Transcripts For MSNBC The Rachel Maddow Show 20240710

Card image cap

The good news on covid today, is within the last 24 hours the United States is back up over 1 Million vaccine doses administered per day. We have been below 1 Million doses per day for the last seven weeks or so. But now apparently, the message is sinking enough. That the pace of vaccination is picking back up. Americans are deciding to get the shot, over 1 Million doses administered in the past 24 hours, for the first time in nearly seven weeks. I think in general, the covid news is dire enough to change minds, in many southern states in particular right now. We will be talking about new covid developments, throughout the country, but in particular and Alarm Bill that was just run by the University Of Alabama. Its an Alarm Bell they are ringing, but im not sure how that state, or how anybody is supposed to respond to it. We have that story ahead tonight. We also will be talking about the utterly bizarre, but somehow also totally predictable story out of washington today. In which a man in a Pick Up Truck, pulled up onto the sidewalk in front of the Library Of Congress, thus starting an hours long Bomb Threat standoff. This is a man with many incoherent, but oddly selfish thoughts about politics, including his hope and expectation, that President Biden will leave office, and former President Donald Trump will soon be reinstated, and all the democrats will be in jail, this man did not blow anything up. He is in custody tonight. We will have more in that story coming up as well. But look at these images today. These are images shot by a videographer In Kabul. I did not expect, necessarily to see anything like, this it least not now. This is a huge long flag they have unfurled down the street. Thats the Afghan Flag. The flag of the afghan government. The flag that was taken down all over the country this, weekend replaced with the taliban flag. We have seen other protests against taliban rule, in support of the now deposed afghan government. And other afghans cities this week. Especially in eastern afghanistan in southeastern afghanistan. Some of those protests met with violent response, and gunfire from the taliban, as you see here. But these protests against taliban rule, today, a relatively large, ones and they were In Kabul, in the capital city. There was a taliban response, and gunfire at The End of this protest in Kabul Today to, but the number of people, theyre the participation of women alongside men, frankly the level of organization it took to get that gigantic blocks long Afghan Flag out there into the street. Its interesting to see. And it suggests however easy it may have been for the taliban to take over afghanistan, whatever deals they cut with the military and various government officials, so that they could basically walk into power all over the country, and indeed into the capital. However easy the takeover was, their effort to rule the country now is not going to be frictionless for them. This is a clear sign that they are going to face varying kinds of resistance. In varying degrees, from the afghan people. So tonight, i have to tell, you im not sure this is going to, work i putting a lot of faith and a lot of sketchy technology to try. This but i would like to try now if we could, to go live, to the airport In Kabul. Where nbc producer has taken his family, mr. Manglings family is leaving kabul, leaving afghanistan, theyre flying out of the country for their own safety. But he has decided to stay behind, after he puts them on the plane. He is a journalist who has worked with nbc and other western News Outlets for nearly 20 years. He told us he is not afraid of the taliban coming to look for him now, he told us he is going to look for them. And indeed, he has been interviewing taliban fighters. All this week. And feeding us video, scenes on the ground In Kabul since the government fell. Including the shots at the Kabul Airport. He is getting his family out now. He is at the airport right now. But he says he is going to stay In Kabul. Im so grateful for you finding a way to join us live tonight. Thank you for joining us. Its my pleasure. Can you tell us what its like at the airport now . I know its about 5 30 in the morning or so afghan time. Is it still as chaotic and crowded as it has been in the past few days . Is it getting any better . I cant say that its getting better. The sun is rising In Kabul in the moment at 5 30 am, and instill i can see people in q, u. S. Forces trying to keep discipline and get them in q and in line where they can be checked. For documentation and everything. Women, children. Young men, theyre all standing on the cues. And waiting to get on board to the airplanes. Basically im inside. It was not easy to get into. Here i came at 1 pm today. To one of The Gates. I just drove down in a local car with my family today. One of The Gates of the airport where i was called, when we got there i saw there was a bit of a crowd. But i didnt think it would be this difficult to get into the airport. As soon as we started approaching to the gate, the crowd got extended an extended. So at one stage i realized, im having a hard time to keep my kids safe and also my wife because there are a lot of young