Field Reporter (6:07)

It's a noisy night here at the Cambria Hotel in Polaris, where ICE officials are allegedly staying. People are blasting music, their car horns and ringing bells to send a message that they will do whatever it takes to get ICE out of Columbus. They're calling it no Sleep for ice and people say they're here to support their family and neighbors. According to social media reports, this comes after a group gathered last night at the Embassy Suites Hotel on the northeast side of the city near Westerville after discovering where ICE officials were staying locally. One woman I spoke with says she was there until about 3am last night. She says she's done this for the last several nights and doesn't plan to stop until ICE does. For others, this is their first time, but they, too say they will do this as long as it takes until ICE leaves Columbus. Maybe they're tired tomorrow and they won't maybe take more of our neighbors in custody tomorrow. Maybe they'll be a little cranky and move a little slower. Maybe some can get away. Just making them uncomfortable like they make everybody else uncomfortable. I mean, hopefully just a little bit of unrest like this is, you know, better than nothing. Just sitting at home on my couch. Columbus police are also on scene. And earlier today, more community members rallied against what they call aggressive ICE activity in their neighborhoods. Hundreds of people gathered in Westerville for a protest to voice their opposition with one clear message. ICE is not welcome here.

Narrator/Announcer (7:40)

My brother's standing tall.

Rachel Maddow (7:43)

Standing tall.

Field Reporter (7:44)

Chants filled the streets as protesters marched, waved signs and demanded ICE leave their neighborhoods, turning frustration and fear into a loud show of resistance. It's really just scary. You have to be scared anywhere you walk, anywhere you go. And, you know, a lot of people out here aren't very. Don't know their rights. I have a baby child that fits the description of what these people are looking for. Kidnapping and disappearing. Half them. We don't know even where they're at. Protesters say as long as the reported increased ICE activity persists, they will not hide and will do whatever it takes to force ICE agents out of the city. You're not welcome here. Our immigrants are our neighbors. They're our family. They're welcome. They pay taxes. They help the community. You do nothing for us.

Rachel Maddow (8:41)

