Transcripts For MSNBCW The Rachel Maddow Show 20170429

Try to change his mind on supporting that and they could not have been nicer when they did it, but they also gave his congressional staffers stuff, physical stuff that the staffers definitely did not want. And that i bet they had no idea what to do with once they hauled it back into the back room. And we feel that it is a very, very poor representation of the constituents in his district because we do not agree with his actions. We will pass this on then. Please do. Were going to give this all to you. 25 feet of letter. You can find a nice big file to put that in. Will do. Okay. And we also have a gift of 36 balloons, and the 36 balloons, each balloon represents a thousand people that will lose coverage under the Affordable Care act if the amendment is enacted and its filled with con fete ty. Each representing the people that will lose coverage. So we present this to you. Okay. We need to take some out. A little fun here. Yeah. Thank you so much. We also have postcards written by constituents asking you not to repeal obamacare. We appreciate you guys coming out today and if you have other comments feel free to call our office. Youll let the congressman know were here. Of course. They couldnt have been nicer, but think about it for a second. What do you do with unwanted balloons that are filled with confetti . You cant pop them. Right . I mean, what do you heres your 36 large balloons, each representing 1,000 of your constituents that youre going to throw off health care these tiny little pieces of confetti those all represent people, careful with them. No, theres more. Wait, do you have no, theres more coming. No, heres still some more. Weve got some more. Congressman tom mcarthur also got marched on by his constituents today h the Third District in new jersey. His name tom mcarthur and the mcarthur amendment thats the most identifiable name associated with the effort to kill the Affordable Care act and his home just went nut against it. And then last night in the middle of the night republicans once again had to yank that bill. They want to repeal obamacare. They said they could repeal obamacare. They tried and failed once already. They decided they wanted to do it again this week. They would try again this week. They whipped republican votes on it all week long and all day long yesterday. There are some reports that suggest that whipping republican votes on this thing and building republican support for this thing is the reason mike pence had to come home a day early from his pacific trip. Last night they were Still Holding 11th hour meetings to twist enough republican arms to get this Obamacare Repeal bill passed. They wanted it passed by the 100th day. Bloomberg news reports that republicans spent the whole week tinkering with their obamacare plan. Hoping to give trump a legislative win in his first 100 days. Republican congressional leadership met late into thursday night but they ultimately decided they still didnt have enough support for a vote this week. And so, the Affordable Care act lives. Because people who want to save it saved it again. That activism worked. Republicans have unified republican control of government. They said they would repeal obamacare on day one of the Trump Administration. They will not even half repeal obamacare by day 100 of the Trump Administration. They cant even get close enough to that to get their own members to vote on it in one house where theyve got one of the biggest majorities theyve had since the 1920s. Its just been a catastrophe for them. And theres no way they can blame democrats in congress for it. They cant even get it past with the numbers theyve got in their own caucuses which should be fine. The administration has passed zero major legislation, none. Their biggest and only legislative achievement in the 100 days that this administration has lived, their biggest and only legislative achievement of any substance came today when they managed to avoid shutting down the government by a matter of hours. To avoid shutting down the government they did pass a bill today that will fund the government for one week. The government will not accidentally shut down at a minute after midnight on the president s 100th day in office. That is the big reveal. Thats the big 100 days of accomplishment for our new era of unified republican government. All right. Everybody. Welcome to the dawn of a new unified republican government. Feels really good to say that actually. It may still feel good, but it did not work out so well. In terms of republicans actually doing anything with unified control of government for these 100 days. At the other end of pennsylvania avenue lets take a moment to remark upon the significant number of Administration People who didnt even make it to the first 100 days. A lot of people have remarked this week on how few nominations the new administration has made this far into their time in office. Not people who they got confirmed and theres questions about opposition or the validity of the nomination. Literally just putting names forward, just suggesting people for jobs. The george w. Bush