men who are more powerful indicator of women. And they have been pushing each other around, to get in faster to the airport. That was a big hassle there. Luckily, we managed to get them all in. We are supposed to meet the turkish forces here, who were very helpful to get the kids out of the crowd of people. Pulling out them from a wall basically. We couldnt get them through a gate. We showed them a Passport And Identification and everything, and they agreed to pull them out, because it was hot sunny day. A lot of people, there it was something like i never experienced my life before. Can you tell us about the decision for your family to leave . And for you to stay In Kabul . I have to say everybody is worried about you. And it seems like you have the option to leave with your family, as youre getting them out. But youve decided to stay. Can you tell us about making that decision . As you said, i have the right to leave. As soon as this airplane came i will board them and i decided to stay. I can go with them, but im not going to go, because afghanistan has been in conflict for very long time. We have seen so much in this country. But one thing that i want to know, is how its going to be after this. Are we going to have the taliban currently who are in the streets of kabul, or is that going to change. In case it is changing and its challenging us to stay our operator do work here. Then its going to be easier for me to move myself to anywhere, rather than with my entire family. So for that purpose im sending them out. Im going to stay, im going to approach the taliban. I have already approached, them ive talked them into the streets. Theyre so far okay with people in journalists. Nothing major that i can say is risky. But we will see how they will treat us in the future. Ahmed let me ask you, as were looking at these scenes from across the world, and we are concerned about you, and were respectful of your decision so that you can move more easily without endangering them, i absolutely understand what youre saying, that you want to keep working. But what should we understand about the importance of how things are going to develop. As americans were so focused on the Evacuation Efforts right now, the question of whether the u. S. Military could expand the perimeter at all around the airport, to make it less dangerous, to go through that what you went through. To get your family into the airport. We are so focused on what the americans and u. S. Forces there can do, just in a very short term to get people out. What else do you think we should be looking at beyond that very short Term Focus that we have right now as a country . The forces are operating inside the base, they are not going out of the gate. Outside the gate it was taliban when we arrive during the day, but later on some Special Forces of afghanistan, and i wasnt thinking of them being there somewhere showed up. And started trying to help the forces, i have seen spanish forces, norwegians, there are multinational groups, who are taking their citizens into the airport, or people who work with them, in their mission in afghanistan. But outside its totally controlled by taliban, so there is inside and they are trying to help those people in the airport. Ammed mengli long time producer, now at the Kabul Airport with his family, they are leaving he is staying. Thank you for your. Were god bless your family on their travels theyre about to start. Thank you and be safe. Thank you. Again he was joining us live from the Kabul Airport. We have heard today from the pentagon, that they are were able to fly out, yesterday afghan time, to flared about 2000 people. They have said it theoretically their capacity in terms of aircraft is that they could fly out between five and 9000 people. They have not reach that capacity. Cnn reported today based on the account of a senior administration official, that President Biden has advised senior Military Commanders that there should not be empty seats on flights leaving from the Kabul Airport. They need to increase the flow through, to get people who qualify to come to the u. S. To get people who are associated with the u. S. Government, people who have a claim to be evacuated by the u. S. , need to be flowing through in greater numbers, and filling every seat on those planes. Certainly not happening yet but that is reportedly the president s order. Nearly ten years ago, President Barack Obama decided to put a man named john sopko, in terms of related to the war. He would become the which means in laymans terms, he will be charged in the u. S. Government, with independently investigating what we are spending all over money on, and what we are doing in afghanistan. To my mind, he was the right man for the job. Provided that you did not want anybody to give you any happy talk about this particular situation he did spend years as a senior staffer but the kind you worked mostly on investigation. Specifically hardcore investigations, of things like organized crime, and Weapons Of Mass Destruction in the former soviet union. And enforcement of the foreign corrupt practices act, And International Anti Narcotics efforts. All the darkest hardest stuff, he worked on that for years. Four years before that he was a state and