That's Local Channel four, the NBC station in Columbus, Ohio. Columbus, Ohio. This weekend, in the midst of a surge of Trump's federal agents grabbing people in that city. You see some of what's happening there in terms of the local response. We've also seen a lot of reports from Columbus and the Columbus area about mutual aid and know your rights trainings and churches coming together to try to figure out how they can keep people safe in their community against this attack from the federal government. Louisiana has also been the subject of similar types of attacks from federal agents in the last couple of weeks, and as such, this was the scene at one Marriott hotel near the French Quarter in New Orleans this weekend. This happened right after Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino was reportedly seen at this hotel in New Orleans. When those images started circulating on social media, people in New Orleans turned out again to be as loud as possible at that hotel. We Americans have always had a special knack for making ourselves annoying to others. Just ask anybody from any other country. But now, in city after city in our own country, from Southern California to Chicago to Massachusetts to North Carolina to Columbus, Ohio, to New Orleans, Americans are putting that talent to use. Americans are making themselves purposely annoying at hotels for a very specific cause when ICE agents are staying there. There were protests at a Home Depot in Oakland, California this weekend as that company continues to allow its stores and its parking lots to be used by Trump's agents to attack immigrants. People want Home Depot to at least object to that, to at least tell the government that they should not use their stores and parking lots for that purpose. You're starting to see protests, Home Depots all across the country. There were protests this weekend at the San Luis Obispo County San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office in California, people protesting against ICE activity at the county jail there. Protests this weekend against ICE and against Trump's immigration raids in Paducah, Kentucky. Also, we saw a similar protest in Pontiac, Michigan this weekend. In Bentonville, Arkansas, this weekend, people protested with what they called signs of fascism, literal signs about what fascist governance looks like. Controlled mass media identifying enemies to blame. Sort of a rip from the headlines kind of vibe there. Protests this weekend at the Pueblo, Colorado airport. There's an airline that operates at that airport. It's called Key Lime Air or Denver Air Connection. And that company has been linked to ICE deportation flights. And so Colorado residents are increasingly protesting against Key Lime Air and Denver Air Connection, basically wanting them kicked out of Colorado airports. I should tell you, there were protests at the Denver airport before these protests at the Pueblo airport. And after the Denver airport protests against Key Lime Air. The Denver City Council last week responded. They voted to block Key Lime Air from an expansion at the Denver airport. One city councilor telling Colorado Newsline, quote, this is where the rubber starts to hit the road. When we start to talk about what are we going to do in Denver about what's happening at the federal level. She said, quote, if an aviation grant, meaning an aviation grant for the Denver International Airport is what's on the line here, then it's very clear to me what the city's stand should be on that. She said, quote, I have no interest in supporting this deportation machine. The city council voted to deny them that request. There was protest in eastern North Carolina this weekend with the Reverend William Barber against Republicans re engineering that state to get rid of one of the last remaining black congressional districts in the South. There were protests this weekend in Boulder, Colorado, against Trump's bizarre new plan to just close one of the premier geosciences labs in the world. Trump, just out of the blue, demanded the closure, full stop, of the national center for Atmospheric Research NCAR in Colorado. I'm not sure he understands what atmospheric research is. Maybe he may think that weather forecasts just happen like from fortune cookies or something. I don't know what he thinks he's going to win by getting rid of again one of the premier geoscience labs in the world. Absolutely crucial, among other things, to severe weather research for the benefit of the American people and the American government. He wants to shut it down. Hundreds of Coloradans, including Democratic Congressman Joe Neguse and Democratic US Senator John Hickenlooper, came out amid the protesters this weekend to protest against that new announcement from Trump in Boulder. There were protests this weekend right after President Trump put his own name up on the Kennedy center in Washington. Some public officials were at that protest, including Senator Chris Van Hollen. But mostly it was, was it was regular Washingtonians who just turned out in, in costume and in drag and in a general sense of astonishment and revulsion at this, this president and what we are learning about the lengths he will go to to serve himself. And you know, I don't, I don't know where all these various types of protests end up going right. I don't know where they all end up in history and in our time. I don't think any of us can know that sort of in the abstract and in advance and while this is all happening, but we do know that his trend lines aren't good and the kinds of causes these protesters are sticking