Episode 7: Mobilized

Summary

Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra
Episode 7: Mobilized
Release Date: July 29, 2024

Rachel Maddow delves into the intense political maneuvers surrounding Senator Joseph McCarthy's censure in the United States Senate. This episode, titled "Mobilized," explores the fervent support McCarthy garnered, the orchestrated efforts to censure him, and the broader implications for American democracy.

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1. Introduction to the Conflict

The episode opens with a dramatization set on December 1, 1954, at the United States Capitol. Men dressed in plain black uniforms, bearing shields reminiscent of police attire, position themselves armed outside the Capitol's doors. Their presence signals the rising tension as a new authoritarian movement gains momentum, spearheaded by Senator Joseph McCarthy, a controversial figure known for his anti-Communist crusades.

Narrator (01:56): "By the end of 1954, Joe McCarthy's own actions are finally starting to catch up to him."

2. The Censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy

Senator McCarthy, infamous for his accusations against alleged Communists within the U.S. Army and other institutions, faces his third censure in Senate history. The censure is a response to his tactics, which have led to the public destruction of numerous individuals' careers and lives.

Historian (03:15): "They were trying to sell this as almost a Hollywood moment, showing that the real Americans, what Nixon would later call the silent majority, were behind Joe McCarthy."

The censure proceedings are marred by McCarthy's supporters marching to the Capitol, threatening an "army of real Americans" against the Senate's actions. This escalation raises fears of potential street violence.

Historian (04:04): "It'll be violent and bitter, I'm sorry."

3. McCarthy’s Strategy and Public Perception

McCarthy's influence stems from his ability to capitalize on public fear and anger, positioning himself as the sole defender against internal threats. His strategy involves portraying himself as a martyr, willing to face political persecution for the greater good.

Historian (14:30): "Fight to expose those who would destroy this nation will go on and on."

Despite increasing evidence against him, McCarthy's base remains loyal, driven by fear, grievance, and unwavering loyalty.

4. Mobilization of Supporters

In response to the impending censure, McCarthy's supporters organize massive rallies and petition drives. Notably, a rally at Constitution Hall in Washington sees an unexpected appearance by McCarthy himself, eliciting wild enthusiasm from the crowd.

Historian (17:54): "One of the greatest living folds of communist slavery. That man is Joe McCarthy."

These rallies are characterized by fervent speeches, emotional displays, and the presence of extremist groups like the neo-Nazi National Renaissance Party.

5. The Role of Extremist Groups

The episode highlights the alarming collaboration between mainstream political figures and extremist factions. Leaders like Gerald L.K. Smith orchestrate events that blend nationalist rhetoric with overt anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi sentiments.

Historian (24:22): "They considered him, as they would say."

This alliance underscores the porous boundary between the ultra-right and mainstream politics, facilitated by McCarthy's influence.

6. Attempts to Delay and Evade Censure

As the censure vote approaches, McCarthy employs tactical delays, citing a fabricated injury—traumatic bursitis of the elbow—to postpone proceedings.

Narrator (31:38): "McCarthy informs the Senate that there cannot be a censure vote against him because he has come down with traumatic bursitis of the elbow."

Simultaneously, his supporters launch a lightning petition drive, aiming to gather 10 million signatures within 10 days to halt the censure.

Historian (34:26): "This particular petition has been mushrooming at such a tremendous rate that it's beginning to look like that not 10 million, but we could probably get 20 million signatures if we just had the time."

7. The Final Censure Vote

Despite McCarthy's maneuvers and massive support base, the Senate proceeds with the censure vote. The outcome is a mixed verdict:

• Total Vote: 67 to 22 in favor of censure.
• Democratic Senators: Unanimously vote to censure McCarthy.
• Republican Senators: Approximately half support the censure, revealing a deep division within the party.

Historian (39:56): "Joseph McCarthy is the fourth senator in history to be so disciplined by his colleagues in the Capitol."

However, the censure is notably mild, criticizing McCarthy for discourteous behavior rather than his more egregious actions.

Narrator (41:00): "The resolution they passed against him called him out instead for his discourteousness toward his fellow Senators, for violating Senate rules and traditions."

8. Aftermath and Lasting Impact

Post-censure, McCarthy's influence within the Republican Party and among his base remains substantial. Supporters reinterpret the censure as evidence of a corrupt system, further galvanizing their movement to elevate McCarthy to presidential power.

Historian (43:54): "They wanted to turn McCarthy from a martyr back into a hero."

Efforts include strategic petition drives, mass rallies, and plans to manipulate the Electoral College to secure his presidency regardless of the popular vote.

Roger McDaniel (48:35): "We can get our wish by qualifying a slate of American Presidential elector candidates in our respective states."

This episode underscores the enduring challenges posed by charismatic demagogues and the vulnerabilities within democratic institutions when faced with orchestrated authoritarian movements.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• David Austin Walsh (02:37): "It's a very deliberately choreographed moment."

