets at home. He knows hes speaking to a guy who has accomplished this goal very brutally. Exactly. You mentioned the saudis. Madeleine albright, former secretary of state spoke about that point today. Take a look. I also think its absolutely essential for the president of the United States to make clear to the leaders of saudi arabia that they cannot obviously go murdering people but also just generally on human rights and i dont understand again how President Trump finds more solace in meeting with authoritarian leaders and making fun of and insulting our friends. Given your work looking at other countries and foreign policies, walk us through what is the tension here because on the one hand, donald trump is less hawkish than other many leaders in both parties. Certainly ran on that. Certainly so far less military interventionist than say the bush administration. And yet, on the flipside, there is this incredibly cold support for human rights abuse and murderous regimes. Right. Although i would say that you know, his administration has certainly really ramped up tensions with iran sending more troops to the region. Lets leave that aside for a second. I think he has an affinity for these strong men. And putin is also a special case because at this point he knows hes been briefed on the intelligence. Now weve all been briefed on the intelligence. He knows putin helped him win the election, that vladimir toout putin has been gunning for him and more. Of course, hes his fan. Even without that, he has shown an affinity for and kind of camaraderie for and understanding of people like duterte in the philippines, erdogan of turkey, or bahn of hungary, xi jinping of china, these guys who never get criticized which our president has a hard time with. Who just you know, their wish, these leaders wishes are their underlings commands and their countrys commands. Theres no pesky congress to get in the way and no court to get in the way. And these people also run their countries like a Family Business. I think he theyre kind of the people he wants to be. Theyre a kind of aspirational friends i would say. Aspirational friends. Hes showing us blatantly publicly that he there is a 30s for as you put it, the sort of Family Business graft and authoritarian impulses of these other places. Julia, a reporter who has written a lot about this stuff. Thank you. Youre welcome. Appreciate it. We have a lot more in the show. 50 years after the stonewall riots, musician Melissa Etheridge makes her beat debut at the end of the hour. But first, trump faces allegations of abuse and a focus on all those immigration promises from the stage last night. Well get into all of it when we come back. Night. Well get into all of it when we come back. 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Asked for a show of hands giving Health Coverage to undocumented immigrants in the u. S. , all ten raised their hands agreeing to provide that kind of coverage. Our country is healthier when everybody is healthier. You cannot let people who are sick no matter where they come from, no matter what their status uncovered. They pay sales taxes, they pay property taxes. They increase the life span of Social Security because they have a job and paying Social Security tax. This is not about a handout. This is an insurance program. Im joined by jess morales, the chair of the Immigration Rights Group Families belong together and editor at large for the libertarian reason magazine matt welsh. Thanks for having me. You would acknowledge thats a shift for the Democratic Party. Big shift. What does it mean . Its a big moment in this party they were willing to all raise their hands. Some of them i think it went up a little slower than others. The fact that every single candidate on that stage who represent a spectrum of immigration ideas was ready to support undocumented immigrants as a testament to the organizing and them listening to that. Its very different as mentioned from the previous president s. It has become very common in politics to sort of say, anything that you disagree with is immoral or evil. That puts a lot of democrats in a bind because this was the obama position. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe you disagree with him. Is it evil . Take a look at past democratic president s. It is wrong and ultimately selfdefeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years and we must do more to stop it. Do not send your children to the borders. If they do make it, theyll get sent back. Undocumented workers broke our immigration laws. I believe they must be held accountable. Whether he president obama was talking about accountability, he was not talking about health care for all. Correct. Ten years ago, as you recall, in a famous moment, he gave a speech to a joint session of congress which Congressional Republicans shouted you lie. It is about weather obamacare is going to be given to illegal immigrants. They say you lie. Now ten democrats are taking this position. This is a remarkable shift. This goes hand in hand with the remarkable history in American Public opinion towards immigration. 