Americans need someone who will stand for them, fight for them, be their voice here at the peoples house. The populist congresswoman accused of using Campaign Funds to pay her rent. Plus republicans are united in opposition to raising the debt ceiling. As republicans once again hold the debt ceiling hostage, meet the red state democrat who calls it all a ridiculous fing dance. We go through this dance all the time. Its a dance thats very, very dangerous. Senator john tester of montana joins me live when all in starts right now. A few minutes ago we learned that the January 6th Select Committee, the Bipartisan Committee tasked with investigating exactly what happened when a mob of trump rioters stormed the capitol has just issued four subpoenas including one for former trump Chief Of Staff mark meadows and for steve bannon. That is a huge development. Well be covering it in depth because it shows a committee looking into what exactly the president and his advisers crucially were plotting for that day. Although we should also say at a certain level we already know. Donald trump wanted to overturn the election. I mean, for a man with little in the way of constancy, hes been consistent about that. Anyone that didnt want to do that is a sworn enemy of his. In fact, yesterday a very funny thing happened amidst a news cycle dominated by the familiar dems in disarray story. Donald trump started issuing a flurry of statements like he used to do on twitter in the middle of the night before he got booted. They dont sort of capture the National Attention anymore, which is all for the good. Issued a bunch of statements blasting just about everyone in the Republican Party to remind them he is still out for blood. While republicans are not in power now, they have a far easier job of opposing rather than governing, they do continue to be entrenched in a pretty brutal civil war. Even if you dont see it on the news every day. So the statements are all over the place. They were Airing Grievances with everyone from ostensible senators like mike lee and Lindsey Graham to perceived enemies like george w. Bush and liz cheney. Today he is taking aim at Texas Governor abbott. Hes calling him to back an Election Audit in texas. Yes, you heard me right, texas. Before we go forward, lets just recap the greg abbott record. Governor of the second largest state in the union. Becoming a National Figure over the last year. Substantively hes a pretty terrible governor. I think he has bad politics. I dont agree with him. Hes done a pretty objectively bad job of Managing Covid in texas. His state has one of the worst death rates in the country. It lags behind half of the country in vaccinations. Abbott throws red meat to his base. He banned Mask Mandates at schools like ron desantis did. First he issued an Order Banning mandates for any vaccine under emergency use authorization, which all the vaccines were, but then the fda granted full approval of the Pfizer Vaccine and then abbott comes in and bans mandates on all covid vaccines regardless of approval. Because of course its not actually about the science. Oh, this is experimental, its about appealing to the maga crowd that doesnt like the vaccine. Thats something Governor Abbott does a lot. He signed that massively restrictive Voter Suppression bill at imposing the methods governments did last year to make it easier for people to vote. He signed the worst Abortion Bill in the country. A facely unconstitutional law forcing pregnancy after six weeks enforced by private parties where anyone could basically sue anyone else of enabling an abortion and be warded with a 10,000 bounty. Just yesterday he signed a second antiAbortion Bill restricting access to abortion inducing drugs after seven weeks. And all of that was just over the course of a month. So by any definition Governor Greg Abbott i think is one of the most conservative governors in the country. What does he get for it . He gets put on blast by the twice impeached would be authoritarian expresident demanding he support a special bill to audit the texas election results, a state which donald trump won by more than 5 points. Now if you take a step back for a second, there is something darkly comical about all of this. It reminds me of the old quip from william f. Buckley who ran a Disastrous Campaign for mayor in 1965. A reporter asked whats the first thing you would do if you won . Buckley fired back, demand a recount. Not only did donald trump win texas, texas is the state that i keep holding up as an example of the nile Lis Stick Toxicity of the big lie and Voter Suppression efforts because texas had very high turnout and republicans still did well so what are yall so afraid of . But that is not enough because it is very clear that trump wants a 50 State Strategy with audits. Hes going One Step Further and saying, well, the swing states i lost were stolen from me as he did with georgia and arizona. Hes pushing that in pennsylvania. No, this is now a full comprehensive undertaking. What he wants to do is basically say you cannot trust any election result anywhere. Because if he could convince his supporters not to trust any election results, if its all just rigged and fundamentally unknowable, then he has effectively destroyed the epistemic foundations of democracy himself which is what hes really trying to bring about, even if that sounds grandiose. That is what hes doing. Cultivating state after state. Putting pressure everywhere he can. Backing Secretary Of State candidates who will do his bidding in order to undermine the entire edifice of trust. If that cant happen, then youve got nothing. Youve