After the rachel maddow show, were going to be showing my new movie. My new documentary which is called from russia with lev. Its about the first trump impeachment and what was both s terrible and equally so stupid about that entire scandal. E so in case you want to pop it in your calendar or set it in the dvr, im here tonight as normal but you get a second show at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on friday, and right after that special rachel maddow show, you can see my new movie, from russia with lev. But we start tonight in this fraught and unnerving place that we are in american news and politics and frankly, in American Life right now. The last time there were multiple Assassination Plots against a President Or President ial candidate in such quick succession, it was nearly 50 years ago. It was 49 years ago this month, in fact, in september 1975. President Gerald Ford was in a park in sacramento, california, when a fanatical follower of Charles Manson pulled out a. 45 and pointed it at him. Then not even three weeks later, also in california, but in another city in san francisco, another woman actually did fire two shots at President Ford in a close proximity, at a hotel in san francisco. Both of the shots she fired from her. 38 special went wide after a gay u. S. Marine Combat Veteran saw her pull out the gun, and he knocked her arm while she fired, and that is why she missed. So President Ford was not hurt in either of those attempts. But they came in very quick succession, and in september 1975, the country was very an deeply unnerved by having two different crazy people pull a gun on the president of the united states twice in the space of a month. We have not seen anything like this since then. But now, with the arrest of the suspected gunman who pointed a rifle toward Donald Trump while he was golfing in florida yesterday, we have had the second instance in the space of nine weeks of former President And President ial candidate Donald Trump being threatened by a potential assassin. Now, trump of course is fine. The man with the gun at trumps Golf Course apparently never actually fired his gun before the Secret Service spotted him and they shot at him. The man is in custody, hes already facing federal gun charges with presumably more to follow. But this is just obviously absolutely terrible news. It is terrible news for T Everybody in the country. It is terrible news for where we are at as a country. Its terrible news in terms of what the Secret Service is contending with. Its also the worst of all possible Wild Cards in a political season thats already quite wild and not in a good way. Just think about the past month. It was one month ago almost exactly when Trump Disparaged Americans who have received the nations highest military honor, the medal of honor. Saying most recipients of that award were killed or injured in the process of earning that award, so other medals like the one he gave to his biggest campaign donor, those are better medals and those are better awards. Just an astonishing thing for anybody in american public life to say. Even anybody in private life to say. Let alone somebody who is a former president and wants to be president again. Just an astonishing, an astonishingly offensive and ignorant remark against americans who are literally the most decorated military heroes in our nation. Only ten days later, his Campaign Staff physically shoved an employee at Arlington National Cemetery when she tried to stop trump and his team from filming political campaign videos at arlington, which you are not allowed to do for all the obvious reasons. Not just because its the rules but because its obviously the only decent thing to do. E in short order, after those two things, one of the headline primetime speakers from trumps nominating convention did a twohour gushing interview withs a prominent holocaust denier, t and trumps Running Mate nevertheless decided to go ahead with his own appearances with that rnc speaker. I mean, that, each of those things sort of astonishing for any president ial candidate, for any political campaigner of any kind, honestly, for anybody in american public life, any one of those things would be such an astonishing scandal to drag with you into whatever else you wanted to do next in your life, but those three things in quick succession are what trump brought with him into the first and potentially his only debate with Vice PresidentKamala Harris. And that debate was a disaster for him. It was a debacle. Abc Ipsos Polling ShowsVice PresidentKamala Harris winning that debate against trump by an astonishing 22point margin. On the crucial issue of the economy alone, just on the economy, Post Debate Polling shows Kamala Harris pulling ahead of and away from trump in terms of who the country trusts the most on the economy. Thats just one of the metrics that has gone completely south for trump following that disastrous debate. National polling of the president ial race also started consistently showing Vice President harris beating former President Trump. And since that terrible debate performance, his campaign and his campaign appearances have been just shambolic. He said after the debate that abc, the host of the debate, should have its Broadcast License revoked. Ke he regularly threatens this now against any Media Outlet that airs anything that he does not like. He said that after the debate, his opponent must have had Magic Earrings on at the debate. That somehow fed her the right answers in that debate. He told a Campaign Rally that california, the state of california, has a giant faucet, that was his phrase, a faucet with a handle that he said is the size of a building. Its such a big faucet with such a big handle that it takes a whole day to turn the faucet on or off, and he said that faucet, which he has invented, that is how california dumps all of Canadas Water into the sea. Rn and when hes the president , that Faucet Wont turn the water into the sea anymore. What are you talking about . He invited a musical artist named Nicky Jam to join him on stage at another rally. He said, you know nicky, shes hot. Nicky jam then joined former President Trump on stage and surprised him very much by being a man. Trump brought out brought an outspoken bigot and 9 11Conspiracy Theorist to the 9 11 commemoration in lower manhattan. She made a series of viciously almost astonishingly racist statements about how terrible it would be to have Kamala Harris in the White House where she already is, because harris is of indian descent on her mothers side. Trumps Running Mate, j. D. Vance, was asked a comment particularly because his wife is also of indian descent. He smiled and swallowed it and said i dont think thats insulting. For what its worth, these comments were wildly and er profoundly and baldly insulting to anyone of indian descent and whether or not Jd Vance cares about that, there are very large indian american constituencies in important Swing States like georgia and north carolina, they are likely to care. Npr also just revealed days ago trumps new Jersey Golf Club twice this summer hosted this man, the one with the Hitler Haircut and Hitler Mustache, he was convicted five times over for his behavior during the January 6th attack on the