• Historian (04:06): "Pro McCarthy marches say they want a peaceful and dignified operation down here. But if the anti McCarthy marches come in, I wonder just how peaceful it will be if they all tangle together up there on the Hill."

• Roger McDaniel (35:13): "Politician really worth listening to and supporting."

• Historian (51:32): "Between these contending viewpoints, my friends, lies a long stick of political dynamite with fuses now burning at both ends."

---

Conclusion

Episode 7 of Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra meticulously dissects the tumultuous period surrounding Joe McCarthy's censure, revealing the complex interplay between political strategy, extremist mobilization, and institutional responses. Through detailed narratives and expert insights, Maddow highlights the fragility of democratic processes in the face of determined authoritarian ambitions.

Transcript

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[Historian]

The most controversial figures ever to appear on this nation's political stage.

[Narrator]

These men at the Capitol have unholstered their guns. They're holding them at their sides as heavy cardboard boxes are loaded out of an armored truck. The presence of an unexpected uninvited armored truck at the doors of the U.S. senate. The presence of these men with their weapons drawn. It creates some alarm on the Senate floor, especially when senators learn that one of the armed men has actually come inside, has entered the Capitol. The sergeant at arms is called to investigate, and the Washington police.

[David Austin Walsh]

It's a very deliberately choreographed moment.

[Narrator]

That's author and historian David Austin Walsh.

[David Austin Walsh]

It was an attempt to show political.

[Narrator]

Strength the boxes that are being unloaded from the truck are full of petitions. A new group that didn't even exist a month earlier has hastily gathered these petitions from all over the country. And now their leader, a controversial right wing retired Navy admiral, has ordered a handful of these guards for the truck to draw their weapons as the petitions are hand delivered into the Senate.

[David Austin Walsh]

They were trying to sell this as almost a Hollywood moment, showing that the real Americans, what Nixon would later call the silent majority, were behind Joe McCarthy. Contrary to what you would read in the press.

[Narrator]

Senator Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin is facing a censure in the United States Senate. It's only the third one in Senate history. Just hours before the vote, die hard McCarthy supporters have marched to the US Capitol to show the senators inside that they'll be going up against an army of real Americans if they move ahead with that vote. And there are counter protesters too. There are worries about what might happen if the two sides come up against each other in the streets.

[Historian]

It'll be violent and bitter, I'm sorry.

[Narrator]

To say, violent and bitter. The armored truck and the men holding their guns do not lessen the tension.

[Historian]

The pro McCarthy marches say they want a peaceful and dignified operation down here. But if the anti McCarthy marches come in, I wonder just how peaceful it will be if they all tangle together up there on the Hill.

[Narrator]

Joe McCarthy has made a very profitable political sport out of dramatizing the threat of an enemy within. An America beset by shadowy, powerful internal conspirators who McCarthy alone is willing to expose and willing to fight. It creates an intense and emotional following for him, built on cathartic anger and grievance and fear and loyalty only to him. He's done it by singling out relatively powerless individuals for public destruction. Humiliating, threatening, legitimately ruining the lives of regular Americans who he's targeted. But McCarthy has also left a body count among the powerful among his Senate peers who one after another have been destroyed by McCarthy and his allies, McCarthy and his movement as punishment, as retribution for any act of opposition to him. Members of the opposition party, members of his own party have feared challenging him in public and for good reason. But by this point, by the end of 1954, Joe McCarthy's own actions are finally starting to catch up to him. What began all the way back in the Malmedy investigation has landed him here.

[Roger McDaniel]

Will Senator McCarthy finally be censured? The Senate is now split for and against McCarthy.

[Narrator]

The Malmedy hearings had seen McCarthy pushing Nazi propaganda to the public, attacking Jewish US army investigators with false Claims that came from unrepentant Nazis in Germany and from the convicted Nazi perpetrators of a massacre of American POWs. By the start of this year, 1954, Joe McCarthy was doing it again. This time it was about the Fort Monmouth army base in New Jersey. McCarthy made false, totally baseless accusations that dozens of predominantly Jewish scientists and engineers at that army base were secret Communist spies.

[Historian]

Some of them will be recommended for indictment for perjury. I assume some of them will go to jail. The important thing, however, is exposing getting them out of the places where they can do the most damage.

[Narrator]

Those false accusations destroyed the careers of many of those scientists, tore apart their lives. But they also helped bring about hearings. The Army McCarthy hearings that millions of people all across the country watched on live tv.

[Historian]

This committee therefore, has the responsibility and the duty in the course of these hearings to develop the facts and to establish the truth or the falsity of the accusations that have been made.

[Narrator]

These televised hearings go on for weeks, and they famously do not go well for Joe McCarthy. His tactics and his temperament don't play as well on TV as they used to. And his case against the army is just factually incoherent. It's clear to everyone in the hearing room. It's also clear to millions of Americans who are watching at home.

[Historian]

The United States army does not coddle Communists. This committee knows that. The American people know that.