administration, you might remember, they had an unusually short transition before the start of the first george w. Bush term in office. So their transition was wicked short and thats why the george w. Bush administration held the previous modern record for the fewest names put forward by this time in the new administration. But the trump folks have beaten that record for the fewest nominations made. The bush folks had less time than everybody else. But even they came up with more nominations than the trump folks have so far and then bond beyond that theres this huge people who have been nominated or who have been appointed pogs in the new administration, but theyre already gone. They didnt even make it to 100 days. Theyve withdrawn their name or theyve quit or theyve been fired. The nominee for army secretary. He pulled out. The nominee for labor secretary, he pulled out. The nominee for navy secretary. He pulled out. Anthony was going to be head of the office of public liaison. Then nope. Jason miller was going to be White House Communications director. Then nope. The nominee for deputy secretary of commerce, todd rickets. He with drew his name just last week. Monica crowley was going to be National Security advisor. Nope. Mcfar land, she did get to be security advisor for a while but shes soon to be out now as well. The digital advisor, hello, we barely knew you. Bye bye. Boris, i have to say it has been a secret delight to me that the white house has had on the communications staff, a russian guy named boris during this whole controversy over the trump campaigns russia connections but boris they let go last month. Deputy white house chief of staff is a huge job. Katie walsh Deputy White House chief of staff. She fled in march as well. And there are more. The Washington Post started this week with a rundown of the top 15 trumpists who did not survive the first 100 days. And throughout this week since they published that even into tonight theres more reporting on more people who might be on the way out from the new administration. It is an underappreciated fact of these first 100 days that this administration sheds more than a cold weather dog on a hot summer day. They just shed personnel. But i think all of those people who have quit or been fired or with drawn their names and there are a ton of them already, all of the washouts, theyre all lucky to a certain extent. Because you look at their faces right now. Any of those like seem particularly famous . Not really. Right . At least not famous for washing out. None of them is ever going to be as famous for getting shed from this administration as mike flynn will be. As long as the mike flynn saga continues to unspool, all of those other people can have left the Trump Administration in the first 100 days in relative obscurity. I mean, mike flynn is just another one of the people who has already gone from this administration. He only made it 24 days, but hes the one who continues to resonate because his story keeps getting bigger and bigger and nbc news has a scoop about him tonight. All right. Here it is. On election day, november 8th, the hill newspaper in washington, d. C. Ran kind of over the top op ed with Michael Flynn as the by line. They published it on election day but it had nothing to do with the u. S. Election. It was all about how the u. S. Needed to embrace the authority tearian and increasingly tyrannical government of turkey and we definitely need to extradite a turkish guy who has residency in the United States. Election night they published that op ed from soon to be National Security advisor mike flynn. And that was really strange. Within days though people had figured out what was behind that. The daily caller just days later. Trumps top military advisor is lobbying for obscure company with ties to turkish government and then the story got picked up lots of places. Trump advisor linked to turkish lobbying, retired general Michael Flynns lobbying firm. He ran a company that lobbied for foreign clients. The fact that flynn was overseeing a company that was lobbying on behalf of foreign clients at the time he was attending classified briefings seems to complicate the transition. Flynns lobbying work could potentially jeopardize his ability to get cleared as National Security advisor. You would think. Right . I mean, you would think. I mean, you cant be known to be on the payroll of a foreign country and get named National Security advisor. Right . Well, in this case you can. This has been one of the unexplained things, one of the things that makes no sense about the mike flynn story. Before they named him National Security advisor there were all these reports about him being paid to work on behalf of a Foreign Government. We also know that on november 18th the trump transition received a letter from congress alerting them to the fact that he was being paid to work on behalf of a Foreign Government. We also know that twice flynns own lawyers contacted the trump transition about the fact that he was being paid to work for a Foreign Government and they told him he might need to register as a Foreign Agent. This is all a matter of record. There