got what . Sheer willed power. This was President Trump already sewing doubt. Do you commit to making sure there is a peaceful transferral of power after the election . Well have to wait to see what happens. Im concerned strongly about the ballots and the ballots are a disaster. People rye rotting, will you get rid of the ballots and youll have a very peaceful there wont be a transfer, frankly. There will be a continuation. Again, listen to what he said. Get rid of the ballots. There wouldnt be a transfer, there will be a continuation. Heres the thing, Governor Abbott of texas could just ignore trump or tell him to get lost or just pretend it never happened but guess what . The ultra conservative governor is facing a challenge from his right. They are just about exactly what you would expect, like former florida congressman alan west. He announced his campaign by trying to protect our borders to ensure texas is for texans. Chad prather who opposes Contact Tracing for covid. We cant kill an economy over a virus with a 99 Survival Rate in a state where more than 60,000 people have died from covid. Then theres former state senator dan huffings. He opposes all covid mandates. And hes attacking Governor Abbott for not cracking down on, quote, local mask tyrants. His covid stance has earned Him Endorsement from rand paul. Other republicans would say wear a mask, stay inside, you must do this, you must do that. When other republicans are siding with dr. Fauci, it was don who said he will side for your freedom. So the dynamics of the Republican Party are youre never safe from covid or primary challenger. No amount of maga extremism is enough. A staff writer at the atlantic has written about the texas coup and the Texas Governor race. Abbey, i find this fascinating and not necessarily anticipated. What is going on . He had as a primary challenge. He is trying to bolster his right wing and his polling, i have to admit, i was a little shocked, but republicans, specifically abbott, are behaving as if they are not afraid of a general election. There is obviously not to make a threat but were expecting beto orourke to likely announce in the near term. So he but those are not posing Credible Threats in a way that would alter republicans behavior. One of the things to remember here is the reason so many of these bills have passed is because they had a good Election Year last year. And so the idea that there is widespread fraud is just not something thats accepted in texas and ive spent more time in texas than i have in recent years and this is not a common topic of conversation. I dont remember it coming up and trumps letter kept saying to say things texans think, your citizens say, and i just have not seen evidence this is something of a Driving Concern in mainstream circles in texas. No, because they won. They only think its wrong when they lost, adam. Thats the whole game, and yet here you have him pushing for this audit. What work is this doing to your mind in the context of the big lie in the context of the failed coup . Abbott has thought about possibly losing trumps support. Its seen in texas hes very conservative. Hes not a looney conservative. Hes an elder states man, someone who is holding back the much crazier people who want his spot. Hes totally mishandled the covid pandemic in the state and now trump has shown it doesnt matter how much fielty you show to him even if you spend Taxpayer Money to build your own wall at the border. Trump, if he still feels like it, is going to come for you. Obviously texas is a pretty conservative state so abbott thinks he has nothing to fear from a general election challenger and a democrat because the state is so right of center. As a result, he is trying very hard, you know, to prevent a republican challenge from gaining any traction even if that costs the people of the state tremendously. We should say he is under water in approval. Thats unusual. Abby, this statement is so out of nowhere. No one in texas is talking about this. People are trying to work and not get covid or whatever theyre trying to do, which is live their lives. Yet, that will have this gravity because the small vanguard of the small Republican Base is going to determine abbotts political fate. Well, yes. And theres several questions about that letter. First of all, i made some calls before the show and i talked to folks who are mainstream republicans in austin and the important thing to remember is we are in a Special Session in texas. Its unusual. There are many reasons for that. This was a State Government formed to only meet briefly every other year and the legislature is still in session. Legislators are exhausted. Staffers are exhausted. This is a state where members of congress have been in an insurrection this year. Theres been a winter storm that pulled texas and everybody suffered from it. There was a whole drama around the Voting Rights bill and then the Abortion Bill fallout. These are exhausted the Political Class is exhausted. What does that mean . It could mean we see more retirements and more staffers leaving. That was the initial buzz. When this letter came out, of it a huff. Oh, one more thing. The objective in the next month is to get done congressional maps. That is what everyone is obsessed with in this state, and the down ballot maps, not this sort of conversation. On top of that, the letter was very esoteric. It used language about the legislation that seemed very familiar. One of my sources did wonder out loud, it doesnt feel like the former president wrote this. Who did . Yeah, because theres clearly an agenda here whether its the endorsements or its