up for are ascending in popularity. As his popularity sinks, his popularity is sinking not just overall, but on every issue area over time. And public protests against him, against him generally and against him on all these specific issue areas are persisting and persisting and persisting everywhere in the country over time. They're not letting up. And I don't exactly know how this got into the mix here, but I'll just show you. This is from the last couple of weeks as well. This is not the United States. This is the city of Sofia, capital city of Bulgaria, showing you these protests because Bulgaria recently saw its prime minister and his whole government resign in the face of these protests, in the face of Bulgarians turning to the streets in widespread and increasingly large nonviolent protests against their own government. This is from the BBC. Quote, the government of Bulgaria's prime minister has resigned after protesters took to the streets in cities across the country and filled the center of the capital, Sofia. The Prime Minister's dramatic move came ahead of a vote of no confidence in parliament. In a TV address, the prime minister said, quote, we hear the voice of citizens protesting against the government, both young and old have raised their voices for our resignation. He said, quote, this civic energy must be supported and encouraged. Protesters had accused his right leaning government of widespread corruption. The government had already scrapped a controversial budget plan for next year that was widely seen as self dealing by the administration had already scrapped that controversial budget plan in response to the demonstrations in the capital and elsewhere in that country. And then between 50 and 100,000 people turned out in the central triangle of power and Independence Square in the capital city of Sofia. They're all calling for the government to go and the government went. Protesters projected the words resignation and mafia out projected them onto the parliament building protesting widespread corruption. Mafia out. Resign. The word for resign in Bulgarian is here in this image. I do not speak Bulgarian, but I think the pronunciation is Ostafka. And the reason it says Ostafka on this pink pig is because the pink pig became the symbol of that protest movement against that corrupt government. A symbol of the decadence and corruption of that government that the people all over that country decided to protest against. And protest they did until that government stood down. Prime minister resigned. In the New York Times, the headline about the prime minister resigning his government resigning quoted the protesters, quote, don't feed the pig. The anti corruption call that helped topple a government. As we head toward the end of this first year of Trump being back in office, the corruption story in this country is becoming more and more central to people's understanding of what Donald Trump and the Trump era Republican party have to offer the country. I mean, people don't like what Trump is doing on immigration broadly. They don't like the cruelty. They don't like masked secret police roaming around in unmarked cars and grabbing people off the street on the basis of their race and shooting pepper balls at people and breaking people's car windows and chasing people into church parking lots and daycare centers. Yeah, it turns out people do not like that broadly, and that is why you are seeing protests against it in blue states and red states all across this country. But on top of that, we've learned from new reporting in the Washington Post in the last few days that the Trump administration also just fast tracked a billion dollar government contract for self deportation promotion to a random pro Trump donor whose company had never had a government contract before. The Washington Post based this on records they say they reviewed. The Department of Homeland Security says there's nothing wrong with this at all, but they're it is a billion dollars of your money going to some random pro Trump donor who's never done anything like this before. But somehow the Homeland Security Department had to fast track him. This money, your money. A billion dollars of your money. Remember the so called border czar Tom Homan used to be ubiquitous in threatening immigrants on behalf of Trump, the same Tom Homan who is reportedly on tape receiving $50,000 in cash. In cash green fast food bag from Cava. He reportedly received this money from undercover FBI agents in a bribery sting that was mysteriously shut down once Trump got back into office. Tom Homan initially said he had done nothing wrong, but he refused to address what he had done with the money. He later said, oh, actually he didn't take the money at all. But reporting first from ms, now later matched by a number of other news outlets, led members of Congress to make some formal inquiries on this. Among the questions still unanswered about that reported bribery scam for Trump's top immigration guy is the question of whether or not Tom Homan actually did get the money. And if he did, did he actually keep the money? Did he keep the $50,000 he reportedly took in that paper bag in that FBI sting operation from undercover FBI agents on tape? Again, that's $50,000 of your money. 