federal prosecutor. Including years is a trial lawyer, in the organize prime in racketeering section. He was the Lead Attorney in the first successful federal Rico Prosecution of the entire Leadership Structure of an american crime family. Which he proudly notes in his biography. Mr. Sopko is not a pushover. Hes not going to tell you things you want to hear, unless you deserve it. But in the decadeish that he has been the man in charge of saying what were doing wrong in afghanistan basically, his assessments have often been just brutal. At least theyve been brutally blunt. Here for example is how propublica Rode Up One of his wellknown findings. In 2008, the pentagon bought 20 refurbished Cargo Planes for the afghan air force, but as one top u. S. Officers put it quote, just about everything you can think about was wrong. There were no spare parts for the plane for example. The planes were also, according to these special Inspector General for afghan stand reconstruction, quote a death trap. 400 and 86 Million was spent on worthless planes, that no one could fly. We did recoup some of the investment though, 16 of the 20 planes ended up being sold for scrap. For the grand sum of 32,000. Thats six cents a pound. How many hundreds of millions of dollars to those cost . John sopko also reported on for example, the 43 Million that we spent on a proof of Concept Gas Station in afghanistan. It was a Gas Station that did not work is a Gas Station, it also proved no concept other than the concept that it is possible to spend 43 Million building a single Gas Station, that then does not work. It has been ten years of this kind of brutally blunt documentation from john sopko, in this important spectral general post. But now, as u. S. Forces have left, and then gone back to deal with the evacuation, and as we are living Day By day, hour by hour through the chaos of the evacuation, or lack thereof. He is just released his report on, how the first 20 years of our war went overall. I have to tell you, it is not a cynical document. It is not a defeatist document. But it is also as unblinking as you might expect from him. Given what he has been through. Its titled, what we need to learn. That what we have learned, but we need to. Learn lessons from 20 years of Afghanistan Reconstruction. Key Point Number one. 20 years later, much has improved in much has not in afghanistan. If the goal was to rebuild and leave behind a country that could sustain itself, and pose little threat to u. S. Nestle securities interest, the overall picture in afghanistan is bleak. If that was the goal, the overall picture is bleak. But look at key Point Number two. He says quote, there is no doubt that the lives of millions of afghans have been improved by u. S. Government interventions, over these past 20 years. Including gains in life expectancy. And the mortality of children under five. And gdp per capita. Literacy rates, among other factors. Despite these real gains, the key question is whether they are commensurate with the u. S. Investment, or sustainable after u. S. Drawdown. In the special Inspector Generals analysis, they were neither. Speaking to the Military Times last month, sopko warned that we need to learn these lessons, notice its not lessons learned from 20 years, they referred to the title, lessons we need to learn, sopko warned that the reason we need to learn these lessons, is because we have not yet. And because we are going to do this again. He said quote, dont believe what you told by the generals or the ambassadors or people in the administration saying were not going to do this again. Thats exactly what we said after vietnam. Were never going to do this again. Lo and behold we did it again. Iraq and again. Afghanistan. He said we will do this again. Joining us now is john sopko, he served in the distinguished unequal of special Inspector General of Afghanistan Reconstruction since 2012. Thank you for joining us tonight sir. I appreciate your time. Its a pleasure to be here, and to see you again. Rachel you. To you. Too first of all, and i hope this is not impertinent of me, but knowing what i know of you, i would like to give you a chance to sound off a little bit, with what you know about afghanistan, all these years studying the american project, theyre the american project there. I have found myself wondering, if you are frustrated now, by the public finally paying attention. Now by the News Coverage of the departure and its consequences. By how we are talking about this now as a country. Do you feel like theres fundamental things were missing . Or getting . Wrong rachel, you cant have spent as much time as i did, and met as many afghans in americans who served over there, and americans who got hurt, and who have died. And not feel something about it. And its not a positive feeling. Im crushed by the events. I have spent a lot of time over the last number of weeks, and my staff has, trying to get our american employees out. And now were still trying to get our afghan colleagues who helped us out. And its been very frustrating. And its also very disturbing. But, you know, the job of an ig is to not make friends. A good igs speaks truth to power. And i think thats what weve done. We are a bit frustrated, im a bit frustrated