u. S. Capitol, his trial invoked previous statements of his like, quote, hitler should have finished the job. Le and quote, babies born with any deformities or disabilities should be shot in the forehead. This man posted a lengthy Video Online in 2020 about what he called the, quote, jewish invasion of New Jersey. He compared jewish people to a, quote, plague of locusts. D and then trump hosted him twice at his new Jersey Golf Club at bedminster this summer. The second appearance of the Hitler Mustache guy at Trumps Club was followed the very next day by trump hosting at that same club an antiantisemitism event, the day after the Hitler Mustache guy, the day after the jewish invasion of New Jersey guy. This comes inconveniently just as blatantly antisemitic tv ads targeting Kamala Harris husband for being jewish have started running in michigan, thanks to a republicanlinked political action committee. Now getting national attention there. I mean, as i said, this is a wild political season, and i dont mean wild in a good way. But trump has over the last fewa days, effectively stopped coverage of almost all of those things that i just described, and he has done so by making such fantastically outrageous and racist and dangerous false claims about haitian immigrants that just abouT Everybody understandably feels compelled to stop what theyre doing and prioritize Coverage And Condemnation of this truly awful consequential bad thing instead of whatever else they might have wanted to report or discuss about how the campaign is going, and what the american people ought to understand about the stakes in this election. And that, of course, serves trump very well. Right, anybody who thinks the springfield, ohio, lies about haitian migrants is going poorly for trump should consider the context in which he has not just brought this up but he and his Running Mate have repeatedly insists this is what we ought to be talking about. This isnt bad for them, not as they see it. If youre taking like a Midterm Exam or a final exam and you have no clue what any of the answers are, and youre definitely going to fail that test, why not get up and pull the Fire Alarm . Rm i mean, yeah, you might get in some kind of trouble for pulling the Fire Alarm, but you failing is no longer going to be the story. Its Made To Order outrage, and the press was supposed to learn something about dealing with this in 2016, 2015. What we were supposed to learn is that part of dealing with the tactic of Madetoorder Outrage is that its his orders. Right . It keeps the discussion on things hes framing rather than on what the election might otherwise be about. So yes, his madetoorder moral outrages have to be called out as false and as nonsense because they are dangerous. They not only invite, they demand some sort of terrible response from the people who fall for this stuff. And so we should trace the origin of this garbage. In this case, his lies about haitian immigrants, in this case, these specific lies about these specific immigrants go to a Literal Nazi group that has been pushing this particular lie in springfield, ohio. And then parading in springfield, ohio, with swastika flags. So we should trace this to its origins. Thats when the Trump Campaign got this. We should also care for and protect the people who are being harmed by this garbage, obviously. They are having to post Ohio State troopers at springfield, ohios, Elementary Schools now because of what Trump And Vance have done in lying about this community. But also recognize what theyre doing is a tactic. And recognize why theyre doing it. E theyre doing it to change the subject. To pull the proverbial Fire Alarm, to get us all talking about him and this issue that hes chosen because he likes these nouns and verbs. He likes this framing. He wants us to be talking about this trash, even if its being debunked. He wants this to be the main subject of discussion in the country instead of, i dont know, Kamala Harris beating the pants off of him in that debate and him humiliating himself by showing himself unable to talk about anything other than Ego Driven Concerns related to himself. They would love for us to be talking about anything other than harris just wiping the floor with him in the debate. They would love for us to be talking about anything other l than her being endorsed by an unprecedented slate of senior Military Leaders who have served under President S of both parties. They would love for us to talk about anything other than a sort of shocking roster of Alist Business leaders who have just endorsed Kamala Harris. They would love for us to be talking about anything other than now most recently a group of former Ronald Reagan staffers who have endorsed Kamala Harris. This is a tactic. We were supposed to get better at not having our chains yanked. After living through this experience since 2015, we are almost ten years into this now. The Madetoorder Outrage from trump and his cohort are designed to get us talking about that outrage rather than any other issue that might more reasonably frame the real stakes of an election or the real threat of trumps presidency. Hillary clinton has a New Book out, it was finished just before president biden made his decision not to run for reelection and to instead ot endorse Vice President harris to run. And when Joe Biden made that decision, Hillary Clintons book was already at the printers. She nevertheless decided to sort of get back to the Writing Desk and fire off a new epilogue to the book about this Sea Change in american political fortunes. And in that epilogue she says this, quote, on july 21, 2024, when Joe Biden announced he was dropping out of the president ial race and endorsing Kamala Harris, the dream of seeing a woman in the Oval Office was suddenly back within reach. Clinton says, quote, it wouldnt be me, but it could be kamala. I history beckoned. But a whole lot of bigotry, e fear, and disinformation, not to mention the Electoral College, stood in the way. Could we do it . Could we finally shatter that highest, hardest Glass Ceiling and prove that in america, there is no limit to what is possible . That sunday afternoon, when bill and i heard the news that biden was withdrawing and endorsing kamala, we drafted a joint statement saluting him, saluting biden, and also endorsing her. Endorsing kamala. She is talented, experienced, and ready to be president , so it was an easy decision. After our statement went public, kamala called us. She was remarkably calm for someone who had just been thrown into The Deep End of a o bottomless pool. She told us she wanted to earn the nomination. She said, quote, im going to need your help. Bill and i told her, quote, well do whatever you need. Bill and i were both ready to do everything we could to help get her elected. Clinton says, quote, i dont want to Sugar Coat what were up against, especially at a moment where all of us need to be ready to fight back, not just for kamala but for our bet selves. She says but as i reminded myself that sunday as the news about kamala sank in and as i tell every young woman i meet, we cannot give in to fear. It is a trap to believe that progress is impossible. Some people have asked how i feel about the prospect of another woman poised to achieve the break