10 business days from today is the deadline for the Justice Department to hand over to Democratic U.S. senators a whole bunch of its records on that bribery sting, including the tape and any information the government has on what Tom Homan might have done with the 50 GS from the FBI that he reportedly accepted on tape, which he now says, oh he never got at all. That said, there's more new msnow reporting on the FBI shepherding of its own resources under the leadership of Trump's handpicked FBI director, a right wing podcaster named Cash. That reporting might be a bit of a distraction from those other corruption allegations right now at the FBI. Ms. Now reporting that Patel has demanded that the FBI use specially configured armored BMW SUVs for driving him around because he likes them better than the Suburbans that all other high ranking government officials use. Ms. Now also reporting that he tried to demand that the FBI should buy him new private jets because he thought the old ones were outdated. Heaven forbid he'd be seen in a government SUV like the other government agencies, right? Or that he'd be seen in an outdated private jet. It's so embarrassing. I mean, you can understand though why he might feel a little competitive. The Homeland Security Department did reportedly purchase two new private jets for Trump's Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem For 172 million of your dollars, right? Seems like a great stewardship of your money, right? How about the $15 million of your money that the US military just handed to a little known drone company soon after the president's son Don Jr. Was put on its board and given shares in that company. Weird. Their revenue like tripled in a few months after Don Jr got on the board and got some shares. That's so weird. I wonder how they got that military contract. How about the $600 million that another Don Jr. Company just got from his dad's Defense Department? It's quote, biggest ever contract from the Pentagon. It's the largest loan ever made by the Office of Strategic Capital at the Pentagon. What a coincidence that that largest loan ever made went to a firm that just had Don Jr buy into it. Don Jr of course, says this was totally on the up and up. Nothing wrong. Just a crazy coincidence, right? We're going to talk tonight about CBS News being humiliated. CBS News having a reputation it took decades and generations to build, having that reputation just dragged into a tar pit by the new owners of its parent company, who appear to be trying to destroy one of the most important news brands and news organizations in the world in order to curry favor with President Donald Trump. So Trump will allow them to buy yet more media companies, including cnn, which they reportedly have promised to radically change and make more to Trump's liking if only they will let him have it. The President's own son in law, Jared Kushner, with money from the Saudis, only recently pulled out of that proposed deal, which isn't disgusting at. Like I said, it looks to our English speaking Western eyes like ogtabka, but I think it's pronounced Ostafka. Resign, don't feed the pig. Worked in Bulgaria. We're going to talk tonight about the Trump administration flouting a very high profile, newly passed brand new law that requires them to release all of their files related to Jeffrey Epstein and his child sex trafficking ring. We're going to talk tonight about the hugely embarrassing debacle at CBS News and this now open effort by the President to have state TV in this country, to have government controlled television and specifically government controlled television news. Now that we have total clarity that that's what he's after and we know that the billionaires and executives who control these companies are apparently more than willing to go along with it. We're gonna talk with Congressman Jamie Raskin tonight about what we, the country can do to defend ourselves, to defend our democracy against that. You may be sur at some of what he has to say about how to think about that problem, about what our options are as a country. But you know, the shortest day of the year is behind us now. It was yesterday. Today is the day when nighttime starts getting a little shorter every night, when daytime starts getting a little longer every day. Today's the day we start getting a little more light with each passing day, every single day from here on out. Donald Trump's party has lost control of the House of Representatives effectively. Multiple discharge petitions there now moving bills without the Republican Party's permission, despite the fact that they nominally control the House. The Heritage foundation which brought U.S. project 2025 Heritage foundation is now imploding with senior staffers from every department fleeing that far right organization in disgust. The Turning Point USA Conservative Movement Conference that was held this weekend was highlighted by the most famous people who spoke at that conference. All screaming insults and accusations at each other and pledging to be one another's mortal enemy. Couldn't happen to a nicer group. The President's two most high profile and ambitious allies in Congress, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Elise Stefanik, are now both leaving Congress and in Stefanik's case, quitting her for New York governor. Both of them apparently storming out of the MAGA movement in disgust. And thousands of people are marching against Trump in 10 degree weather in Minnesota. And people all over the country right at this moment are banging pots and pans outside some random suburban hotel where Trump's ICE agents are staying the night. And Chicago's about to get a really cute new snowplow named Abolish Ice. You never know what's going to turn the tide, what's going to make all the difference. But I mean, look around. It's getting brighter every day now. We got a lot to get to tonight. We'll be right back.