were multiple high profile open source reports, news reports on mike flynn being paid to work for a Foreign Government. That was reported in the right wing news, reported in the middle of the road news, it was reported in the beltway news. Reported even on dumb old cable tv news. It was it was widely publicly reported that mike flynn was being paid to work for a Foreign Government. We also now know that the transition was in addition to all that news about it we alts also now know the transition was notified in private by flynns lawyers about that fact. So the transition knew this thing about mike flynn working for a Foreign Government. But for some reason, the head of the trump transition denies he ever heard of it. Michael flynn has filed with the department of justice as a Foreign Agent for making more than 500,000 as a lobbyist essentially for turkey. Your reaction to that considering that, doesnt that mean mr. Vice president that even if he didnt lie to you about what the Russian Ambassador said or didnt say that you would have had to fire him anyway . Let me say, hearing that story today was the first i heard of it. And i fully support the decision the President Trump made to ask for general flynns resignation. Youre disappointed by the story . The first i heard of it. First i heard of it. That was march. That was march. I mean, mike pence ran the transition. Mike pence ran the transition when all of those stories about mike flynn being on the turkish governments payroll were breaking. Mike pence was the head of the transition when Congress Formally notified the head of the transition that mike flynn appeared torr working for a foreign power. He was head of the transition when flynns own lawyers came and told the transition that flynn was working for a foreign power and he maybe needed to register as a Foreign Agent. That all happened when pence was running the transition in november and in december, but they hired mike flynn anyway to be National Security advisor. And then after he got fired as National Security advisor, then the head of the transition, Vice President mike pence says you know, i never heard anything about that. Let me say hearing that story today was the first i heard of it. No, its not. That is impossible. And that has long been one of the strange things that just doesnt add up about the mike flynn story. Mike pence claiming in march that he had no idea. He ran the transition. They had no idea about mike flynn working for a Foreign Government. So thats for a while weve known thats part of what doesnt add up about the mike flynn story and the idea that mike pence is some sort of, you know, innocent victim of mike flynns duplicity. It doesnt make sense with the record and now as of today its not just mike pence spinning a tale that cannot be true about mike flynn. Now its also the attorney general of the United States. With yesterdays big news that the Defense Department Inspector General is now investigating flynn for not reporting his payments from Foreign Governments, the attorney general did a round of interviews today where everybody asked him a version of oh, my god, how did someone who was on the payroll of a Foreign Government get through to be National Security advisor . Did you guys really not know about this . Hes been part of the white house advisor on the National Security issues, so we need to do a good job of vetting that, but thats a complex issue and im not sure anyone could be expected to find that. Are you comfortable with the level of vetting that was done . Well, im comfortable that theyre working hard to do vetting, but im its obvious that often times you dont catch everything that might be a problem. Well, they work hard on vetting. They do the best they can. Its impossible to know everything. These things are not easy to discover if it happened. What happened, im not sure its impropriety or not. What . These things are not easy to discover . Its impossible to know everything. You dont catch everything. Im not sure anybody could be expected, you know, to find that. Nobody could find that. Not like it was on the news at the time. And brief to you officially in writing by congress and told to you directly by his lawyers. Not once, but twice. First the Vice President and now the attorney general of the United States are both telling a story about mike flynn about how the white house had no idea about mike flynn, both of them are now telling story about flynn that cannot be true. And now Angela Mitchell at nbc news tonight has the scoop that proves that really they are not telling the truth about this. Here it is. Nbc news has learned from sources close to the trump russia investigation that both the trump transition and the white house did do a background check on flynn. This is in addition to his already approved security clearance. They did a background check on flynn specifically for him to become National Security advisor. Nbc news reports that the vetting of flynn was done, but sources close to the investigation tell nbc that it was done very casually. One person involved tells nbc that the trump transition was aware of flynns business ties to turkey. They