Transcript
Rachel Maddow (0:00)
Ugh.
Commercial Announcer (0:00)
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Rachel Maddow (0:17)
Hey, still got my hoodie?
Commercial Announcer (0:18)
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Rachel Maddow (1:00)
happy to have you here. So first they got rid of Gregory Bovino, the little guy who lives in a shoe who was inexplicably promoted well beyond his job title to lead Donald Trump's chaotic, violent, trigger happy, inept paramilitary invasions of multiple U.S. cities. They got rid of him. Then they got rid of Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security. Also technically they also got rid at the same time they got rid of the guy who who didn't formally work for the Department of Homeland Security. But nevertheless he was there every day and at all of her events sitting or standing right next to her. And he was definitely, definitely, definitely not her boyfriend because she is super happily married. Then of course we immediately got some quite unexpected news about that aforementioned marriage. And then we got the multi million dollar luxury private jet that she and her not boyf and procured with taxpayer funds for what they said would be high profile deportations. The private jet with the bar and the queen size bed. Then we learned that the Homeland Security Department would not be keeping that jet after all, the White House instead would be taking it. And now it was going to be used by other cabinet members and also for some reason by Melania Trump. Investigations into the not boyfriend of Kristi Noem demanding payments from companies with Homeland Security contracts reported reportedly continue. The not boyfriend of course denies all wrongdoing. But then they got rid of the Attorney General. She only barely made it a year. In that time she did reduce the U.S. department of justice to a smoking hulk. But apparently she was just getting started when they got rid of her. She had just moved into some general's house because the true mark of making it in the upper echelons of this administration is that you're allowed to essentially loot from the US Military. You're allowed to just take over military housing for your herself because, hey, some of it's quite nice. But right after she got moved into some general's house, Attorney General Pam Bondi was out. Then they got rid of the director of ICE following reports that he had had to be hospitalized not once, but twice since taking the job because of stress. Plus another incident in which his security detail reportedly retrieved a portable defibrillator from a nearby office because he was freaking out so hard they were sure they were going to have to him. Last week, the head of ice, Todd Lyons, found himself unable to answer basic questions from Democratic Congresswoman Lauren Underwood of Illinois as she pressed him on why so many people have been dying in ICE custody. He could not answer her basic questions about those deaths, even basic questions about why those deaths weren't being investigated. And then as soon as that, I'm sure very stressful hearing was over. We learned that he's out, too. He has resigned and he will be gone next month. Well, now, today, another one down. The Secretary of Labor is out. And where do you want to start? With this one. In January, the New York Post was first to report on a complaint about Trump's Labor Secretary that had been made to the department's inspector general. And I got to tell you, the New York Post has since done a ton of groundbreaking reporting on this scandal at Trump's Labor Department. But because it's the New York Post, and I'm going to show you some of their reporting, I feel like I just have to mention at the outset that they do decide to decorate much of their reporting on this scandal with photos of Trump's labor secretary in a bikini. Like, I mean, not every article, but a lot of their articles about this just randomly have pictures of her in a bikini. And I don't. I just. It's. I guess that's just kind of the business model over there, but the reporting is what it is. Trump's Labor Secretary, Laurie Chavez Darimer, faced allegations of drinking in the office during the workday and of taking staff members to strip clubs and of taking personal trips at taxpayer expense. She was accused of pursuing a sexual relationship with a member of her security detail. That member of her security detail was then put on leave. Then he resigned. Then her chief of staff was forced out. Then her deputy chief of staff was forced out. Then her director of Vance was forced out. Then we learned that her husband. Hey, there's a husband. He was banned from going inside the Labor Department's headquarters building. That, that, that ban on him entering the building came after two Labor Department staff members accused him, the secretary's husband, of sexually assaulting them at the Labor Department headquarters building. The husband denies wrongdoing. But then the hits just kept coming. Last week, the New York Times was first to report on Trump's labor secretary allegedly sending