[Narrator]

And then by the end of that year, by the end of 1954, there's another factor at play for McCarthy, which is that members of the US Senate have just been forced to bury one of their own. One of the most popular men in the Senate, Wyoming Senator Lester Hunt, had confronted Joe McCarthy. He'd been rewarded for that with an escalating and personal blackmail campaign by McCarthy and two other Republican senators. A blackmail campaign that culminated in Hunt taking his own life. Here's wyoming author Roger McDaniel.

[Historian]

The suicide of one of their own. Because of the behavior of Senator McCarthy, was seen by many in the Senate as the time that they had to draw the line. Something had to be done.

[Narrator]

Something had to be done. No previous effort to hold Joe McCarthy accountable, to punish McCarthy for anything he had done, had ever worked. But they would at least have to try.

[David Austin Walsh]

It's a way for the Senate to kind of wash their hands of a guy that nobody ever liked in the first place.

[Historian]

Senator Watkins will present appropriate resolutions to make the recommendations effective, and that is a censure on two counts and ask for a vote. Then will come the avalanche.

[Narrator]

When the censure resolution is officially put up for debate. It's not at all clear that it will have the votes to pass after those messy televised hearings where McCarthy came off so poorly. The broad public might have been cooling on McCarthy and his tactics but his supporters still are legion. And their support for him, if anything, is becoming more fervent, maybe even more radical. McCarthy's colleagues in the Senate are made well aware of that.

[David Austin Walsh]

Members of Congress say they've never gotten the volume of hate mail they've gotten in 54 because of the McCarthy censure.

[Narrator]

Senators who support the censure of Joe McCarthy are inundated with hate mail. Senator William Fulbright. He had been derided by Joe McCarthy as half bright. He entered some of his hate mail into the Congressional Record. Red skunk, I will not dignify you with the title of Senator. You are a disgrace to the United States Senate. A dirty red rat like you should be kicked out. You're not fit to clean Senator McCarthy's shoes. Hope you are struck by God. Another Senator described the summer of 1954 as a hot summer of hysteria due to McCarthy's quote, highly charged, emotional and inflammable personal following. That senator neatly filed the hate mail he received with a local university for the good of the country. My only prayer is that Communist Eisenhower will soon be impeached or assassinated. God has judged you. McCarthy will be avenged, if not by the courts, then by God's own people. Some of the mail fantasized that the avenging had already started in which this evil cabal that McCarthy had started to expose was secretly being rounded up and imprisoned. I can understand now why you demanded a closed door session. The Roosevelt and Truman gutter trash officials demanded closed doors too. They are now in prison for their secret work.

[David Austin Walsh]

You're smearing a great American patriot. You're, you know you're being duped by the communists. Are you a communist yourself, Senator? That is such a constant theme in these hate mail letters.

[Narrator]

Some Senators resorted to disconnecting their phones because of McCarthy supporters late night screaming phone calls to their homes. And they came in person too. When the censure debate formally began in the Senate, McCarthy's supporters came by bus, by carload from Wisconsin, from Texas, from Florida. They chartered their own train from New York City. Gerald L.K. smith, the rabidly anti Semitic preacher from the America First Party and the Christian Nationalist Crusade. He came to Washington himself to help lead the grassroots opposition. He set up a makeshift war room inside a hotel room right near the Capitol. A detail reported with Characteristic punch by the journalist Drew Pearson.

[Roger McDaniel]

The Mayflower Hotel. Gerald L.K. smith, the Rattler Rouser, is registered in room 1017 at the Mayflower in order to be with Joe McCarthy in his time of crisis. Smith and his wife are registered under the name of Mr. And Mrs. Steven Goodyear, room 1017. In case anyone wants to call in.

[Narrator]

From his headquarters inside the Mayflower Hotel, Gerald LK Smith and others advise the angry McCarthy army on what they should.

[David Austin Walsh]

Do among that element of the electorate that, you know, 20% hardcore, you know, American right movement. He is a saint.

[Narrator]

He's a martyr figure, a saint and a martyr. He's their hero. As far as his supporters are concerned, he's the only one they can trust. He's the only real patriot. And now he's going to be punished. He's going to be censured. How dare they. No. If they have anything to say about it, he's not going to be punished. He's going to be president. This is Rachel Maddow presents Ultra this.

[Historian]

Fight to expose those who would destroy this nation will go on and on. Would his strategy be to put himself in a position before the country of being a Martyr? Nobody stole McCarthy, but Senator McCarthy will vigorously defend himself against these three charges.

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[Narrator]

Episode 7 Mobilized the Place is packed to the rafters. Turnout is so good that organizers have gotten permission from the police to mount a loudspeaker outside so the overflow crowd that can't get in can still hear what's being said inside. Even though the crowds have been organizing at the Capitol since sunrise, packing the Senate gallery, cramming into Senate offices and hallways, they've showed no signs of slowing down all day. And now that night, they're at Constitution hall in Washington to show the strength in their numbers and in their anger. The senator who introduced the censure resolution against Joe McCarthy is Senator Ralph Flanders of Vermont.