became aware of that shortly after he wrote that election day column about the turkish government and its interests. That of course should have raised red flags, but they hired him anyway. They knew. And they hired him anyway and then after they fired him they said oh, no, we had no idea. Why would they lie about that . And why would the president himself and the white house spokesman this week repeatedly insist that actually no, no, no, they didnt vet mike flynn at all. Why would you rerun a background check on someone who is the head of the department of Defense Intelligence agency that had and did maintain a high level security clearance . Why would we do that . Their line on this is that they didnt do a background check on flynn. Nbc news reports tonight that they did. Why lie about that . Why say they didnt know about flynn being paid by a Foreign Government when they did know about it . These four men, the white house spokesman, the attorney general of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, the president of the United States, they are all telling a tale about mike flynn about what they knew and when they knew it but they are all telling a tale about flynn that is not true. Why is that . 100 days or not, 100 days, 1,000 days, i dont care. We are going to figure this damn thing out. I swear we are. Hard to wrap your head around, but at 4 30 eastern time today that was 5 00 a. M. Local time tomorrow on the korean peninsula. That was the time when north korea test fired yet another missile. It was a Short Range Ballistic Missile u. It took place northeast of the capital of pyongyang. The administration did have a warning ahead of time. They were watching it closely. The missile test was not successful. It reportedly exploded shortly after launch. Had it had that missile not exploded, u. S. Officials say that they believe this missile was capable of reaching seoul, the massive heavily populated capital of south korea. So this is a tense time when it comes to north korea. In particular its an incredibly intense time for countries closest to north korea. For south korea and also for japan. It is not alleviating to the tension that we have a u. S. President who casually says things like this. Theres a chance that we could end up having a major major conflict with north korea. Absolutely. Chance . South korea and japan right now are literally in the line of fire. Theyre first in the line of fire should things escalate in that part of the world. And that is of grave concern to us in the United States, because of course south korea and japan are some of our closest allies on earth. And in the midst of that, this very unexpected thing has happened. A very unexpected thing even for this administration, even for this president. In the midst of all this the american president has come out and attacked south korea. Huh . In that same interview in which he made those comments about maybe were going to have a major conflict with north korea, he started questioning why the u. S. Is even bothering to pay for the Missile Defense system in south korea. I informed it would be appropriate if they paid. Its phenomenal. Shoots missiles out of the sky. So phenomenal that why are we paying for that . You should pay for that. Oh and by the way, he also said were tearing up our trade deal with south korea. What . President trump said the free trade deal between the u. S. And south korea doesnt cut it anymore. He told them quote, its a horrible deal and we are going to renegotiate that deal or terminate it. And then quoting here, asked when he would announce his intention to renegotiate the deal trump said quote, very soon. Im announcing it now. Very soon. Three, two, one. Now i am here by threatening south korea in the same interview in which im warning about a possible military conflict with north korea. Just covering all my bases at once. I im no expert on Foreign Policy. Im no expert on, you know, issues with the korean peninsula. Im no expert on this kind of brinksmanship but this to me is absolutely flabber gasting. I would like to speak to an expert on these matters. Is this some kind of three dimensional chest move that naive laymen idiots like me dont get . If theres an advanced strategy, what is that strategy . Why would you start to threaten your ally while you are warning about conflict with a mutual enemy . Why would you take a country and say youre going to potentially have a conflict with them. Why would you in that situation start threatening our closest ally like on trade and stuff . How does this work . Whats the big thinking here . Joining us now is wendy sherman, she served as the north korea policy coordinator under president clinton as well. Really appreciate your time tonight. Thank you very much for being with us. Good to be with you. Is there a three dimensional chess advanced Foreign Policy understanding that advanced Foreign Policy approach that makes this make sense . Well, rachel, youre probably better than i am at reading Donald Trumps mind because you think about it all the time, but quite frankly, if i try to think about this, perhaps he thinks that since south korea has a