2005, i think by some total of like 6338 or Something Like that, americans said immigrants are not a net positive in this country. That has shifted by 50 percentage points. Some of this is an antitrump effect, some weve seen a lot of antiimmigration politics including heavily mitt romney. Theres an opportunity for democrats to be on the side of broad public opinion. Health care, obamacare, medicare for all for illegal immigrants, i dont know if thats going to go there. A large swathe of the country have said in the past im not sure about Welfare Benefits to illegal immigrants. Is it a sustainable addition to the Current System in both of your views . Illegal immigrants and immigrants at large take less of social Welfare Benefits than native born americans on average, period, right . So its not going to be the thing that tips us into bankruptcy. Theres plenty of other things take agus there. However in an era where democrats are not showing much sense of any kind of limitations what the government and welfare state can provide, its very risky politically and in terms of the longterm sustainability of the welfare state. What were talking about is medicare for all which is extremely popular. A position especially in the democratic primary. And that really means for all. Undocumented immigrants are contributors to our economy in more ways than one including leaving a surplus what they pay in Social Security and taxes. You may believe that genuinely and a lot of people may think thats a great idea. Its my job to say. Its genuinely true they leave a surplus. I mean the part about medicare for all. Traditionally medicare for all refers to domestic legal residents of the United States. The notion that youre going to both patrol the border to prevent undocumented crossings but if people make it theres going to be benefits is a different structure. When you talking about tps and dak cag here for 20 or 30 years, they deserve health care. What about someone here one day. Those people are still in detention because of trumps immigration policy. I get you, hold on. You just shifted though. I shifted. Weve con a lot of reporting on the inhumanity of the detention policy. The notion that the Democratic Partys just jumping into the position of you cross the border for a day, you get out, youre undocumented, you get health care. Thats different, no . Totally. I would say on day two of an immigrant crossing over, theyre not 100 coming up with their insurance card. Theyre still worried about eating, having a place to stay. Probably still in the shelter and maybe sleeping on a church floor. I dont think thats a concern we need to have. Its cheaper to provide them health care than it is to detain them in Detention Centers every single day. This is fiscally responsible. Republicans are going to be running against democrats praying pore them to go full socialist because they can rally the troops and independents. This will be seen by republicans in quite a few independents as democrats are not going to look in the face of reality and of huge government and say anything but more, please. Does it matter in your view, that its such a reversal of the obama era or you see the politics having completely shifted. In the trump era, things are totally different. President obama was pretty hard line on immigration for a democrat. Its good we are moving towards having a more humane immigration policy. Thats what everybody wants to treat people with dignity and respect. You know what i think is good . We just had a full policy confers growing out of the debate, perfectly sinl. We love that around here. Happy to help. Jess and matt, i appreciate both of you. Things are moving fast. Now coming up, this is something we want to show you working on it all day. How the debates played around the country. How regular americans are seeing it and also, around the world. Later, legendary musician Melissa Etheridge joins us for ballback friday and along with Daniel Franzese as we commemorate 50 years after stonewall. E as we commemorate 50 years after stonewall. I had a heart problem. I was told to begin my aspirin regimen, and i just didnt listen. Until i almost lost my life. My doctors again ordered me to take aspirin, and i do. Be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. Listen to the doctor. Take it seriously. Has been excellent. They really appreciate the military family and it really shows. With all that usaa offers why go with anybody else . We know their rates are good, we know that theyre always going to take care of us. It was an instant savings and i should have changed a long time ago. It was funny because when we would call another insurance company, hey would say oh we cant beat usaa were the webber family. Were the tenneys were the hayles, and were usaa members for life. Get your usaa Auto Insurance quote today. Bleech aww awww its the easiest because its the cheesiest. Kraft for the win win. Do your asthma symptoms ever hold you back . About 50 of people with severe asthma have too many cells called eosinophils in their lungs. Eosinophils are a key cause of severe asthma. Fasenra is designed to target and remove these cells. Fasenra is an addon injection for people 12 and up with asthma driven by eosinophils. Fasenra is not a rescue medicine or for other eosinophilic conditions. Fasenra is proven to help prevent severe asthma attacks, improve breathing, and can lower oral steroid use. Fasenra may cause allergic reactions. Get help right away if you have swelling of your face, mouth, and tongue, or trouble breathing. Dont stop your asthma treatments unless your doctor tells you to. Tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection or your asthma worsens. Headache and sore throat may occur. Havent you missed enough . Ask an asthma specialist about fasenra. If you cant afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. So, every day, we put our latest technology and unrivaled network to work. The United States Postal Service makes more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. Sometimes ratings can reveal a lot more than which show is popular and tell us