pushing in pennsylvania that wants to get all voter data in its hands to create some Bedrock Distrust across everything for anyone casting a vote that allows him to contest anywhere. You dont need any encouragement to try to slice the democratic vote into pieces so they can continue to control the congressional delegation or the State Legislature in texas, but whats happening is that donald trump is really cultivating this ideology that says that the Democratic Party and its constituencies cannot legitimately contest. Any election they win is fraudulent even if they win more votes because republicans are the only ones who can legitimately hold office. Thats true thats why this is happening despite the fact the republicans won texas, its the same ideology that led republicans to advise trump he could get pressure on mike pence to try to overturn the 2020 election by fiat. Its very dangerous ideology because it says were not going to respect the democratic outcome of elections if we lose. He did this with the media and roger ales did this before him, which is cut people off from that chain of trust. If you cut them off, which is election results, then youre floating out in authoritarian space. Whoever can seize power gets it. Thats the way this works. Thank you very much. Thank you. That Breaking News that we mentioned at the top, the very first subpoenas issued are out to President Trumps Chief Of Staff mark meadows, steve bannon, two other trump associates. Well break down the details with dan goldman next. Instantly ready to start working. So you can bounce back fast with alkaseltzer plus. vo this is more than just a building. Its an aipowered Investment Firm with billiondollar views. A cuttingedge datasecurity enterprise. Yes, with a slide. A perfect location for the worlds first onehour delivery. An inspiration for the next workout cult. And enough space for a pecanbased nutrition bar empire. It could happen. Because theres space for any dream on loopnet. The most popular place to find a space. Without my medication, my small tremors would be extreme. I was diagnosed with parkinsons. I had to retire from law enforcement. It was devastating. One of my medications is Three Thousand dollars per month. Prescription drugs do not work if you cannot afford them. Aarp is fighting for americans like larry, and we wont stop. Thats why were calling on congress to let medicare negotiate lower Prescription Drug prices. Can you be free of Hair Breakage Worries . We invited mahault to see for herself that new Dove Breakage remedy gives damaged hair the strength it needs. Even with repeated combing hair treated with dove shows 97 less breakage. Strong hair with new Dove Breakage remedy. Think of what peanuts have given humanity fuel for vast migrations sustenance for Mountaineering Expeditions and long journeys across the world but most importantly . They give us something to eat when we drink beer. Planters. A nut above. Psst psst allergies dont have to be scary. They give us something to eat when we drink beer. Spraying flonase daily stops your body from overreacting to allergens all season long. Psst psst flonase all good. In business, setbacks change everything. So get comcast Business Internet and add securityedge. It helps keep your network safe by scanning for threats every 10 minutes. And unlike some cybersecurity options, this helps protect every connected device. Yours, your employees and even your customers. So you can stay ahead. Get started with a great offer and ask how you can add comcast business securityedge. Plus for a limited time, ask how to get a 500 prepaid card when you upgrade. Call today. All right. Were following that Breaking News out of washington tonight. In just the last hour the January 6th Select Committee dropped four subpoenas for people either working in or communicating with the white house in the days leading up to the insurrection. The committee is seeking information from former white house Chief Of Staff mark meadows. Dan skavino, steve bannon and Defense Department official kash patel. The Senior Adviser of investigations for the house intelligence committee. A former federal prosecutor and he joins me now. Dan, this is skipping past the request phase. We saw some Document Requests go out. Whats the significance of these four subpoenas to your mind . Well, there are several things. The first is as the committee advised this week, they were going to go directly to subpoena for people, individuals or entities who either have not been cooperative, they dont expect to be cooperative. Obviously these four, they do not expect to be cooperative and that likely means litigation. The bigger thing for me, chris, is not that theyre going straight to subpoenas, theyre going straight to the critical witnesses. Rather than in many investigations where you would start with lower level people and try to work your way up so you have a better sense of what the role is of the higher level people, but theres no time for that right now and theyre anticipating litigation. Yes. What you would ordinarily do on the back end, youre doing that on the front end so the litigation can play out while they continue to investigate through other entities, other individuals. We should say steve bannon has talked about his role in basically planning for january ofth, at least the rally part of it. He said so on his podcast. Youre also described as communicating with then President Trump on december 30th, 2020, potentially other occasions urging him to plan for and focus his efforts on january 6th and you were quoted as stating on january 5th, 2021, that all hell is going to break