president ial election coming up may 9th and the front runner doesnt exactly agree with Donald Trumps north korea policy, mr. Moon believes that there should be dialog, he doesnt think the Missile Defense system should be deployed in south korea and the South Koreans have gotten nervous about his language and upping the anteand escalating the situation so perhaps trump thought ill show a few chips on the table here. Ill tell them they have to pay for the Missile Defense system. Well renegotiate the Free Trade Agreement and then if moon wins ill tell them like i told china about trade, we can wipe that all off of the table if youll do what i want to do on north korea. Well, quite frankly, this is no way to treat allies. Allies that are hosting nearly 30,000 american troops and by the way, the Missile Defense system is owned by the United States of america. Our commanders really are jealous of where they go. We have very few of them. We dont give it to the highest bidder. We give it because it helps protect our National Security and the National Security of our allies. I dont know how to read the president s mind very well. I feel like i can see political dynamics at work though and what i expect in terms of how this is going to play in south korea is that this is going to cause among the south korean president ial candidates a contest to see which of them can denounce and take the hardest line against and incite the most antiamerican feeling among the electorate. This is likely to turn politics harshly in an antiamerican direction and just the issue alone on the troops that are there, that just that seems to me to be a scary and unpredictable place to be. Absolutely. I think it will have the opposite effect to what President Trump may have been thinking he was doing here. It will have quite a counter reaction and we also have to remind ourselves that this is a very complicated part of the world. South korea now has its number one trading relationship, its business, economic ties are very much with china. And they need to and want to maintain that strong alliance. They are going to end up being another chip between us in our relationship with china as the president s trying to press china to do the right thing where north korea is concerned and we heard in the meeting that secretary tillerson had with the u. N. Security council that foreign minister said all of this es kalatory language is not helpful. We need to get back to dialog. Thank you very much for being with us. Former secretary of state for Political Affairs in the obama administration. I hope that you dont mind staying up late to be on cable tv talking about these matters because id like to talk to you about these matters a lot more in the future, maam. Be glad to. Busy friday night. Stay with us. [dramatic ic begins] ready charge charge in chinese charge let your reign begin. Evony, the mobile game. Download now. Golden ticket. I know it looks like its on regular printer paper but what i have here might be a golden ticket. We got this from an environmental lawyer. He works for the nonprofit called Water Keeper Alliance and if he is lucky enough to have his number drawn, then he will be one of 150 people who get the privilege of listening in by phone next week on a Conference Call. Oh, a Conference Call. I know. But this one is a doozy. Because this new epa, under this new administration theyre making a general call to the general public asking which regulations that protect our water ought to be gotten rid of. Apparently every regulation is up for grabs. Any of them. Theyd like to hear your thoughts on that. And so our friendly environmental lawyer at water keeper, he is trying to win a spot on that call. If he gets like walk under ladders lucky, he will not only be among the lucky 150 people who are allowed to listen in, hell be part of the Smaller Group who get a minute or two to speak. So good luck pete harrison. Golden ticket. Pulling for you. We have been tracking on this show the federal response to one of trumps executive orders. Its the one where he told federal agencies so overhaul regulations. He gave the pen after he signed it to the ceo of dough chemical who was standing there while he signed it. Personal thank you. We obtained internal memos from epa administer calling for recommendations if his staff on which regulations should go. Theyre supposed to report back by may 15th and includes getting public comment. Public comment from anybody who thinks their water is too clean. As that deadline approaches were starting to see how the agency intends to get this potentially huge nation changing job done. In the case of epa safeguards for water for example, they have created a message board where you can leave them a note. Make sure you have your supporting data and federal regulation codes handy. Or you could sign up for this public listening session which is this Conference Call thing slated for tuesday, where perhaps 80 people nationwide will be able to speak one or maybe two minutes. Theres also a web conference along with the call which can fit 1,000 people. You can also leave a written comment. Have your federal register citation handy