Field Reporter (27:02)

This message comes from the International Rescue Committee. Co founded with help from Albert Einstein, the IRC has been providing humanitarian aid for more than 90 years. The IRC helps refugees whose lives are disrupted by conflict and disaster, supporting recovery efforts in places like Gaza and Ukraine, and responding within 72 hours of crisis. Donate today by visiting Rescue.org Rebuild this.

Narrator/Announcer (27:28)

Episode is presented by Planned Parenthood Federation of America. This year, lawmakers have attacked our rights, stretched the truth, and taken away access to health care. Through it all, Planned Parenthood has been on the front lines, providing care, defending patients, fighting back. But the Trump administration and Congress passed a law to defund Planned Parenthood putting care for 1.1 million patients at risk. Planned Parenthood isn't backing down. They're still here, protecting access to birth control, cancer screenings, abortion and more. Visit plannedparenthood.org defend and donate today.

Commercial Voiceover (27:58)

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Rachel Maddow (28:31)

It was the appointment of a sort of random new labor secretary of all things, that got it going. It was 2017, first year of Trump's first term in office, and he picked a low profile former federal prosecutor from Florida to be labor secretary. Not the flashiest of Cabinet nominees and not the flashiest of cabinet positions. Forgive me, but you know who's ever heard of Alex Acosta? He was really not a household name. But there was an investigative reporter in Florida at the time who saw Acosta's name in the papers because of that nomination. And it really, really rang a bell for her. She had remembered that that guy back when he was U.S. attorney in Florida, his office had arranged a plea deal for a big finance guy. That finance guy wasn't exactly a household name either, but she thought there was a story there at the time. There were allegations that this finance guy had done some really bad stuff while this U.S. attorney's office under Alex Acosta. For some reason, they'd let this guy off the hook with just a brief stint in the county jail. And it had raised some eyebrows in Florida when it happened, but it had been about a decade and nobody had looked at it. This one reporter in Florida decided that she would give this story a closer look. She did more than a year of very difficult investigative reporting looking into that case. And after more than a year, she published this, quote, how a future Trump Cabinet member gave a serial sex abuser the deal of a lifetime. That was the first of a three part series from Miami Herald investigative reporter Julie K. Brown. It was published November 2018. That was the piece that made Trump Labor Secretary Alex Acosta a household name for the first time. It's also the reporting that made Jeffrey Epstein a household name. For her story, Julie K. Brown identified more than 80 of Epstein's alleged victims, dozens more than anybody had known about before. It was Julie K. Brown who revealed for the first time the full scope and nature of Epstein's alleged crimes. And that, of course, put fresh scrutiny on Trump's new Labor Secretary, Alex Acosta, whose office had let Epstein off the hook all those years ago with that inexplicable sweetheart deal in Florida. Brown's reporting was damning. It was also bulletproof. And it finally made it impossible to ignore what had happened to all those victims. Julie Kate Brown published her revelations about Epstein. As I said, November 2018. Three months later, a judge ruled that Acosta had broken the law when he did not notify the victims that he was giving Epstein that plea deal. Epstein was then arrested on federal child sex trafficking charges. Acosta had to resign as Trump's Labor Secretary. And here we are still today, seven years later, still feeling the shockwaves of Julie K. Brown's reporting. Her instincts, her reporting skills, her fearless fearlessness in getting it into print. This past Friday was the deadline for DOJ to unseal all of its files related to Epstein. They were required by law, thanks to a bill passed by Congress and signed by President Trump, required by law to release all of the records in their possession to only redact personal information that could invade privacy of any of the victims. This Friday on that deadline, DOJ looked at that legal requirement and went, eh, maybe some of it. The DOJ did not release all of the Epstein files on Friday, as they were legally compelled to do. They released only a small portion of them, and they were very, very heavily redacted. DOJ also inexplicably removed some of the documents after they initially posted them, including one photo that showed Donald Trump. After people pointed out they'd done that, they put it back without much of an explanation. In Julie K. Brown's recent reporting for the Miami Herald, she says Epstein's victims are upset by the heavy redactions by the small amount of material that's been released. More than a dozen of Epstein's victims have now written to Congress saying they want hearings to make sure DOJ follows the law with the disclosure of these files. And Julia K. Brown's reporting continues. Look at this. Just posted online a few hours ago by Julie Brown. In recent weeks, I have received a lot of new information about girls and young women who were, in fact sexually trafficked to powerful men. This is not a hoax. Julie K. Brown joins us live here next. Stay with us.

Commercial Voiceover (33:08)

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Rachel Maddow (33:38)

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Narrator/Announcer (35:31)

Thank you.

Rachel Maddow (35:33)

Julie, what have you been hearing from some of the Epstein survivors since the release of these documents on France?

Julie K. Brown (35:39)

They I think that it's starting really to turn into anger at this point, especially with a lot of these victims have found their own names that have been not redacted in some of this material that has come out. And they're quite frustrated because they see so many other redactions. They're saying it almost appears as though the government made sure that they redacted the information that perhaps were clues or provided information about what happened in these cases or who was involved. But they didn't pay enough attention to making sure that they would protect the victim's identities.

Rachel Maddow (36:21)

Can you say more about what you posted online tonight? You said, in recent weeks I've received a lot of new information about girls and young women who were, in fact, sexually trafficked to powerful men. This is not a hoax. Can you tell us more about what you mean there?

Julie K. Brown (36:37)

Well, a lot of these women remember this goes back 20 years, so a lot of them were quite young when this happened. And now as this whole movement, this momentum has sort of snowballed, a lot of them are starting to talk to one another and they've formed these groups and have been supporting each other. And more and more women are now coming forward and joining this group and talking to each other and bonding and helping with the effort to unseal these documents. So they've become stronger and stronger. They've created almost this movement together. And I think that has enabled them to start talking about exactly what their experiences were and who was trafficked to whom. And they they just have similar experiences. And some of them have shared those experiences with me. They do not want to go public largely because they distrust the government, quite frankly, most of them do not believe that Jeffrey Epstein killed himself. They feel that the whole investigation into his death was very, you know, sloppy, sloppy at best. And there's all other signs point to this distrust, the fact that Ghislain Maxwell's been moved to this cushy prison now that she had a, you know, an interview with the deputy attorney general who, by the way, way hasn't ever interviewed the victims. So there and then you put on top of that the pushback by, by Trump and his administration on even releasing these files. All these things add up to the fact that they feel that they can't trust the government. So they're starting to try to figure out a way to find justice on their own, quite frankly. And one of the ways they're doing that is, is to start talking to each other and supporting each other with the experiences that they had. And it's sort of a support group, if you will. And in the course of that, they're starting to feel more comfortable talking about these kinds of things that happened to them so many years ago that they were too traumatized in the past to talk about.