[Roger McDaniel]

One man said today his group never will forgive Senator Flanders who started the censure.

[Narrator]

He's already had to have a police guard assigned to his home after McCarthy attacked Flanders by saying, I think they should get a net and take him to a good quiet place. McCarthy's supporters have brought big nets with them to this rally at Constitution Hall. They're holding signs that say they're looking for Senator Flanders. And there are other homemade signs. Senator McCarthy deserves a citation instead of a censure and give McCarthy what he deserves, the Congressional Medal of Honor. This is a raucous crowd at Constitution hall, an emotional one. The rally is deep into its third hour of pro McCarthy speeches and songs, and there's a surprise appearance that absolutely brings down the House.

[Historian]

One of the greatest living folds of communist slavery. That man is Joe McCarthy.

[Narrator]

Senator Joe McCarthy isn't supposed to be at that rally at Constitution hall in Washington. But then he is a surprise to the crowd. Police surround him and his wife as they walk through the crowd of thousands of supporters. People pressing in on them on every side, trying to touch him, trying to shake his hand. An AP reporter describes the crowd as going, quote, wild when they realize McCarthy is in the room. A Scripps Howard Reporter says when McCarthy appeared, quote, that did it, everyone was on his feet in an instant and the deafening roar was like nothing that the screaming, foot stamping assemblage had produced. Before McCarthy takes the stage, he says he's seen sick deep down inside because of the, quote, double crossing and the double dealing that he says is behind the Censure effort against him.

[Historian]

Take my word for it, my good friend. Regardless, and I make you this solemn promise, regardless of what this Senate may do about a censure, this fight to expose those who would destroy this nation will go on and on.

[Narrator]

Senator McCarthy, at several points in his speech, is so overcome with emotion that he's moved to tears. Photos of McCarthy will run in newspapers all across the country. Photos showing him weeping and wiping his eyes with a handkerchief. People in the audience are weeping as well. They start to sing for him.

[Historian]

But the people, and we just love our Jo. Nobody's form McCarthy but the people. Our letters help him. So.

[Narrator]

Despite the passion and the rage of his supporters, despite his track record of destroying anyone who opposed him, Senators had finally mustered the courage to consider a censure vote against McCarthy. But still they were wary.

[Historian]

This thing, of course, has a lot of unpredictable elements.

[Narrator]

They decided in 1954 to delay the vote on his censure until after the midterm elections that year. They were fearful of how the electorate would react.

[Historian]

Well, the elections will be over when the Senate does come back. But meantime, out there now are the voters.

[Narrator]

By the time the vote is finally getting near in November, McCarthy's supporters are fully mobilized. Two days after that huge Constitution hall rally in Washington, there's a dinner in his honor in his home state in Milwaukee. 1500 people show up in another raucous foot stomping show of support. Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona is there to support him. At that dinner, he tells the crowd that McCarthy is a great American who is seeking the truth. McCarthy condemns the senators who support his censure as a, quote, movement of people not loyal to our country. And then there's the rally in New York, Madison Square Garden, 13,000 people.

[Historian]

If the United States Senate should take a vote of censure against the this man who has led us, the Senate will have been committing the blackest act in its entire history.

[Narrator]

That's Joe McCarthy's chief attack dog in the Senate, his counsel, Roy Cohn. This huge rally at Madison Square Garden, like the one in Washington, it is emotional, it's raucous.

[David Austin Walsh]

When Joe McCarthy, who is facing, you know, political ruin, is able to pack Madison Square Garden with thousands of fervent supporters who are convinced that he is America's savior against subversion, that tells you something. That tells you something about the depth of, not the breadth but the depth of his political support.

[Narrator]

The crowd here shouts in approval when speakers denounce, quote, the leftist press at the mention of the words new York Times. They boo and scream. There's a female photographer here from Time magazine. She has to be escorted out of the event for her own safety. When the crowd turns against her, they're screaming at her. Hang the communist bitch. Here at the rally, up on the dais is a former Congressman Hamilton Fish.

[Roger McDaniel]

I have no patience with those Americans who tremble every time Hitler sneezes or get jittery every time he opens his mouth.

[Narrator]

After a long career in the U.S. house, Hamilton Fish had finally been voted out of office once his dealings with a Nazi agent, George Sylvester Virich were exposed to the public.

[Historian]

And over on the House side, Ham Fish of New York winds up a 22 year record.

[Narrator]

Former Congressman Hamilton Fish had been there in Washington at the emotional event at constitution hall for McCarthy and now at Madison Square Garden, here's Fish again with pride of place. Up on stage here in the audience is Gerald LK Smith whose magazine the Cross and the Flag just last month included pronouncements like the international Jew machine resolved to destroy the German race. This month's edition has a full page cover photo. The fearless fighting patriot, US Senator Joseph McCarthy. A large contingent of the crowd here has been organized by the neo Nazi National Renaissance Party.