and hope you get in. The head of the epa insists they want to hear from stake holders as part of this review. The question is whether that means just the dow chemicals of the world having their daily conversations with the white house and pens and personal thank yous or is it anybody else who has to take a number literally and hope they get lucky . You know, as long as theyve been able to get a ticket. Theyre thinking about scrapping all of the health and safety regulations they can possibly justify scrapping. They are working hand and fist with industry to do it. This is what theyre calling the public side of input in that project. This is how were making policy now. Its like the saddest willy wonka remake of all time. You get used to food odors in your car. You think it. Smells fine, but your passengers smell this bell dinging new febreze car with Odorclear Technology cleans away odors. For up to 30 days smells nice. Breathe happy, with new febreze. Lwhos the lucky lady . Im going to the bank, to discuss a mortgage. Ugh, see, you need a loan, you put on a suit, you go crawling to the bank. This is how i dress to get a mortgage. I just go to lendingtree. I calculate how much home i can afford. I get multiple offers to compare side by side. And the best part is. The banks come crawling to me. Everything you need to get a better mortgage. Clothing optional. Lendingtree, when banks compete, you win. Okay . Awkward. February 2003 Vladimir Putin had been president for about three years. He decided to summon a bunch of russias biggest men. Decided to summon them for a big, big meeting. The meeting was open to the media. The wealthiest man in russia at the time was this man. He was the head of russias Largest Oil Company. And he was planning for kind of a showdown with putin at that meeting. He went to that meeting with a power point presentation in hand to talk about corruption in russia and how it cost the russian economy more than 30 billion a year. He made his criticisms. He did so publicly with the cameras rolling. You can imagine that that did not sit well with president putin. That was february 2003. By october of that year, he was arrested. The richest man in russia, one of the richest men in the world is behind bars tonight. The head of russias Largest Oil Company was arrested by police when his jet stopped in siberia today. Hes accused of fraud and tax evasion. Hes considered a political opponent of russian president Vladimir Putin. It did not stop there though with his arrest. He had started using his vast fortune to fund and lead an opposition effort against putin. And so not only did putin have him arrested again and thrown in jail, he also took his company. With a blow of the gavel a russian auctioneer succeeded on sunday in dismembering russias foremost private oil company. The auction of the corporations biggest subsidiary. Vladimir putin has cracked down on freedom of the press and eliminated several local elections. Top of his list is russias richest man. Hes been in jail for more than a year facing tax fraud charges and the company has been slapped with its own 28 billion tax bill. Analysts say the auction was ordered to clip his wings. Putin arrested the billionaire who opposed him, seized his company, gave it away for pennies to the kremlin owned oil company. He went on to spend a decade in jail. He was finally let out in 2013. He now lives in exile. That is one relatively famous story of what happens when you oppose Vladimir Putin. This is also an increasingly famous story when you oppose Vladimir Putin. Hes the highest provile opposition politician in russia right now. Hes planning on challenging putin for the presidency next year and yesterday, someone attacked him with some green chemical. Outside of his offices in moscow. He was hospitalized. The attack was bad. It got in his eye, look at his eye there on the left side of your screen there. His pupil and his cornea are green, and this is not the first time hes been attacked in this specific way. He was attacked with the same chemical back in march. This is the kind of thing that happens when you oppose Vladimir Putin. Heres another example. This is a former journalist, kremlin critic, Opposition Party figure. Two years ago he was poisoned. He very nearly died. He went into a coma. He suffered multiple organ failure. He barely survived but he survived and then it happened again in february. He was back in russia promoting a documentary on one of his colleagues another putin critic when he was gunned down, shot to death just outside red square. And suddenly he got ill, fell into a coma. Doctors say he seemed to have ingested what was an unidentified toxic substance. He was in and out of a coma but again, he made it. Hes now the vice chairman of the russian prodemocracy group which is called open russia and this weekend they have big protests planned. Calling for people to take to the streets tomorrow to quote, express their dissatisfaction with putins russia and not at all by coincidence the kremlin has decided to take action against them this week. The kremlin banned open russia as a movement in that country claiming that their activities are destabilizing to the russian state. Yesterday their offices were raided by camouflage clad police. Officials arrested one of the groups leaders, but get this. Open russias response to these threats and attacks . See you on april 29th. See you tomorrow at those nationwide protests. These folks are nothing if not brave. Joining us here tonight for the interview, vice chairman of open russia which is an International Russian movement. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. Its great to be here. For your perspective its great to be anywhere. Apparently being poisoned twice, how is your health . Well, its getting on. Last time it took me more than a year. Now its only been two and a half months so im expecting this to be a long road ahead and frankly, you know, theyre not getting rid of us. Doctors estimated my chances of survival at about 5 . Thats what they told my wife when i was in coma but i do have those 5 and im here. Im grateful for that. Many of our friends and colleagues did not have the 5 chance. Many people independent journalists, whistle blowers opposition activists lost their lives in one way or another since Vladimir Putin came to power 17 years ago so we have known for a long time that its dangerous location to be in opposition to putins regime awe be is our country and we think it deserves better and we think we want change and i think we have to kind of count on what were doing. Whatever the threats, whatever the intimidation, whatever the arrests or the killings, its our country and were not giving up. How much of an act of bravery will it be tomorrow for ordinary russian citizens to come out and demonstrate in moscow and in other cities where these protests are planned . It will be very big i would say, because even though the russian constitution guarantees freedom of assembly or supposed to guarantee, of course all these Political Freedoms have been nice words written on paper for many years under Vladimir Putin and for example, the last time when a nationwide protest happened, when tens of thousands of people went to the streets across russia in 84 towns, to say no to Vladimir Putin and his corruption and just the sheer arrogance of that one man whos been in power for 17 years and does not have the intention of going away. More than 1,000 people, more than 15 people were arrested just in that one day and the last big wave of protests before that which was after the rigged elections in 2011, there are still people who are in jail today for going out to those to those demonstrations beginning of 2012. So it does take courage. But again, its our country. If we believe in it, we have to do something about it. And i have no doubt that many of our colleagues will be on the streets tomorrow. Its a nationwide campaign organized by the open Russia Movement across the country in many regions. And its going to be just one message of that campaign. And that message is enough. Because there is now an entire generation of russians, just think about it, who have no memory of any other government than Vladimir Putin. You have had four president s in the last 17 years. Weve just had that one guy. And weve not just had the guy, but we also had censorship in the media. Weve had mammoth corruption. Weve had the absence of free and Fair Elections and just the basic freedoms that people in other countries take for granted. And increasingly, russian, especially young russians, especially the new generation, the young generation is having enough of it. And theyre willing to come out to the streets and say no. Because going to the streets is the only way you can protest against the regime now because we dont have free elections so you cant really vote against him or if you do your votes will not be counted. There is no media you can voice your opinions. All you can do is go out to the streets. I think many, many people will do just that tomorrow. What youre talking thereby in terms of the its not even sustainability, but the viability of opposition, about the viability of any potential alternative emerging to putin. Obviously he has tried to create and has explicitly basically charged that there is no alternative to him. And he has done Everything Possible to make that retail, whether its turning the parliament into a rubber stamp, whether its getting rid of media, whether its attacking and killing opposition protesters. Even just the recent arrests that you were talking about, we saw the offices of Alexei Navalnys Organization Get ransack and have all their computers and paperwork and staff getting arrested. Open russia getting banned this week. The raid on your office stls this week. How, how do you maintain any sort of momentum, any sort of organizing structure against that . Well, i mean, the other side, if you just look at it formally, the other side does have a massive advantage. They have all the socalled Law Enforcement agencies. They have the entire propaganda machine. They have the whole power of the state on their side. But what we have i think is something much more important, and that is the truth. And that increasing realization among the people, especially the young