that after all of these reports, we have written, that people are now saying they are surprised. , at the outcome of the security forces. We have been identifying serious, serious problems, with their capability, and we have been warning our government and congress, and anybody who would listen, that they were not able, to function by themselves. Now we did not predict when they were going to collapse. I think we were all a bit surprised by that, but no one should be surprised by this. Now is not the time really for fingerpointing. I think now is the time to obviously get all of the americans out, and get out any afghan who wants to get out out. But i think at some point, we need to look at these lessons learned reports that we created, particularly this last one. And try to make things better. The Bottom Line of our report is, as you highlighted, is that, we were totally unprepared for this. And we have not learned the lessons of vietnam. If anything, after vietnam we said we are never going to do. It and we caught all the capabilities to do these type of reconstruction events, or activities. In a war zone. And lo and behold. We said were never gonna do it again, and we did it again in iraq, we did it in afghanistan. Weve done it three times in the last 50 years. In all three times, it has been pretty poorly handled, and were doing something similar, but at a smaller scale. As a report says, its a Slippery Slope before a small scale becomes a big skill, were doing it in a number of countries, in africa. Ive heard people talking about sending troops, and sending massive aid, similarly, to a war torn, or a not safe country of haiti. That may deserve it, but if we do it in haiti, are these other countries, without learning the lessons, we are going to repeat the same mistakes. And thats with this report is all about. Its trying to look forward, to improve how we do things like this. And when you step back, from your work, from what you have seen, from all these quarterly reports, i feel like ive read a dozen of them by now. I read them every time they come out. When you step back from that, do you feel like, for americans with a short attention span, for americans who want easier answers to things, that the conclusion ought to be the easy conclusion, which is that reconstruction never works. It never can work, and we should never try it. Or is the lesson that we need to learn, that we need to scope it more carefully. We need to monitor it in more specific ways, and that there are lessons to be learned about how to do it in a way that works and meets our objectives. That does not leave us with calamity at The End, and so disheartened about the sacrifice . Its the latter rachel. The problem is, if we ignore, it ignores the fact that at some time in the future, we will have confront a country, where it is for our national security, we are going to have to do something like what we did in afghanistan, iraq and vietnam. We should face, that and we should prepare for the. Im not saying spend billions of dollars in creating a new entity. What im saying is, learn the lessons, and train for, i understand, collect names. Get people ready. We have a whole series of recommendations in that area. The uk has done something like that. To some extent. A smaller extent. But thats what we should do. Rather than say we are never going to do it again. We have had too much happy talk over the last 20 years. And too much spinning. And how many generals have said, were turning the corner. And its like we went three 60, its like a top spinning. We have to stop lying to the american people in the american Tax Paper and the congress. And stop gilding the lily. Lets face the reality of the last 20 years, and the reality on the ground right now. John sopko, special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Tonight thank you for your unique and uncompromising service in this very lonely job. Im sorry to hear youre still having difficult to getting out your staffers there, i wish you luck in that regard. And anybody watching from the u. S. Government right now, i urge them to take your call, because you have earned it sir. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we have a lot more news to get you tonight. Stay with us. Ot mor news to get you tonight. Stay with us stay with us age is just a number. And mines unlisted. Try boost® High Protein with 20 grams of protein for muscle health. Versus 16 grams in ensure High Protein. Boost® High Protein also has key nutrients for immune support. Boost® High Protein. Even if you had to miss your quince. Theres always your quince plus one. Are you taking a Statin Drug to reduce cholesterol . It can also deplete your coq10 levels. Theres always your quince plus one. I recommend considering Qunol Coq10 along with your statin medication. The brand i trust is qunol. As someone who resembles Someone Else. I appreciate that Liberty Mutual knows everyones unique. Thats why they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. [ nautical Horn Blows ] i mean just because you look like Someone Else doesnt mean you eat off the floor, or yell at the vacuum, or need flea medication. Oh, yeah. Thats the spot. Only pay for what you need. Liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty this is the front page of the acadian advocate, our of lafayette louisiana. Military medical team arrives at lafayette general. Here we have the footage of the team of Navy Personnel showing up to that hospital in lafayette yesterday, ready to work, ready to pitch and help the doctors and nurses there who have been inundated by Covid Patients for weeks, as you can hear, Hospital Workers greeted them with not just a sustained but loud standing ovation. The Defense Department sent this team because the hospital asked fema for federal help. Fema resource that was deployed here is a military resource. The Defense Department announced this week that they have four more active duty military medical teams like this one staffed up and ready for deployment at overrun u. S. Hospitals. We dont exactly know where the other four teams like this will be going, after this team went to louisiana, but we do know there are plenty of american hospitals that could use Emergency Help right now because the huge numbers of Covid Patients that have swamped them, and that have seriously had deleterious effects on the medical help that can be administered. Here it says er has patient Traffic Jam. Er as an Emergency Room. Frustrated, exhausted to the medical technicians say a dangerous Covid Wave filling the Icu Beds has triggered a casket of issues in the state. Patients at the medical center are being held on ambulance stretchers. While Staff Look for open beds, resulting in huge problems could ambulances lined the er, in a patient Traffic Jam that keeps out of town Ambulances Sideline and unable to respond to other emergency in their community. They reported a negative number of available staffed Icu Beds yesterday, negative. Which means they have no room and there are patients waiting to get into the beds that are already filled. There are more patients than beds right now. And heres the thing that i find most unsettling about this, and this involves some very, very easy math. The situation that alabama is in his happening with the state have thing about 2700 patients in the hospital, that is the level of hospitalization in alabama that has led to this big crisis, 2700. Today, the university of Alabama Birmingham predicted that the state current surge in covid is going to peak this time next month, at that point there will be more than 5000 people in hospital in alabama. Thats almost double where they are now. Right now the state is in gridlock, in crisis, no room for not an Icu Bed in the state. Thats whats 2700 people in the hospital. Alabama expects it will get 5000 people in the hospital this time next month. This is not a normal story about covid, exhausting local nurses, a doctor at the University Of Alabama is calling that scenario, that Prediction Quote potentially apocalyptic. Alabama, like a number of other states is overwhelmed right now. They are asking fema for federal help, theyre requesting federal resources to help treat the unending overflow of patients that gets worse every day. But at this point, yes, one hopes to see more federal resources deployed, but at this point, i have a hard time understanding how facilities, how hospitals, how states like this are going to cope. Joining us now is Doctor David Kimberlin hes the codirected of the division of pediatrics Infectious Disease at the University Of Alabama, birmingham. Doctor kimberlin i really appreciate you being here with us, i know it and intense time this is. I appreciate the chance to be with you tonight, rachel. Thank you. So, im just looking at this from the outside, and im a layman here, and im appreciative of the strain on Health Care workers and Hospital Facilities right now. That math scares me in terms of how strained alabama hospitals are right now, and the prospect that numbers of hospitalized patients, people who need to be hospitalized might double in a months time. Let me just ask if that looks different to you close up then from me here. From the inside it looks even worse. I use this word carefully, i think we may be looking at a collapse of our Health Care system, throughout the state of alabama. As you pointed out we have a negative Icu Beds yesterday, thats for adult and pediatric Icu Beds. Today, alabama surpassed florida in terms of rates of Pediatrics Hospitalizations with covid. This is not just the surge with the Delta Variant of covid, thats whats putting the obvious strain on the system, but in addition to that, everyone else we still have people having heart attacks, people having strokes, people with major trauma from automobile accidents, and they have to have a place to go. In mobile today, when i was told by a colleague down there, they had no ambulances. There were no ambulances to go out and pick up people. We are really at a teetering kind of Break Point here. Im very scared that we might not be able to get through this without catastrophic kind of consequences. And i dont mean to push on that, because i think youre speaking very bluntly. It sounds like if theres no ambulances right now and no Icu Beds to move people into them when they need intensive care, and there arent hospital beds to move people into from the Emergency Room who already need them, that already feels like its starting to be a