loose tomorrow. Whats The Next Step legally you anticipate here . Well, all of them will or trump will intervene to file a lawsuit to prevent them from testifying. There is, just to be really, really clear, there is absolutely no basis for donald trump or any of these former officials to claim Executive Privilege, but they will because their objective is not to win the litigation, their objective is simply to delay yes. And let congress, let this committee run out. Steve bannon has an even greater Uphill Battle because at the time of january 6th he was not even a government official. There of course is no Executive Privilege for nonGovernment Officials. The other three were Government Officials so in theory at that time they could have claimed Executive Privilege, but its very important to remember, Joe Biden Controls what is Executive Privilege right now, not donald trump, and donald trump is no longer the president so he can say and right. As he did in a statement, oh, im going to claim Executive Privilege, hey, pal, youre no longer in the office of the presidency. What you think about the office of the presidency is irrelevant. In fact, theres some reporting today that the white house is considering turning over some communications that i guess they have access to precisely under that rationale. Well, the white house and the National Archives has access to a lot of communication from white house officials, and donald trump is threatening to intervene to file a lawsuit to prevent the National Archives from producing those documents to the select committee. And hes claiming Executive Privilege. What came out today is that the Biden Administration is likely, reportedly likely to not claim Executive Privilege over those documents. Right. To allow them to go to the select committee and ultimately the Current Administration is the one that preserves Executive Privilege. So what were going to see is a completely brand new, you know, created out of whole cloth legal theory that has no basis in the law that is just designed to get the district court, the Appeals Court and potentially the Supreme Court to have to rule on it which will run out the clock. I hope the judiciary has learned its lesson and they will move quickly. That is the big thing here. Thats the lesson we have learned. This has been Donald Trumps entire career. Keep people tied up in the courts until you can make a get away. But this is a very this is a kind of bold, aggressive move by the committee and i think it augers well for their posture. Thank you so much for joining us at the last minute. My pleasure, chris. Republican congresswoman Lauren Bobert made a name for herself. When she constructed this shrine like setup as her background for a Committee Hearing in february but if you think her Gun Fanaticism is what will come to define her time, that is her possible misuse of Campaign Funds. Why the colorado congresswoman is in hot water with the fec next. Other cold medicines, coricidin provides powerful cold relief without raising your Blood Pressure be there for lifes best moments with coricidin. Now in sugar free liquid. Im susan and im 52 and i live in san francisco, california. I have been a sales and Sales Management professional my whole career. Typical day during a work week is im working but first always going for a run or going to the gym. I love reading. I love cooking healthy. Its super important to me. I was noticing that i was just having some memory loss. It was really bothering me. So i tried prevagen and it started to work for me. I wish i had taken prevagen five or ten years ago. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Tonight. Ill be eating a Buffalo Chicken Panini with extra hot sauce. Tonight. Ill be Eating Salmon Sushi with a japanese jiggly cheesecake. Jolly good fire nas. Yeah . Spare a pound . What . You know, bones, shillings, lolly . Lolly . Bangers and mash . Im. Im sorry . I dont have any money. You dont look broke. My rocket is skint you dont look broke. I thought i was managing my moderate to severe crohns disease. Then i realized something was missing. Me. My symptoms were keeping me from being there for her. So, i talked to my doctor and learned humira is the 1 prescribed biologic for people with crohns disease. The majority of people on humira saw significant symptom relief in as little as 4 weeks. And many achieved remission that can last. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections. Serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Be there for you, and them. Ask your gastroenterologist about humira. With humira, remission is possible. You need an ecolab scientific clean here. And you need it here. And here. And here. Which is why the scientific expertise that helps Operating Rooms stay clean is now helping the places you go every day too. Seek a commitment to clean. Look for the ecolab Science Certified seal. Of the nearly 200 Different Countries on the face of the earth, precisely one of them has an elected leader who publicly identifies as a western style conservative. Victor orbon. A few years ago his views would have seen moderate and conventional. He thinks families are more important than banks. He thinks countries needs borders. For saying these things out loud he has been vilified. Theyre so mad at him. Last month Tucker Carlson and heir to a frozen dinner fortune. He broadcasted from budapest. He lavished praise on the countrys prime minister. Hes been in power for over a decade. He has positioned himself as a right wing populist. He loves families and not banks. A man of the people railing against the liberal elites in the media and