people, this new generation, the people who we saw on the streets of russia the end of march and the people who we will see on the streets again tomorrow are predominantly young people, college kids, High School Students in many cases. People who have not seen anything else except putin, who have watched the same face on that Television Screens for their entire lives. And they are fed up with it. It happened so many times in russian history. Im old enough unlike those people who are going to protest tomorrow, im old now remember august 1991. The three days that ended the soviet regime. And the people behind the coup detat attempt. They had the tanks which they sent into central moscow to try to quash the freedoms that were beginning to come about. And the people who said no to that coup, they had nothing. All they had was their own dignity and their determination to determine their freedom and to prevent a return to the bad old days. And they went into the streets and stood in front of the tanks in the tense and hundreds of thousands and the tanks stopped and turned away. So its been done many times before. Im sure it can be done again. Vladimir karamurza is the vicechairman of open russia, a prodemocracy movement. Well be watching what happens tomorrow. Good luck to you. Thank you. Well be right back. Best new thing in the world. We havent had one in so long. All right. You ready . Here we go. Were going to start with a shout out to the thing that kept me sane during the 2016 election, which was bad lip reading. I wanted, you know, i just wanted regular potatoes. But guess what . So did other people. I wanted it the most so like im you just froze a baby. You just froze a baby. Genital warts, you touched a genital wart. You cant touch it. This piece goes over here. Its part of the tree. Carson. Aghh i have a glass child they call the kid little bongbong. But we have one in a cave and i peek at them because its not a real one. You got to love bernie boy. He is crazy haaa. Help. Mmm, im going barf. I pretend i like you. Youre a creep. I think youre old like dirt. The guy is the boss, you know. Just remember who brought you here. Thank you, my prince. A lot of work goes into bad lip reading. Sometimes have to wait a long while before the next one comes out. Manna from heaven. There was a moment today when we we thought we had discovered a new previously unseen bad lip reading video. We thought we had found it in the wild. A tsunami, how they do the skinny rita, the all fruits that they smash up. I wanted to bark at you the way i get barked at. Taqueria tsunami. I get barked at skinny rita. Other than the fact that we clearly dont know who those people are, that clearly is a bad lip reading classic, right . Youd think. But its not. It turns out that is video of karen handel, the republican candidate in georgias special election for congress. Now, weve seen politicians do a version of this before. They record these violently awkward long videos of themselves smiling or working or appearing to talk to people. And then they just leave the videos out there on the internet so superpacs can come along and grab up that footage and use it in commercials. Politicians do this now. But in the case of poor karen handel running against jon ossoff, in the case of poor karen handel, they forgot to mute the sound. Okay. One more time and look up and give me a big smile. You kind of fall off the smile. Action. And action. Action. Im just trying to think what i want to order you to do. She puts the in my nose and they have to wait for to it dry. Hold steady. Hold steady. Pow i felt like somebody had slapped the back of my head. Now i have to sip my coffee. Now i have to sip my coffee. Now the world knows karen handel is talking about margaritas and nose hair waxing, can a superpac still make an ad using these videos . Its ruined knowing theyre talking about the fallen off the smile. We dont know. I dont know. But i could watch this thing all day. I actually did watch this all day. And im quite sure that Karen Handels b roll with the volume all the way up, at least for those who cover politics all day, this was definitely the best new thing in the world. What you doing . Its a good thing i didnt go in the drawer and get my gun, i might have shot the guy. Then you have to drag him out of the house. Is there audio . Yeah, there is audio. Yeah. Yeah, there is audio. For the whole long stretch of it. It is hard to drag the guy out of the house after you shoot him, right . Its the most inconvenient thing that does it for us tonight. We will see you again monday. We will see you again monday. Hardball is up next. Goodbye. Trump turns 100. Lets play hardball. Good evening, im Chris Matthews in washington with President Trump on the verge of completing his first 100 days in office. Hes closing out a weeks long push to rank up as many lastminute accomplishments as possible. But in a candid Overall Office with reuters the president revealed he may have underestimated the difficulty of the job, acknowledging that he thought the work of the american presidency would be easier than it really is. I loved my previous life. I had so many things