text messages to her employees during the workday telling them to bring her wine. The Times says it has reviewed the messages and that they're part of an inspector general investigation. We here at Ms. Now have not reviewed the messages and have not independently confirmed this reporting. But this is what the Times says. Quote. In one text message, the Ms. Chavez Darimer asked a staff member to bring Rose to her hotel room. The messages are undated, but a picture of the menu in the text message exchange suggests it comes from a hotel bar in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where the Labor Secretary went on an official visit last July. She asked, quote, do they sell by the bottle? And it wasn't just the, the wine. The alleged day drinking and having Labor Department employees bring her win for day drinking. This is also from the times. Quote, Ms. Chavez Darimer's husband and father exchanged text messages with young female staff members at the Labor Department. Some of the young women were instructed by the Labor Secretary herself to, quote, pay attention, to, quote, pay attention to her husband and father. In an April 2025 exchange provided to investigators, Ms. Chavez Darimer's father wrote to a young female Labor Department staff member, quote, hearing you are in town, wishing you would let me know. I could have made some excuses to get out and show you around. Please keep this private. The young female Labor Department staff member responded, quote, will do. No need to worry. She apologized to him for not reaching out. He responded, quote, when are you leaving and where are you staying? This is the Labor Secretary's father. She allegedly told her young female staffers that they needed to, quote, pay attention to him. When are you leaving and where are you staying? Three Labor Department staff members have filed civil rights complaints against Trump's labor secretary and the department, describing a hostile work environment. But now Trump's labor secretary is out, too. As of tonight, Trump Labor Secretary Laurie Chavez Darimer is out of her job. Her lawyer told us here at Ms. Now tonight, quote, secretary Chavez Darimer did not resign due to findings that she violated the law. Her decision to leave office was personal. You know, personally, I think it's got a sting that I don't think they ever gave her a general's house. I mean, not like everybody else in the Cabinet. I don't think she ever got one. Not even like an admiral's house. But now she's out as well. That said, the FBI director still has his job. The deputy director of the FBI, the podcaster guy, they got rid of him, but the other podcaster guy is still there in the director's job after learning about Director Kash Patel assigning the FBI SWAT team to be personal bodyguards for his girlfriend after Director Kash Patel flew the FBI private jet to the Olympics so the taxpayers could pay for him to go to Italy and chug beer in the hockey team's locker room, FBI Director Kash Patel has now filed a lawsuit and a demand for $250 million against the Atlantic magazine. Following the Atlantic reporting this weekend on what reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick described as his, quote, conspicuous inebriation, quote Several officials told me that Patel's drinking has been a recurring source of concern across the government. They said he is known to drink to the point of obvious intoxication in many cases at the private Club Neds in Washington, D.C. while in the presence of White House and other administration staff. Patel is also known to drink to excess at the Poodle Room in Las Vegas, where he frequently spends parts of his weekends. Early in his tenure, meetings and briefings had to be rescheduled for later in the day as a result of his alcohol fueled nights, said six current and former officials and others familiar with Patel's schedule. Quote on multiple occasions in the past year, members of Patel's security detail had difficulty with waking him because he was seemingly intoxicated, according to information supplied to Justice Department and White House officials. A request for breaching equipment normally used by SWAT and hostage rescue teams to quickly gain entry into buildings was made last year because Director Kash Patel had been unreachable behind locked doors, according to multiple people familiar with the request. Some of Patel's colleagues at the FBI worry his personal behavior has become a threat to public safety. FBI officials and others in the administration have privately questioned whether alcohol played a role. For example, in the multiple instances in which Patel has shared inaccurate information with the public about active law enforcement investigations, including following the murder of Charlie Kirk. The Atlantic says its reporter spoke with more than two dozen sources for this story. Mississippi now has not independently verified these allegations. Mr. Patel has denied all wrongdoing. He's now suing the Atlantic over this story, calling it malicious and defamatory. But for now, at least, he remains in his job at the