[Historian]

They considered him, as they would say.

[Narrator]

At meeting St. Joe and he was a true American patriot. The National Renaissance Party leader who helped organize this rally is the same guy who led that pro German Holocaust denial rally in Yorkville, New York that had scheduled Joe McCarthy as its headline speaker in 1952. The year after that the same guy had toured Germany at the invitation of Nazi lawyer Rudolf Aschenauer. He gave speeches to unrepentant Nazi groups. He called for Germany to return to Nazi rule. The German government was not having it. They had his passport seized and deported him back to the United States just in time for him to become a key organizer for the movement to support Senator Joseph McCarthy and to organize this event. It was a pretty rich blend there that night. At the New York Times, William S. White described it this way. He said the anti censure forces have drawn up a cadre that clearly represents the largest re emergence and coming together of essentially right wing groups since before the United States entered the Second World War. Like in the lead up to the Second World War, the key dynamic at work was not just the presence of an American ultra right but the mix of the ultra right and mainstream electoral power. Here after all, at Madison Square Garden was an event organized by a man just kicked out of Germany for being too much of a Nazi. At the same Event attendees are also hearing a stirring speech from the sitting Governor of Utah. Here's an event attended by Gerald L K Smith, who advocates the forced sterilization and deportation of all American Jews. But it's also attended by a polite contingent of supporters of the late Senator Robert Taft, aka Mr. Republican. Here in the crowd at Madison Square Garden is William F. Buckley, Jr. A man of growing influence on the right. He's just published God and Man at Yale. And he's here alongside James Madal, the National Renaissance Party leader. He's just published something, too, something titled Adolf Hitler, the George Washington of Europe.

[David Austin Walsh]

McCarthy operated as a sort of linchpin for, you know, laundering far right influence into the political mainstream in American politics.

[Narrator]

FBI files show that the Bureau had started staking out pro McCarthy events in 1954, like a Roy Cohn speech in Baltimore, expecting that these were the kinds of events where fugitive fascist Francis Parker Yaqui might be likely to turn up. They might be able to apprehend him, to question him about his Nazi ties, about his spying inside the Nazi war crimes trials, about his travels to the Middle east to try to sell plans for a cobalt bomb. Here was a powerful, transgressive, menacing, but also ascendant American political movement built from the start on surprisingly porous border ground between the unthinkably extremist edge and mainstream electoral politics. Now, as their leader fights for his political life, as his opponents finally are summoning the courage to confront him with the kind of sanction that's intended to knock him out of politics, who will hold their nerve as the radical movement he's marshaled makes its show of force and he presents himself to them as their martyr?

[Historian]

Wouldn't you think that a man in Senator McCarthy's position, and facing this likely censor, would his strategy be to put himself in a position before the country of being a martyr, and that his friends would play along that strategy line?

[Narrator]

That's next.

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[Historian]

Nobody's for McCarthy but the people.

[Narrator]

Joe McCarthy is defending himself against censure by the U.S. senate at a string of large and intense rallies supporting him. Crowds are singing his name. They're weeping when he speaks, reaching out to try to touch him. Now McCarthy wants more time. More time to demonstrate to his Senate colleagues just how big a mistake it would be for them to take him on in this way.

[Historian]

All I can say is that Senator McCarthy will vigorously defend himself against these three charges when a full hearing is held on the floor of the Senate.

[Narrator]

Even after Senate leaders decide to delay the censure vote until after the election, McCarthy's still pressing for even more of a delay. Of course he'd like to delay it indefinitely if possible, but at this point he'll take anything he can get. After the election, he comes up with an unexpected way to buy himself a even more time.

[Historian]

His right arm still in a sling because of an injured elbow.

[Narrator]

The legislator from Wisconsin an injured elbow? McCarthy informs the Senate that there cannot be a censure vote against him because he has come down with traumatic bursitis of the elbow. He says it happened while he was receiving an over enthusiastic handshake from an over enthusiastic supporter. Too near a glass tabletop, and it has left him so laid up that the censure proceedings must stop now. The exact nature of this injury is never clear, but McCarthy produced a doctor's note claiming that he needed not just hospitalization but full, uninterrupted bed rest in order to recover from this traumatic bursitis of the elbow that pesky Drew Pearson reported that McCarthy was regularly taking breaks from his hospitalization and his bed rest to go have dinner and drinks with friends.

[Roger McDaniel]

McCarthy, according to Senate colleagues, is now pleading the Bethesda Hospital amendment in order to drag out the censure debate as long as possible.

[Narrator]

Pleading the Bethesda Hospital amendment. People also called this Joe McCarthy's elbow filibuster. But it did work. The Republican Senate Majority Leader was more than happy to treat the elbow story with all the seriousness he could muster. He announced that the McCarthy censured debate and vote would be delayed a further 10 days.

[Roger McDaniel]

McCarthy is calling for time to permit the rolling up of 10 million signatures.