the greedy bankers. Hes bragged about building a, quote, illiberal state. Its rhetoric that sounds all too familiar. Orbon is not a man of the people. He has consolidated power and guess what, wealth for himself, his allies around his rule. Check this out. In july a hungarian member of the European Parliament tweeted these photos. Victor orbun has been lying about the massive project with almost no assets on paper hes building a private mansion on a former estate, a futile lord in the making. Hes not publicizing this estate. Theres very little public about it. Another wrote among other things a huge Underground Garage now 500 Square Meter Residential Building is being built. His entire brand is about populism, being for the working class, families not bank, building a versailles. Thats a story as old as the time. Stuffing his own pockets. One of the oldest grifs. The populist who uses populism as a cover for corruption. Take republican congresswoman Lauren Bobert of colorado. She owns a restaurant called shooters grill. She was just elected to congress in 2020 running on an anticovid restrictions platform. Now we have learned that she paid rent and utility bills for her restaurant with Campaign Funds which is very much in violation of Campaign Finance laws. This is not the first time she has misused Campaign Funds. In february she paid herself more than 22,000 in Mileage Reimbursement from her Campaign Account last year. To justify the reimbursements she would have had to drive 38,712 miles while campaigning despite while having no publicly advertised Campaign Events in march, april, july and only one in may. For context the he can which to recall circumference of the earth is 25,000 miles. Thats quite a Congressional Campaign she was running. We have seen this behavior with flagrant corruption. We have a professor of history, author of strong men. Ian sylveri pub accomplished a post silveri should resign. Lets start on the bobert story. The mile age stuff ive reported around the fec enough to say this is an alarm bell. It appears theyre just recording this in their Public Disclosures theyre using Campaign Money this way. They do it quite a bit after the reports are due, too. They dont file when theyre supposed to. Then they file a weird amended report. Its not just a Mileage Reimbursement. Thats 1 1 2 times the circumference of the earth. 20,000. It was the same amount of money her familys restaurant owed Garfield County for unemployment premium. She gets 20k from her campaign and pays off a 20,000 lien on her restaurant. Its no surprise shes using her Campaign Funds to pay her rent. Wait. Slow down. I just want to make sure that i understand this. This is all publicly available and established . There was a lean and a debt that she owed to county because she hadnt paid taxes on Unemployment Insurance . That is correct. 19,000 and then 20,000 from her campaign and its around the same time. Thats really audacious. Yeah. And this is the thing. Donald trump committed crimes in broad daylight all the time. He has yet to be held accountable. Hes her hero. She figures she can do the same thing. So far despite the fact theres investigations and complaints being filed, shes getting away with it. That is sort of the theme here, ruth. Its interesting to me that orbon has been secretive about it. Its different, a little less flagrant. A lot of stories come out of hungary that people are connected to or bon and the same way they connected to egypt and all sorts of businesses. This has always been an essential part of the authoritarian two step where they champion the woke. Totally. I added the chapter on corruption to my book strongmen because its essential to the whole authoritarian playbook. One of the most popular scams is the idea they were going to drain the swamp. Theyre pure individuals that are going to clean up corruption. Drain the swamp was musolinis slogan. Trump said hes not taking a salary. Hitler said he wasnt going to take a salary and then he had the gestapo destroy the records. Its turning Public Office into a mechanism for private profit because you dont recognize any difference between public and personal and you have no government ethics. Orbon is extremely skilled at this. Hes used all the tricks where, you know, he rails against globalists and then all of these people keep their money probably in off shore, you know, Global Network of off shore finance and ultimately the state becomes a predator. Just like in turkey and russia and hungary, if you have a flourishing business, one of orbons cronies will come and force you to sell your asset. This is really and this really happens in russia and turkey. Its part of authoritarianism and yet we fall for this charade of them as globalists, champions of the people. Yeah. Theres also an aspect to the press that i think is crucial and important, ian. When i was coming up as a reporter in chicago, that kind of story, this story is the stuff that local Corruption Reporting was made out of. And when there was power in the local press, that would hurt you. You would be on the cover of the local paper and the alder men would be like why are you paying off your Restaurant Lean . You should have kept paying money. I feel like, you know, a lot of boberts followers, a lot of people who vote for her dont read the denver post, dont read the fake news. Its away and it only goes on fake News Stations oann and news max and the Fever Swamp Weird fake News Stations all over the country. She has never spoken to a New Hampshire in her district. She never talks to the denver post. She wants to control her own story. Her restaurant lost 143,000 