Rachel Maddow (38:46)

Well, the statements of the women who you're talking about and with whom you've been speaking have affected not just public perception here, but have also created a new political environment around the story. They have changed the political weather around this, including in a way that is in some cases bipartisan, something that seemed impossible before they did what they've done. If anything drives the release of more of these files, it's going to be them. Julie K. Brown, investigative reporter for the Miami Herald. Sorry, go ahead.

Julie K. Brown (39:14)

I was just going to say that I also think that because they are now being finally listened to, that's another reason why I think the public is listening to them. People are believing them and they are finding little bits and pieces here that also confirmed some of their stories in these documents. So I think that is also helping them to move forward with pushing for more files to be released.

Rachel Maddow (39:41)

I think that's exactly right. And I should tell you Lawrence o' Donnell is going to have much, much, much more on this story at the top of this hour, right after our show. Julie K. Brown from the Herald. Thank you so much, Julie. It's nice to see you.

Narrator/Announcer (39:53)

Thank you.

Rachel Maddow (39:54)

All right, we've got much more news ahead. Stay with us. Here's Democratic Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii. Here's how he put it. He said, quote, what's Happening to CBS is a terrible embarrassment. And if executives think they can build shareholder value by avoiding journalism that might offend the mad king, they're about to learn a tough lesson. This is still America, and we don't enjoy bullshit bull bullpucky like this. Senator Brian Schatz did not use the word pucky, but he otherwise neatly summed up the fiasco that is unfurling over the loud objections of our respected colleagues and competitors at CBS News right now. It was just hours before 60 Minutes was going to air an in depth piece on the alleged abuse and torture suffered by men who Trump sent to a brutal prison in El Salvador. When CBS News newly installed editor in chief spiked the story, let it run. This newly hired conservative blogger, commentator turned news executive said she was holding the story for a later date because she believed it was not ready. The journalist who produced the segment and a note to her colleagues that was published by the New York Times called the decision to pull the story, quote, political. You'll recall it was only a few months ago that CBS and its parent company were bought by the family of one of Trump's billionaire supporters. And as part of the Trump administration's approval of that deal, CBS's new owners promised to install a Trump friendy friendly conservative minder to keep an eye on the CBS newsroom. They also installed this new editor in chief who is now being accused by the journalists she oversees of politically interfering in their work. The reason this is causing a revolt is because this is how, bit by bit, the free press, the independent American news organizations that give us a free press instead become state tv. And that is a matter not just for the billionaires who are playing with these things for their own benefit and the executives who have decided to enable them. It's also a matter of public interest. It's a matter of national interest. Earlier this month, Congressman Jamie Raskin wrote to CBS News and asked them to account for edits that appeared to have been made to a 60 Minutes interview at President Trump's request. He said, quote, it's one thing for CBS to make independent editorial decisions protected by the First Amendment. It's quite another to make edits at the president's demand out of fear of retribution. The American people deserve to know whether their news is shaped by journalistic judgment or by Donald Trump. The American people deserve to know. Joining us now is Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland. He's the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee in the House. Sir, it's nice to see you. Thanks for being here.

Congressman Jamie Raskin (42:48)

You bet.

Rachel Maddow (42:50)

You're A constitutional law professor in addition to being a member of Congress. Can you explain in non lawyers terms why it is a matter of national interest, a matter of our governance and our democracy? What happens at a privately owned news organization?

Congressman Jamie Raskin (43:08)

Well, every ruler in the world would love to be able to control what private tv, where private newspapers are publishing about them. And Donald Trump is using his power over the Federal Communications Commission to make it possible for him to have minders, either formally denominated minders or people like Barry Weiss who are just going to do his bidding. And it's better really than state tv. It's state controlled corporate tv, so they can continue to make, you know, millions or billions of dollars on it, but at the same time, they will not veer anywhere away from the politically correct official line of the government. And that's exactly what we're seeing in this really shocking episode related to 60 Minutes and the Seekot torture prison in El Salvador.