[Narrator]

If McCarthy has bought himself 10 whole days with this elbow gambit, well, his supporters are going to make the most of it. In those 10 days they decide they'll collect 10 million signatures in support of McCarthy. 10 million signatures in 10 days to stop the censure. Newspapers all over the country front page. This lightning petition drive. Life magazine does a photo spread of housewives signing people up on street corners. People line lining up to sign and to volunteer. The Orlando Sentinel publishes the actual petition itself in a handy clip out form. They say it is a service to the thousands of Central Florida citizens who believe in the principles for which Senator McCarthy stands and who are eager to do their part for the preservation of our American way of life. The group that forms to collect the signatures announces plans for offices from coastal coast.

[Historian]

We've had requests from people all over the country to set up auxiliary headquarters. I remember one from Basin, Wyoming, Yakima, Washington, all the way to the West Coast. This particular petition has been mushrooming at such a tremendous rate that it's beginning to look like that not 10 million, but we could probably get 20 million signatures if we just had the time.

[Narrator]

20 million signatures. If only we had a few more days. A member of the neo Nazi militia group the National Renaissance Party takes over as the New Jersey co chair of the 10 Million Americans Effort for McCarthy. The group's leader, James Madall, starts urging New Yorkers to sign those McCarthy petitions. Madall found Joe McCarthy the only American.

[Advertiser]

Politician really worth listening to and supporting.

[Narrator]

The National Renaissance Party even starts using a new name. The group starts holding meetings under the name patriots for McCarthy. A Washington reporter, Robert L. Riggs, writes that McCarthy is quote, appealing over the heads of the senators to the people of the country. He is drawing a picture of himself as the crucified enemy of traitors within our gates. If your political Hero, your saint is being crucified. How much is too much when it comes to showing your support for him, when it comes to backing him up?

[David Austin Walsh]

The day before the censure vote, an armored car pulls up to the Capitol building with armed guards.

[Narrator]

Armed guards at the entrance to the Senate with their pistols drawn. The day before the censure vote, that same day, as that unfolds outside the Senate, that literal show of force to the senators inside, the Republican Senate Majority Leader announces that he's made his decision on censure. His vote will be no. He's standing with McCarthy. The pressure campaign that's been building for weeks with the pro McCarthy rallies and the petitions and this weird threatening spectacle of how the petitions were brought to the Capitol. McCarthy's supporters harassing senators with hate mail and late night phone calls to their homes, threats of violence, death threats. That kind of stuff isn't just for fun, it's for effect. And there are Republicans in the Senate who initially supported censuring McCarthy who now change their minds.

[Roger McDaniel]

Here is the backstage reason why Senator Case of South Dakota suddenly went into reverse. And without telling one.

[Narrator]

On top of everything else they're doing, McCarthy and his allies start hunting for dirt on individual senators to use as leverage to get them to vote no.

[Roger McDaniel]

McCarthy has a secret bombshell to explode against Senator Flanders. He will charge.

[Narrator]

McCarthy insists publicly that he's going to win this fight either way.

[Roger McDaniel]

McCarthy has admitted to friends privately that he wants to be censured and go down as a martyr. Friends have begged him to make a public apology, but McCarthy stubbornly refused and snorted that he would rather be censured than apologize.

[Narrator]

That idea that McCarthy wanted to be able to claim martyrdom, that even as he fought it, he might welcome censure because it would allow him to portray himself as the victim of political persecution. The fact that that was increasingly clear as his political strategy, it didn't make it any easier to combat.

[Historian]

Would his strategy be to put himself in a position before the country of being a martyr and that his friends would play along that strategy line? Well, Dick, I have thought of that. I've never thought of it in exactly the words that you put it up. Would that be his strategy? But I have thought that events could turn around so that the public would accept him as a large part of the public would accept him as a martyr. It seems to be their stock in trade or their battlefire.

[Narrator]

McCarthy and his allies also mounted another defense as well. In addition to the political persecution claim, they also said that McCarthy and those on his side, people who could vouch for him inside the government, who could contribute to his defense, they were being gagged. They were somehow not being allowed to speak.

[Historian]

I think there was an indication today that McCarthy and Williams, his lawyer, are going to try to stress this gag idea. If McCarthy can cry, gag, then he moves the battle more to his. His own sort of approach. This is what he likes to do. He likes to go on the offensive, to take the attack. And he says, look, I've got a witness here, but you won't let him talk.

[Narrator]

After all the posturing and the delays and the elbow filibuster and the rally and the brandishing of guns on the steps of the Capitol, it's finally time for the Senate to vote.

[Historian]

Spectators converge on the Senate chamber where the upper House, in heated parliamentary debate, votes a public rebuke of one of its members, Senator Joseph McCarthy.

[Narrator]

This is a very, very rare thing in U.S. history. There were two senators who were censured in 1902, another one in 1929, but that's it, and it hasn't happened since then.

[Historian]

Joseph McCarthy is the fourth senator in history to be so disciplined by his colleagues in the Capitol.