in 2019. This is not a successful business that she forgot to pay Unemployment Insurance on or she forgot to pay her rent once in a while. This is the entire problem, shes a failed business and shes using her Campaign Funds to bail her out. This is a House Of Cards and the whole thing is going to fall down. Thats why power is so attractive, ruth . Its a way to keep the House Of Cards up. Totally. Theyre not interested in governing, theyre interested in generating profits for themselves so bobert is a symptom. Its a breakdown of government ethics. Ruth and ian, thank you very much. It was great. Thanks for having us. Yesterday politico published an article about how theyre trying as best as they can to avoid a shutdown. Its called dems seek to avoid a government shutdown. One of the articles you need to read all the way to the end because it had the most Amazing Closing Quote In the final paragraph. We always doing this fing dance. I dont know if people are going to put their same minds on and do what needs to be done or shut it down. This is just a ridiculous exercise. I cant even compare it to anything i do on the farm thats this stupid. Ill talk to the senator right after this. Ready to start working. So you can bounce back fast with alkaseltzer plus. Trelegy for copd. Birds flyin high you know how i feel breeze drifting on by you know how i feel [man coughing] its a new dawn, its a new day. No matter how you got copd its time to make a stand. And im feelin good start a new day with trelegy. No oncedaily Copd Medicine has the power to treat copd in as many ways as trelegy. With three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy helps people breathe easier and improves lung function. It also helps prevent future flareups. Trelegy wont replace a Rescue Inhaler for sudden breathing problems. Tell your doctor if you have a Heart Condition or high Blood Pressure before taking it. Do not take trelegy more than prescribed. Trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. Call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. Its time to start a new day. Ask your doctor about oncedaily trelegy. And save at trelegy. Com. [sfx radio being tuned] welcome to allstate. [band plays] a place where everyone lives life wellprotected. And even when things go a bit wrong, weve got your back. Here, things work the way you wish they would. And better protection costs a whole lot less. Youre in good hands with allstate. Click or call for a lower auto rate today. Discover card i just got my Cashback Match is this for real . Yup we match all the cash back new card members earn at the end of their first year automatically woo i got my money its hard to contain yourself isnt it . Uh huh well let it go woooo get a dollar for dollar match at the end of your first year. Only from discover. Can you be free of Hair Breakage Worries . We invited mahault to see for herself that new Dove Breakage remedy gives damaged hair the strength it needs. Even with repeated combing hair treated with dove shows 97 less breakage. Strong hair with new Dove Breakage remedy. Is mealtime a struggle . Introducing oreida potato pay. Where oreida golden crinkles are your crispy currency to pay for bites of this. With this. When kids wont eat dinner, potato pay them to. Oreida. Win at mealtime. Tide pods ultra oxi one ups the Cleaning Power of liquid. Potato pay them to. 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. Emergency planning for kids. We cant predict when an emergency will happen. So thats why its important to make a plan with your parents. Here are a few tips to stay safe. Know how to get in touch with your family. Write down Phone Numbers for your parents, siblings and neighbors. Pick a place to meet your family if you are not together and cant go home. Remind your parents to pack an emergency supply kit. Making a plan might feel like homework, but it will help you and your family stay safe during an emergency. The mothers and fathers in this country know one thing, that if the federal government is unable to control its appetite, if we are unable to slow the growth in federal spending, its going to eat us alive. Let me be clear, a Debt Limit Increase without any reforms and to lower our deficit just isnt going to cut it. The bill Speaker Pelosi is bringing through will not become law. They might have to go to reconciliation to address the debt ceiling. You ever notice any time they refuse to raise the debt ceiling its because theres a democrat in the white house. Its not new spending, its basically saying like we will pay the debts we already incurred. Were going to pay our bills. Its a thing the republicans remember to wine about when theyre not in power. Senator tester told us we always do this fing dance. This is just a ridiculous exercise. I cant even compare it to anything i do on the farm thats this stupid. Senator john tester. Democrat of montana. It seems so true. It truly is a ridiculous institution to everyones minds. When you go out and pay for the dinner, thats when youre making the decision to buy the meal but you cant go home two weeks later and say im not going to pay the Credit Card Bill or bad things will ensue. Youre exactly right. Thats a great correlation. The money has already been spent. Now we have to pay the bills. Thats what the debt limit is about. Look, Neither Party is innocent when it comes to adding to the debt. The deficit is about 29 million right now. Im as concerned as anybody with the debt but for a matter of fact, this last year we passed the c. A. R. E. S. Act because the economy was tanking because of covid. We did a couple of extra ordinary