collapse. Youre expecting that as more patients crushed the system, as more very sick people close to system, theres something on the other side of this that is even more bleak in terms of what peoples lived experience is. None of us have a crystal ball, i would love to be wrong on this but that is the real possibility. The barrel of the gun we are looking down on. Youre exactly right in the way you phrase this. Tell me about resources being brought to bear to help. We have seen H Hst Dispatch team to operate a Field Hospital in a hospital at the university of mississippi medical hospital. We saw a small Navy Team dispatched to a hospital in lafayette, theyre gonna be able to staff 16, 18, 20 beds, maybe. Tell us about the match between the magnitude of the problem, and what kind of external resources might make a dent. We do need help from the outside. We have a phenomenal lead over Alabama Department of public health, scott harris, who is in meetings all Day Today with a white House Representative of Vaccines Coordinator Leader from the White House, who is here in alabama. This was one of the league issues that they were discussing throughout the day, hes gonna be here tomorrow as well. We welcome the input from the White House and from the national level to be able to try to get us the resources that we need. In addition to that, i will say this in a somewhat hopeful kind of way. We have seen this Play Out, maybe not to this extent in this part of the country, but weve seen it Play Out over and over again across the last 18 months in other regions of the United States and to some extent here as well in january. So we have an idea about what to do. We know how to take care of patients who have covid. We have adequate ppe supply, for the most part. We are struggling with some of the same, really dire challenges that theyre facing last year. We just now have too many patients, in this hypertransmissible Delta Variant is not giving us any breaks here. Until people put masks on when they go inside, we have more vaccines into arms, with sleeves rolled up, i think we are going to just be looking at this event over and over again, even after we do get through this crisis. We will get through it. But its just what it is going to look like in the meantime. Doctor david kimberlin, codirected a division of Pediatrics Infections Diseases at the University Of Alabama, birmingham, which is at an excellent university in a flagship research institution, Health Care institution in the state, thank you for speaking so bluntly tonight, sir. Good luck to you and your colleagues as you go through this. Please come back to us and keep us apprized. We will keep covering the story and we would love to bring whatever national attention to help. We really appreciate that. Thank you. More to come here tonight, stay with us. Stay with us fast, powerful longlasting relief with a revolutionary, rollerball design. Because with the right pain reliever. Life opens up. Aleve it, and see whats possible. It only takes a second for an everyday item to become dangerous. Tide Pods Childguard Pack helps keep your Laundry Pacs in a safe place and your child safer. To close, twist until it clicks. Tide [narrator] thispackaging. Is dr. Harold katz. He used to worry about how to fix the worlds oral health problems. I think ive got it. [narrator] then he invented therabreath formulas. You want fresh breath . Ill give you a fresh breath. [narrator] for fresh breath, healthy gums, dry mouth, and healthy smiles. Whoa, thats fresh. [narrator] now, the worlds mouths have never been healthier. Sighs Contentedly works for 24 hours, i guarantee it. Therabreath, its a better mouthwash. [narrator] available at walmart, target and other fine stores. And there you have it [narrawoah. Available at walmart, wireless on the most reliable network nationwide. Wow. Big deal . We get unlimited for just 30 bucks. Sweet, i get that too and mine has 5g included. Thats cool, but ours save us serious clamaroonies. Relax people, my wireless is crushing it. Thats because you all have Xfinity Mobile with your internet. Its wireless so good, it keeps one upping itself. The way it ended was without an explosion, with nobody hurt. But it spun out over five exhausting in maddening hours. Today, a man from north carolina, parts of Pick Up Truck outside, just outside, the Library Of Congress in d. C. Which sits directly adjacent to the u. S. Capitol building. He said he had a bomb on his lap. And he threatened to blow up himself and his truck, and the two and a half surrounding blocks of washington d. C. , unless he was allowed to talk to President Biden. He said he had more explosives. Tons of explosives hidden in his trucks tool box. Naturally, he streamed the entire thing live on facebook. Because whilst we have facebook . His livestream included his long form rumblings about his support of President Trump. He called for democrats in the u. S. Government to step down, in theyd be jailed. In President Trump will be put back in office. And dont worry, President Trump would pardon everybody who participated in the revolution. Which is starting right there with him, he said patriots i joined him in his effort today, and they too had bombs and other vehicles, scattered around