something about the nation. Thats the case for last nights second debate. It smashed records with 18 Million Viewers making it the most watched democratic primary debate ever. It tells us theres unusually high civic interest in this race. This doesnt count americans who caught highlights on the internet or local news. Heres how it played in some local broadcasts that we scoured from around the country. The candidates showed they have a target, a very spec one, president donald trump. The Biggest Issue in 2020 for democrats is a republican. The debate really went left in terms of ideology. A lot of votes are that i talked to thought that senator Elizabeth Warren took home the win yesterday. And drew yang not wearing a tie . That got people going crazy. The dnc wont partner for fox news on any debates. On fox, they didnt ignore the debate occurring. Several personalities used it to slam the dems for falling off the deep end. The whole thing was like a cartoon or evil novel. They were doing everything they could to take away your frees. Moderates in the Democratic Party are extinct. It is annive have itation for more Mass Immigration into this country. Always interesting to see how it plays everywhere. These debates were focused on the globe. Candidates talking about relations with russia, nato. The world was looking back drawing coverage in newspapers in mexico, germany and france in a made for tv event that drew televised tributes, as well. This is a creative opening sequence. Youre fired. Fake news. What the hell is going on here . Welcome to a special edition of planet america. This week, 20 democratic president ial hopefuls face off in the first pair of debates in miami, florida, with the first debate was a fairly jen philly teal fair. The second one started on testier terms. I always thought Kamala Harris would be a strong debater. Thats conservative press, world press, what else is there. The internet, people had lots of fun with the visual meme worthy moments. Bernie sanders hands jess tick cue lating so widely joe biden was doning them to protect his personal space. Or the look on Bernie Sanders face when he was caught between the Kamala Harris, joe biden clash. Cory booker appearing to give beto orourke that characteristic side eye when he starred speaking snan spanish. We asked cory bookers Campaign Manager about that. He was not annoyed by the spanish. You saw later in the debate he spoke spanish as well as did secretary castro. It was a moment of surprise caught on tape. I dont think it was a side eye. Dont think it was a side eye. Then theres something the internet is good at which is recaptioning a scene for satire. Remember the candidates raising their hands for that question about health care for immigrants. Here was a twitter user named jacob reimagining it as if it were the iconic scene from mean girls. Lets see if we have it. Ive ever felt personally victimized by regina george. We may have been missing the tweet but basically people were recaptioning the hands up to show the idea that thats what everyone was doing. This is as you may know an unforgettable movie. We had no idea a mean girls meme would light up the internet. It fits perfectly with our next guest, one of the stars of mean girls along with the iconic Melissa Etheridge who joins me next when we come back. Melissa etheridge who joins me next when we come back stop dancing around the pain that keeps you up again, and again. Advil pm silences pain, and you sleep the whole night. Advil pm [ text notification now that you have] new dr. Scholls massaging gel advanced insoles with softer, bouncier gel waves, youll move over 10 more than before. Dr. Scholls. Born to move. Oh oh oh ozempic® announcer people with type 2 diabetes are excited about the potential of onceweekly ozempic®. 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So maybe ill win, saved by zero at fidelity, those zeros really add up. Got it . Got it. Its slippery. Nooooo. Nooooo. Nooooo. Yeeeesss. Quick, the quicker picker upper bounty picks up messes quicker and is 2x more absorbent than the leading ordinary brand. Bounty, the quicker picker upper. Now with new prints featuring characters from Disney Pixars toy story 4 now playing. We have a very special edition of fallback tonight. She doesnt even go here. Thats right. This is a Pride Edition of fallback friday. Im joined by rock legend Melissa Etheridge, hits you know like im the only one and come to my window. She won an oscar for best original song and the documentary inconvenient truth. The closing ceremony of world pride right here in new york city, and her new album is the medicine show. That is not all. Im thrilled to tell you we have actor and comedian daniel franzessi who played in mean girls. I am beautiful in every single way, because words cant bring me do me down he serves as an ambassador for the Elizabeth Taylor aids foundation and the hbo series looking and is currently traveling for his standup show, yes, youre amazing, the tour. Yes, youre amazing. That was it. That was way better. This is a special edition of fallback. Lets get right to it. Melissa etheridge, who needs to fallback . You know who needs to fallback is mr. Mike huckabee. Mike huckabee has been you know all these transgender, this is not Mike Huckabee. I know weve had trouble with Mike Huckabee before. Do you remember when Mike Huckabee had a Television Show . Sure. And it was a music show. Music show. He plays bass. He had me on the show. And i was like yeah, im there. Totally, because any time i can cross the lines, you know, any time i can find myself in front of people that might not see me