measures to take care of the coronavirus, the pandemic, and spent that money. And now when it comes to paying the bills by the way, we did that in a republican house, a Republican Senate and with a republican president. Now when it comes to paying the bills, its like, no, were not going to do that. Its great for messaging, but in reality this will impact the families across this country incredibly negatively. It will cause unemployment to spike up to potentially 9 some are predicting. It will cause Interest Rates not only for the federal government on the 29 billion to go through the roof but for credit card debt, for auto debt, mortgages on homes, let me put it this way to your viewers, if you have a mortgage on your home like most of us do and you dont pay it, youve got a problem. You pointed out the credit card situation. You have dinner, get that bill at the end of the month and you decide not to pay it, youve got big problems. This, chris, is going to do bad things to this country. China has been trying to set themselves up as the leader in the world economically. This is like giving them the keys to the car. Here you go, china. Take it and run with it. Were going to do something stupid. I have to explain this to folks and i want to walk through it with you because Mitch Mcconnells position is, yeah, it should get raised but just not by us, right . Okay, fine. He says, you guys are the majority. But i feel like ive lost my mind. Correct me if im wrong. Theyre not just not voting for it, theyre actively filibustering it so that you cant raise it by yourself, is that correct . Well, thats correct. And we need 60 votes to pass the debt ceiling and quite honestly, Mitch Mcconnell has been there long enough. If we dont get some republican votes to do this, then the Debt Ceiling Measure fails and it turns the economy upside down. Maybe thats what they want. Its certainly not what i want. Certainly not what the people in montana sent me here to do in washington. Whats the end game here . Its a little unclear to me. Heres the two train cars that are set towards each other, right . The debt ceiling and the filibuster basically, right . Unless im misunderstanding this. You can raise the debt ceiling. 50 votes to raise the debt ceiling tomorrow. Every democrat is going to vote to raise the debt ceiling. I would hope so. Thats the responsible thing. You have the filibuster so you cant. Ones got to give. What am i missing . No, i think youre spot on. I think that if you have to have 60 votes you know, look, maybe Mitch Mcconnell is advocating he doesnt want the filibuster. I dont know. The truth is with the filibuster. The point is we have a job that the American Senate sent us to do, we work for them, and i think part of our job is to make sure we pay for the bills. If we dont pay for the bills, bad things happen just like they do in our households. They can pick it up. Tell him i said hi. No, biden was on capitol hill yesterday or im sorry, in the white house meeting with folks from capitol hill, and the readout was productive meetings. I said this yesterday and i think people dont appreciate this. I think theres 271 or 272 democrats on capitol hill between the house and senate, and you need like 269 to agree. The task here really is a difficult one. What is your sense of where things are at . Look, theres a lot more negotiations that have to be done. We have to make sure everybody is at the table, not just three or four or five or ten people, that everybody is at the table, make sure their opinions are heard. I think everybody has to be willing to compromise and everybody has to be willing to meet at a reasonable place to do something meaningful for this country moving forward and do the right thing. When i go home and we passed a bipartisan bill and its a good piece of legislation and i could talk about it for the next hour. But the fact is there are some things it did not address. It didnt address things like child care. It didnt address things like housing. It addressed five issues but we need to do more. Quite frankly, that doesnt mean we have to spend 3. 5 trillion, but it means we have to do something meaningful and we have to spend that money right. Who are the people that you talk to . Who are the people youre closest to in the Democratic Caucus and senate . Look, i try to talk to everybody. Thats a very politician answer. It depends on who i ate lunch with. This week it was booker and it was bennett and i talked to gene shaheen, visited with marilyn hassan. Heres why i ask this. I have a sense of what the Group Internal in the house are, and i have a sense of the ten progressive senators who want both bills to pass, then we have folks like manchin and sinema who are in the wrong category, and i just wonder where the folks in that caucus are. You pointed it out. Put a family together, put them on the road, you have a hard time making a decision where youre going to eat lunch. If were able to get everybody in a room where our opinions are respected, we can come up with a deal that will be good for this nation. I think thats the bottom line. Theres a lot of pressure on schumer, theres a lot of pressure on the white house. Theyre working hard, and i will tell you i think everybody will come to the table, both from the moderate side, so to speak, and the progressive side, and i think well end up with something that will work for this country. Thats what everyone says. Everyone says there will be a bill. Its something that will pass in the United States senate, and youre saying that, too. Absolutely correct. These people are good people, they want to do the right thing. There