[Roger McDaniel]

67 to 22.

[Historian]

It condemns him for his conduct.

[Narrator]

Among Democrats in the Senate that day, the vote is 44 to 0 in favor of censuring Joe McCarthy on the Republican side. Half of the Republic Republicans in the Senate vote in his favor. McCarthy biographer Richard Revere said the half of Senate Republicans who voted with McCarthy were, quote, by and large, the more influential half. Joe McCarthy is ultimately censured, but his grip on his own party substantially remains.

[David Austin Walsh]

It's important that he still has support. It's not a universal censure.

[Narrator]

It's not universal. In the end, it's not even technically a censure. By the time the Senate actually takes the vote, the censure resolution has been watered down to the point where it no longer even includes the word censure. Officially, it's a condemnation of Senator McCarthy.

[Historian]

They went right straight down the party line. Every Democrat voted against us. And this condemnation, called what you may, even though they proclaimed over and over that this was a judicial proceeding. How does it feel to be a condemned Senator? I feel no different tonight than I did last night. I am very happy to have this circus ended so that we can get back to the work of digging out communism, corruption, treason in government. Senator, do you feel you have not been censored in this action? I wouldn't say that today was a vote of confidence, Senator. At the beginning you called this a lynching beam. Do you feel now you've been lynched?

[Narrator]

When Senator McCarthy was finally censured or condemned by a vote of his own Senate colleagues, the resolution they passed against him did not criticize McCarthy's lies about his enemies and his targets, his promotion of false Nazi propaganda, his blackmail against Senator Lester Hunt. The resolution they passed against him called him out instead for his discourteousness toward his fellow Senators, for violating Senate rules and traditions. In his interactions with two Senate committees. They basically criticized him for being rude to his co workers on a couple of occasions and that was it. And even that was a bridge too far for half of the Republicans in the U.S. senate.

[David Austin Walsh]

There are people who are taking a stand in the Senate saying McCarthy did nothing wrong. And that's because of the intensity of the support on the right for McCarthy.

[Narrator]

For the most intense McCarthy supporters out there, this censure fight, this condemnation, not only is it effectively toothless against him, it's proof of the evil of McCarthy's enemies. It's proof that our system of government, the American system of government, maybe is broken. Maybe it should be cast aside entirely. The day after the Senate vote, the very next day, the National Renaissance Party gathers in New York under its new, meant to be less Nazi seeming banner, calling themselves patriots for McCarthy. According to FBI records at that meeting, the group's leader, James Madall, quote, advocated a break with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, which he said were completely outmoded and no, no longer filled the country's needs. The group then starts to discuss what it would take to make Joe McCarthy president of the United States in the next election.

[David Austin Walsh]

They wanted to turn McCarthy from a martyr back into a hero. It is a moment of broad grassroots mobilization by American conservatives that provides a sort of template, a blueprint for future action.

[Narrator]

The organizing, the petition drives, the protests, the mass rallies, the new organizations that sprung up in his name, the old organizations that changed their names to support him explicitly. It could all now be put to a new use. Not just to try to stop the censure of McCarthy, but, but to promote McCarthy to the peak of American power. Senator Arthur Watkins, who chaired the committee that handled the McCarthy censure, he said that McCarthy was on course to, quote, become the political leader, the nationalist hero of a cross party lines faction. He said McCarthy would be the man on a white horse for what he called the right wing, know nothing element of American politics. If that movement succeeded in elevating him on those terms. Watkins said he believed McCarthy could, quote, be carried to Unbelievable, even unthinkable power.

[Roger McDaniel]

He followed the full throated blast with.

[Historian]

A long pause and then quiet tones.

[Roger McDaniel]

Tones of shock and sadness.

[Historian]

Then in another moment, the full blast again.

[Roger McDaniel]

The documents waved in air at the a wild burst of applause and cries. Anyone present would have thought this man cannot miss the White House.

[Narrator]

The accepted common wisdom today when it comes to Joe McCarthy is that the Senate censure vote spelled the end for him. It started a quick and then uninterrupted descent into irrelevance. In reality, for a large part of the Republican Party and its base, and for the American ultra right which supported him to the hilt, in which he had never disavowed, McCarthy remained as popular as ever.

[David Austin Walsh]

The people who loved Joe McCarthy at the beginning of 1954 still loved Joe McCarthy at the end of 1954. And they loved Joe McCarthy. You know, in all caps he was.

[Narrator]

Their champion, the only one they believed in. He'd taken that censure vote for them to show them that the so called system, the American system that could allow this to happen to their hero, it was corrupt and rotten and ripe to be overthrown. For all the slings and arrows that he had borne on their behalf, they were going to repay McCarthy by elevating him to the highest office in the country.

[David Austin Walsh]

Drafting McCarthy for president was a way. It was a way for right wingers to assert in a sense, their own dignity in the face of what they perceived to be this horrific and anti American. Smith, your campaign.