d. C. Theres no sign that was true. In The End, after five maddening an exhausting hours, the man surrendered. He was taken into custody. Police say as of tonight he had no evidence there was he had any accomplices, nor did he have a working explosive device. Police say they did however fine bob making materials, in his truck. So maybe he really was trying to be a mad bomber, but he was actually just a bad bomber. Because although he had the stuff, he can figure out how to make real bombs. Nobody was hurt. But this was an active threat. Another one. In the United States capitol. And it comes just two weeks after the department of homeland security, Sentinel Or Dylan for some agencies all over the country, warning of an increased threat of politically motivated violence this month. Specifically tied to ramp it pro Trump Conspiracy theories around the election, and this fantasy among extremist that former President Trump will be reinstated as President Trump this month. That is part of what this guy was ranting and raving about today, when he was threatening that he can blow up two and a half square blocks of d. C. Is this the kind of violence we were warned about . And, should we see this as a link to broader threats . Or should we see these things as random sad, lunatics. Who should be treated as individuals and not as part of some larger ideologically motivated thing. Joining us now is the senior reporter for nbc news. He specifically covers disinformation and extremism. Which means his day is pretty dark. Ben, this was kind of a different dark. Thanks for being here tonight. Thank you. I specifically wanted to talk to you tonight, because when this ended today, and we knew it wasnt going to be a bomb story, it was going to be a Bomb Threat story, and we started to learn more about what this guy was apparently motivated by, i find myself wanting to ask you, if its a good idea to report on what motivated this guy. Whether we should report on what was in his live stream. Whether we should report and what he thought he was doing, or whether that has the potential to make this worse. Its a doubleedged sword. I think posting all five or six facebook live videos, that he stream that were just ramblings for a lot of the time, i think thats kind of useless. I dont think that helps anybody. But i do think there is something here. This guy was complaining, the one true line was that his life was in shambles because he didnt have Health Care. And that his wife needed surgery, and could not get it. And then by the time she got it, it disfigured her in some way. And he was still paying for it. And then at The End of that. You would think hey this guy should care about health. Gary cares about Health Care whatever. But thats not what happened. In the very next sentence he said, now we see all of these afghan immigrants, and theyre gonna get the free stuff that we dont have, free Health Care, when i realizes. This is going to just keep happening. This is a fascist, authoritarian element, that pinpoints immigrants that the cause of all these problems. Its not a new concept. But the idea that as things get worse and worse, through the pandemic or climate change, this is just going to keep happening. The problems are not going to get solved. They are going to be pinned on people who are not from this country. Do you think that this was was this a modern event . In the sense that, do you think this is, like you say these are not new ideas. The ideas of scapegoating immigrants and blaming the other, particularly the other of another, color for when is definitely a homegrown problem. In putting the anxiety and the external ran on the internal. Those are not new ideas. But the way that he is, the way he was talking about his grievances. Im thinking about the dhs threat, alert to lie Enforcement Agencies a couple of weeks ago. The theory behind that is there is something more potentially motivating, to people who are inclined to pull it commit political violence, to have stuff like this channeled through disinformation channels, through social media, and through extremist media. In a way that sort of validates and encourages people to think this way. I will say, that the forms there before january six that were they are still around. They are still posting crazy stuff. I would say theres a five or six cooling off period, where people didnt know if they were being watched, they did know how explicitly to talk about stuff. But in the last couple of weeks, as they realize that Donald Trump is not going to be the president again anytime soon, in second of all all of these audits, they are not cut and dry case of Election Fraud that they thought it was. In fact its probably a sham, theyre starting to realize it. People have to take up arms, that so they keep saying, when are you going to do something. Thats what everyone keeps saying in these spaces. I guess the differences, theres no date. January six there was this twoweek lead. Up it was like wrestlemania for these people. They were just waiting to go. Now, everyone is just like where do we go. What do we do. And thats how you get homegrown terror. I do want to say really quickly. There were two Qanon Terror attacks last week. A guy killed his kids, and there was the largest