are some differences of opinion of what the right thing is. You fix those things by communication. Just like you do in your marriage, you do it. It would be hard to be married to 270 people. Mr. Jon tester, thank you for listening to me tonight. I appreciate it. Youre a gentleman and a scholar. Right now democrats are trying to come to a full Party Consensus on president bidens agenda. And kashir and max. Great to see you, max. We need to keep the government funded and pay our bills, right . How do you read the demographics in the caucus and the house . Because my reading is front line members are not the ones who are saying, like, slow down, dont do this. They seem actually very invested in most of the agenda. No, thats not whats happening here. This one is so scary, it would be laughable. Everyone agrees, but the truth of the matter is theyre forgetting about certain basic commandments. One, dont play defense for big pharma. Two, remember thats a good commandment. Two, remember the promises you made to the American People. Remember what we just passed in 2018. Literally some are arguing we should do what they voted yes for previously. Three, the American People do not care about process, they dont care if you pass infrastructure this month or next month, they just want to see you get it done. But lastly and most importantly, this is about delivering in big, Bold Dynamic Ways that people will feel with their pocketbooks. Theyre going to get over this, but they have to stop the circling of the firing squad right away. Its funny you said big pharma. I remember looking at your ads in 2018. You were running in 2018 against an incumbent republican. You did a lot on taking over big pharma with oxycontin and opioids. Trump won the district, right . That was an issue you felt passionate about substantively and it was advantageous for you in a district that was a trump district. Right. People cannot listen to their donors right now. They cannot listen to their donors and theyve got to listen to the American People. Thats what makes this all so shocking. The American People are united about this. Youre talking about the Prescription Drug benefit particularly. 100 . Heres whats amazing about that, thats the thing that provides them revenue to do other things. You get rid of it, the deficit gets bigger. It saves the government money. You save medicare hundreds of billions of dollars, which then you use to pay for universal child care, universal prek, expanding medicare and combatting climate change. Tester is interesting because hes an interesting player in there. Next to manchin, he probably represents the most conservative state but is much less of a kind of caucus contrarian than manchin is. Manchin is for his own thing, but working for bernie, what is the approach here because you need all 50 to agree on a number and whats actually in it. Well, the problem is, chris, weve been having a fake negotiation. Weve been in this for months and months and months, and at this point you would think if youre on the other side of bernie or whatever, you would have a proposal. Yet the surprising thing from manchin and sinema is there is no proposal. Youre negotiating with a shadow. Its very hard to have, quote, unquote, a compromise when both progressives are advertising the north star, where we need to go, then offering a compromise and begging, what is your alternative to this . They cannot offer a specific alternative. That is a really good point, because anyone who has been through a negotiation, it goes like this. There is an offer, there is a counter. You need a counter. Ive been in negotiations where youre waiting on the counter and it drives you nuts. Where is the counter . Where is the counter . Thats the thing, manchins counter is a strategic pause. Or maybe we dont do anything at all. Maybe hes doing this privately, but if manchin doesnt have a counter, they should see what the counter is. Its like debating with children. You start with what you should eat for dinner, maybe carrots or broccoli, how about macaroni and cheese . No, no, no. Give me something to work with. Put something on the table and get to yes. This is a team sport. Legislating at this juncture is a team sport. Where the heck are people wanting to offer a good faith compromise to get to yes . You cant outrun the wave. You cant distinguish yourself as a member that you cant survive the Election Year. Youre bound to the Democratic Party and its fate either way. Heres the thing, though. Ive taken tough votes. Its not hard. These are not tough votes. Theyre arguing over taxes. I want a member of the Democratic Party to stand up and say they want a Venture Capitalist to pay lower tax rates than teachers, farmers or anyone else in the working class. I do not understand anymore what theyre arguing about. Its time for them to put their heads down, remember that theyre democrats, the party of the new deal, the party of working people. Get things done. Faiz shakir, max rose, thank you both. Its time for the Rachel Maddow show. Good evening, rachel. Thank you, chris. Appreciate that. When it rains, it pours. We have news to break on a few different fronts tonight. There is a lot going on. Today started out as a normal thursday and we had sort of a normal thursday day planned, and as we got closer and closer to show time, it turned into like leak christmas, leak, leak, not like leeks, then it turned into subpoena christmas. So we threw out in its entirety everything we planned on doing tonight and started a whole new series of stories. I will tell you in advance there may be a little more hurly burly than usual because so many of