FBI, with the speculative odds on how quickly podcaster Kash Patel might be fired from that job, hinging somewhat on the question of how much alcohol remains in the news about Trump's FBI director, since President Donald Trump is somewhat famously averse to drunkenness. Hey, Pete Hegseth, still on the job as defense Secretary as the supposed ceasefire in Iran comes to an end. And maybe there are talks in Pakistan, or maybe there are not. And maybe Vice President Vance is going to those talks again, or maybe he is not. And the president said he made a nuclear deal with Iran, and Iran says they did no such deal thing. And if you're trying to understand even something as basic as whether or not oil tankers and other ships are now safely navigating the Strait of Hormuz, I don't know what to tell you. But I can tell you that the US Government has not turned out to be an accurate source of information on that rather crucial point. The US Military did update their casualty numbers today. In addition to the 13 US service members killed in this chaotic war, the number of wounded U.S. marines in this conflict now stands at 19. The number of wounded U.S. air Force airmen stands at 62. The number of U.S. navy sailors wounded stands at 63. And the number of U.S. army soldiers wounded in this Iran war stands at 271. That means the current tally, provided we can trust these numbers from the Pentagon, the current tally is 415 US wounded, 13 killed, as thousands more US service members are being sent over there. Now, even as we speak and as casualty numbers rise, do we think our servicemen and women are in good hands? Do we think that there is care being taken in terms of what they're risking their lives for? The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that during the planning and then the operation to rescue a U.S. airman shot down in his F15 inside Iran, quote, AIDS kept the president out of the room as they got minute by minute updates because they believed the president's impatience wouldn't be helpful. It's the Wall Street Journal reporting attributed. Reporting attributed to a senior administration source. And again, we have not validated this reporting on our own terms. But if what the Wall Street Journal is reporting is true, that means in the middle of a war that Donald Trump started, White House aides believe President Donald Trump cannot be allowed around sensitive and urgent decisions because he's too much of a mess, so they need to keep him out of the room. Well, okay, how about the seasoned, far sighted, experienced wise men the president has surrounded himself with generally and specifically to help him make crucial decisions about this war that he started? Quote, some of the president's advisors were caught off guard that tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz would grind to a halt so quickly after the bombing began. They were caught off guard. Quote, Trump has since marveled, marveled at the ease with which the Strait of Hormuz was closed by Iran. He has marveled, yes. Who possibly could have ever seen that coming? They had no idea. While the war seems poised to start right back up again this week, with Americans still having no real idea, no credible explanation from the president as to why he has started this war, let alone how he might end it, President Trump continues to send his son in law to do the talking over there. His son in law, who does not technically work for the US Government, but is nevertheless doing the negotiating in the Middle east around whatever this war is about. Now, the president says Jared always acts in America's best interest, so nothing to worry about. But does that settle all your concerns about these matters? I mean, they seem to find it not awkward at all, not embarrassing at all that in these discussions, the person apparently leading negotiations on behalf of the United States of America, the president's son in law, is not being paid by the United States of America, but he is being paid by other countries in the region who definitely have their own reasons for wanting a war with Iran, even if the United States actually doesn't. He's being paid by countries that have a lot of skin in the game and have a lot of interest in war with Iran. The United States, at least the people of the United States, haven't been given a reason why we're raging this war. But, I mean, Jared's leading the talks. This was the headline in Forbes magazine last fall, quote, how Jared Kushner's bold bets in the Middle east made him a billionaire. Well, now the people in the Middle east paying him and making him into a billionaire as of last year, they now get to, quote, negotiate with him, with this guy. They're paying about whether the US Military fights a war. I honestly, I don't think the White House gets how repulsive this is to people. Smarter Democrats out there are starting to talk about it, though, because I think smarter Democrats out there know how repulsive this kind of thing is to regular people. Take, for example, Democratic US Senator Jon Ossoff speaking this weekend in Augusta, Georgia.