that can see oh, here is a gay person, and you know what . Yeah, music is the same. And Mike Huckabee said that to me at the time. You know, we might not agree on our politics, but music is universal. It was a beautiful, loving moment. I want Mike Huckabee to remember that. I want him to remember what he said. He does not have to be part of the politics of division. Its not working for any of us. We could say horrible things about him. We do not need to. We need to tom together now. Its time to stop blaming each other. I appreciate that. I love that your fallback is a little bit of a fall forward and inviting back to the way he was. Amen. What about you . Im here to talk about the well, its pride. So the Environmental Impact of glitter. Hello. Something people do not think about, but its true. I worked with only whale to help remove the single use plastic straws. And just thinking about things we didnt consider in the past, how maybe rice at a wedding wasnt good for birds and now we switched to rose petals and things like that. Glitter is an impossible thing to remove from environments. Festivals, all these things that happen. And the glitter gets everywhere and we cant remove it. Now i know. It seems silly. But think. I am thinking. I got you thinking. You got me thinking. Im torn, because i also love the environment. But i love glitter. And look at you, i dont know exactly what it is. But it seems a little glitter. Glitter responsibly is all im asking for. How about some biodegradable glitter. Anything else on your mind, melissa, that might want to fall back . Oh, lets fall back on the transgender military ban. The military ban. That trump has stayed on. Yeah. Why . We moved way beyond that. And if people want to if anyone wants to serve our country, if anyone wants to put their life on the line, lets support that. Our troops can handle it. Its just i think there is some folks that dont want to pay things. When you first heard thats what President Trump wanted to do. I dont remember where i was, but i do remember when i met trump at a gay wedding. I feel like the connective tissues in your stories tonight are trump, that when its right for the money or the media or other things. Yes. Theyre fine with everyone. Youre saying theyre almost and this is a problem theyre almost pretending to appeal to more bigotry than they might live in their normal lives. Completely. If the big superpac came from gay people, trust me, it would be way different. Out there. Its about money right now. Before i let either of you go, i want to talk a little about your work as well. Uwho do you feel about being so associated with this beloved character. Youre doing all this other stuff. I imagine a lot of people still come up to you for mean girls which is one of my favorite movies. I lean into my character in mean girls. In a movie he didnt have to fear for his life during the movie. He didnt have his head pushed in a locker, head dumped in a toilet. I got a nan letter around the tenth anniversary that said when i was in eighth grade i was beat up for being checkup by and tortured for being a sissy. In ninth grade, the popular girls were youre like damian. Come sit with us. Its brought a lot of sanctuary for a lot of people, this movie, and that character. Pretty much the first lgbtq tonight and of size to be seen in something and not have to fear for his life. What do you think about that . I think representation is everything. Its a beautiful community. People should get to know people that they feel uncomfortable with. People should just stop judging and lets move forward. How would you apply any of that to the very successful career youve had in a period where obviously the acceptance or tolerance has evolved over time. Yes. When i came out 26 years ago, it was very different. Whats been beautiful is we havent been able to, like put it in a box and say this is gay and this is lesbian. Once you do that it becomes well, there is trans, and there is all this gender. The beautiful thing is i think the Gay Community is pushing our whole society and humanity into really saying, look, you cant nail any of us down. You cant say this is right, this is wrong. There are things that make people uncomfortable. There are things that people fear because they dont know. But just moving forward, just loving, just if youre going to judge someone, judge them on their character. I love having you guys here for this special edition of fallback. I appreciate you both making the time for it. Thank you. Its a pleasure to meet you. Absolutely. All right, ari. You legend. Legends. My thanks again to melissa and danny. And love is a nice note for us to wrap up on. We also want to tell you the update i mentioned earlier in the hour. But it does tell you something about civics in america right now, that we got the numbers just here late in day. 18 Million People made this the most watched debates never the Democratic Party history. Obviously msnbc proud to be a part of it. Other channels will have their turn. But it tells you this race is well under way for 2020 that does it for the beat. Ill see you back here monday at 6 00 p. M. Hardball with Chris Matthews starts now. Shakeup. Lets play hardball. Good evening. Im Chris Matthews back in washington. Well, last night, before an historic television audience, a star was born. Her name is Kamala Harris. Also tonight donald trump jokes about russian interference in the election while sitting with Vladimir Putin. And later in the show well meet the woman who accused donald trump of sexual assault. Her story was backed up by two friends who say she told them about the a