Rachel Maddow (43:55)

In what ways are companies like CBS or Paramount or any of the parent companies involved here accountable to their shareholders, accountable to Congress, accountable to the people if they decide to be part of a plot like this by the government?

Congressman Jamie Raskin (44:13)

Well, that's a good question. I mean, we haven't quite dealt with a situation like this before, and we're going to have to explore what are the different avenues for demanding accountability. But right now, you know, because of the sort of muscle that Trump is using over the FCC to control mergers and to extract particular points of concession from different broadcast networks, he's gaining real control over a lot of them and others he's gaining control over through different kinds of coercive manipulations. And a lot of them are just giving in. So it would take some shareholders of the different companies to begin to raise the issue. And it will take other truly independent media entities such as your own blowing the whistle on this. And maybe, you know, that would shame or humiliate someone like Bari Weiss into acting like, you know, a real journalist as opposed to, you know, a reporter on the payroll of Vladimir Putin in Moscow. And that's basically what's going on right now. They are acting like state controlled TV entities that are part of an inside power operation.

Rachel Maddow (45:29)

Congressman, I wanted to ask you about some news that's broken since we've been on the air tonight. A federal judge has just ruled that the Trump administration, administration denied due process to the men it deported to this prison in El Salvador, the subject of this 60 Minutes feast that we're talking about. For those men who are still in that prison or who have been who were sent abroad by the administration. In that way, the judge is giving the government two weeks to either facilitate their return to the United States or otherwise provide them with hearings. I just wanted to get your reaction to that ruling to night.

Congressman Jamie Raskin (46:05)

Well, it's a necessary and very positive ruling. And I got to say that Judge Boasberg, who was originally a Bush appointee to the bench, has been very much of a hero in terms of upholding the due process rights of these Venezuelans, who were sent overwhelmingly without evidence to El Salvador, simply claiming that they're members of criminal gangs, which the vast majority of them were not. And then they were subjected to truly brutal, cruel, 247 humiliation and torture there. They were told when they arrived at that prison, there's no day, there's no night here. This is hell. Welcome to hell, and you will never leave. So just brutal, totalitarian conditions. Finally, Venezuela was able to negotiate an exchange of prisoners to get them out of Salvador and back to Venezuela. But because they haven't had any due process, we literally don't know who these people were. Some of them may have been legally, you know, lawfully present in the United States, but there was no opportunity to hear anything. I mean, that's what due process is about. They're the two most beautiful words in the Constitution, maybe the two most beautiful words in the whole English language, because they separate people's liberty and their freedom from the arbitrary power of the state. I had a Republican say to me on the floor the other day, well, you're not saying you're for due process for guilty people, are you? And I said, that's the whole point. We don't know if they're guilty until there's been due process. So Judge Boasberg has both tried to hold the government in contempt for disregarding his order, telling them to turn the planes around. And then he's also insisting that these people have due process hearings. Now, who knows whether the court will, in fact, you know, an appeals court will order that they come back to the states for this hearing or if it be done on zoom. Who knows how they're going to work it out, but good for Judge Boasberg that he's actually taking the Constitution seriously.

Rachel Maddow (48:05)

Congressman Jamie Raskin. Good to have you here tonight, sir. Thank you. We'll be right back. One last thing. Statistically speaking, there's a pretty good chance you may find yourself on a train or in a plane or in an automobile in the next few days. Maybe, if you're looking for something to listen to on your travels, I will just give you this reminder that my new podcast, which is called Rachel Maddow Presents Burn Order, is out. Now all six episodes are out. It is free on any podcast app, or you can listen directly online at Ms. Now. Burnorder. That's it. Just a reminder. That does it for me tonight.

Field Reporter (48:44)

Welcome to Walgreens. Looking for a holiday gift?

Rachel Maddow (48:47)

Sort of. My cousin Freddie showed up to surprise us.

Field Reporter (48:50)

Oh, sounds like a real nice surprise.

Congressman Jamie Raskin (48:53)

Exactly.

Rachel Maddow (48:53)

So now I have to get him a gift, but I haven't gotten my bonus yet. So if we can make it something really nice but also not break the bank, that'd be perfect.

Field Reporter (49:00)

How about a Keurig for 50% off?

Rachel Maddow (49:03)

Bingo savings all season.

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