[Narrator]

Just two months after that censure vote, there was Joe McCarthy being greeted by a minute long standing ovation from a crowd of 2,000 Republicans in Chicago. As the 1956 presidential election hit high gear, there was Joe McCarthy speaking before a capacity crowd of 4,000 people at Carnegie hall in New York City. A month after that, it was a pro McCarthy rally of another 4,000 people in Washington D.C. and a specific plan of action. As the censure of McCarthy enraged the right, as their arguments turned angrily to the idea that normal electoral American politics couldn't be trusted anymore, that there would have to be some new way to save the country. A group founded and funded by Robert McCormick, publisher of the Chicago Tribune, started promoting a plan, a new plan to basically monkey wrench the next presidential election.

[Roger McDaniel]

The inevitable chanted response was how? Tell us how. The final recommendation for popular action was so simple and so practical that it startled the assembled patriots.

[Narrator]

The plan would not be to compete in politics in the normal sense, to try to win the most votes. Instead, the plan would be to grab hold of the fragile arcane system of counting the votes.

[Roger McDaniel]

The nationwide popular vote that is apparently cast for a presidential candidate in the November election has nothing at all to do with his victory or defeat.

[Narrator]

They would gin up new slates, surprise slates of electors in enough states to mess with the electoral vote count in Washington, which is, after all, what actually decides the presidency.

[Roger McDaniel]

Every American voter is qualified under state statutes rather than by national laws. Each state may select these electors in any manner that the state legislature desires. I am more than ever convinced that not one American in 10,000 completely understands the constitutional power of the 531 presidential electors.

[Narrator]

All told, Robert McCormick's group, which was called For America, they might not be able to field a candidate who could win the presidency in the normal sense of the word. But with a plan like this, a plan focused on messing up the Electoral College count, well, they might be able to get it anyway.

[Roger McDaniel]

We can get our wish by qualifying a slate of American Presidential elector candidates in our respective states. In some jurisdictions, the process is more difficult than in others. In a number of states, patriots are already far advanced on these necessary prerequisites.

[Narrator]

If you could just inject enough chaos into the counting of the Electoral College vote that the election could be thrown to Congress to a vote in the US House of Representatives, well, maybe at that point you could get a real patriot over the top and into the White House. No matter how the country had voted.

[Roger McDaniel]

In the election, some of my wise and trusted friends in certain states of the Union are confident that their existing local political organizations can be trusted to protect the voters of those states against the dreaded possibility of two One World Socialist tickets in November.

[Narrator]

It would come to a head not in November, not during the vote, but afterwards, in the first week of January when Congress would gather in special session to count the electoral vote.

[Roger McDaniel]

This is the master key to any plan for pro American electors in 1956.

[Narrator]

The master key to unlock an America where a real patriot can win or where he doesn't need to win, but he'll take power anyway. That is next time on the final episode of Rachel Maddow Presents Ultra.

[Roger McDaniel]

Between these contending viewpoints, my friends, lies a long stick of political dynamite with fuses now burning at both ends.

[Narrator]

Rachel Maddow Presents Ultra is a production of msnbc. This episode was written by myself, Mike Jarvitz and Jen Mulraney Donovan. The series is executive produced by myself and Mike Jarvitz. It's produced by Jen Mulraney Donovan and Kelsey Desiderio. Our Associate producer is Vasilios Karsilakis. Archival support from Holly Klopchin. Audio engineering and sound design by Bob Mallory and Katherine Anderson. Our head of audio production is Bryson Barnes. Our senior executive producers are Cory Nazzo and Laura Conaway. Our web producer is Will Femia. Aisha Turner is the executive producer for MSNBC Audio. Rebecca Cutler is the senior Vice president for Content strategy at msnbc. Archival radio material is from NBC News via the Library of Congress. Additional archival material is courtesy of the Drew Pearson Estate, for which we're very, very grateful. Especially special thanks to David Austin Walsh. David has a great book that I highly recommend. It's called Taking America, the Conservative Movement and the Far Right. You can find much more about this series at our website, msnbc.com ultra.

[Historian]

I think it was four solid years and it was intense beyond words.

[Narrator]

It sounds like long days, leaving at midnight doing research.

[Historian]

And it was.

[Narrator]

You were an irritant to McCarthy and.

[Historian]

To his people just by doing your job. I would often be in the office till 10 or 11 o' clock at night. My colleague Phil Potter, he would say, well what do you think we're accomplishing? I said, well I have to operate on the premise, the only premise I know of, that if you keep putting enough light on a situation, it's you'll hopefully have some consequence. Something will happen as a result of it. What the hell do you think is going to happen out of this? I said, well eventually people are going to see what this is like and be repelled by it. They understand what is happening and what's that going to do to him? I said, well that makes him a subject of ridicule. Well who the hell. He doesn't care if anybody ridicules him or not. I said, yes he will. He will can only operate on the journalistic premise that I know is that it has some effect. If it doesn't have an effect, we should all be in the bottling business or something.

[Narrator]

That's right.

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