Mass Shooting in the uk, in decades. And that guy was a trump supporter, who believed himself to be an american a heart. And he viewed that to be believing and qanon in the idea the government is filled with pedophiles or something. Lone wolf terror, is something to be worried about. Here in part because theres no organizing events, that these people up and maybe those things would defuse these things, but if their lone Wolves Theyll do it themselves. Then one of the things were be watching for in the coming days, is that we are expecting, as you mentioned, the audit from the 2020 election, were expecting that we may finally get some sort of reports, some sort of conclusion, some sort of announcement from the Cyber Ninjas who have been doing the Bs Audit in arizona. Im just warning you right now here on tv, that when that happens, we are going to bring you back to talk about what we ought to be watching for in terms of how people will be reacting to that. Im excited, thats not the word, im something. Thank you rachel. This is the time for mad libs. I know what you mean. Ben collins, senior nbc reporter, focusing on disinformation and extremism. Thank you. Its invaluable to have you here tonight. Thank you. We will be right back. Stay with us. We will be right back. Stay with us [truck horn blares] vo the subaru forester. Dog tested. Dog approved. I was drowning in student loan debt. Then i discovered sofi. Lower interest rate. My principal is going down. Sofi is a place where you can start to tackle those money goals today. Qunol is the Number One cardiologist recommended form of coq10. Those money goals today. Qunol has 3 times better absorption than regular coq10. The brand i trust is qunol. Section ten, all members, was that your greatgrandmother, keeping the family together . Was that your grandfather, paving the way for change. Did they brave mother nature. And walk away stronger . Did they face the unknown, with resolve. And triumph. Theres strength in every family story. Learn more about yours. At ancestry. Please register. Ring the bell. Decorum is present. A quorum is president. Bob bang of the comically enormous gavel in the State House this evening marked a sudden and of texas democrats effort to stop the republican controlled legislature in texas from passing a bill that would make it harder for people in texas to vote in upcoming elections. The tactic to try to stop republicans from doing this, it was that they left the capitol so that there couldnt be a quorum in the Texas House. The Texas House couldnt pass anything. Most of the house democrats were still holding out, still trying to work that strategy as of tonight. But a handful of them had to return over the last few days. Today, three more house democrats, all from houston, Broke Ranks and went back and that was apparently enough to restore the quorum. Once they got the quorum back, right after gathering in the first session in weeks, texas republicans sent a series of bill to committee, got them working again, the bills include their anti voting Rights Bill. Now, democrats as weve been reporting, they tried to stop the antivoting Rights Bill in the senate, in the texas senate, with one democrats all night, 50 now talking filibuster. But after she made it through 15 hours of that, republicans still passed moments after her filibuster ended. On the House Side of the texas state capital, they stopped it by denying the quorum, with all of them going to d. C. That did work for weeks to slow things down, but now, as of tonight, thats over. The bill has already been scheduled for a hearing in the house, this saturday, 8 am local time. As for the three Houston House democrats whose decision to return was determinative here, they issued a Statement Today saying they felt they had to come back to address the covid surge. They said they are proud of what they accomplished by breaking form in the first place. They said quote, now we continue to fight on the house floor. On the house floor, they are out numbered. But they have proved very resourceful over these past few weeks and months. Watch this space. This space Tide Pods Ultra Oxi one ups the Cleaning Power of liquid. Can it one up whatever theyre doing . For sure. Seriously . One up the power of liquid, one up the toughest stains. Any further questions . Uh uh one up the power of liquid with Tide Pods Ultra Oxi. upbeat Pop Music in background throughout are you taking a Statin Drug to reduce cholesterol . It can also deplete your coq10 levels. I recommend considering Qunol Coq10 along with your statin medication. The brand i trust is qunol. Even if you had to miss your quince. Theres always your quince plus one. That is gonna do it for us tonight on this final friday eve, we will see you again tomorrow when undoubtedly, the news will be better, or wont it . Wont it . Now its time for the last word with lawrence odonnell. Good evening, lawrence. Good evening, rachel. Have you noticed anything different about my Tv Show this week . No. Neither than the fact that you are achieving new levels of perfection every day. Heres the thing, im coming from a different undisclosed location this week. Really . Its supposedo ok

© 2024 Vimarsana

comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.