← The Rachel Maddow Show
The Rachel Maddow Show
Maddow: To block Trump's agenda, help Republican politicians find their spines
00:42:42
Rachel Maddow emphasizes the importance of resistance by Republican legislators to Donald Trump's agenda, and points out that the unpopularity of Trump's actions may help that resistance politically, but also some senators, like Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, have enough expertise in their chosen field to know how destructive Trump and his Cabinet are, and may be vulnerable to pressure on those issues.
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- [00:00]
Rachel Maddow
Let's do something different. Want some inspiration? I know this is like, not typically the way that we start things, but I don't know. Complain. Go ahead, send me your complaints. Governor J.B. pritzker is the governor of Illinois. He gave his State of the State speech today, and I'm going to show you some of it. I'm show you about three minutes of it. And I know this is a little bit of a weird thing to put at the top of a national newscast, but I just. You know what? I think this is really something, and I think you should watch it. This is from the end of his State of the State today. Check it out.
- [00:38]
J.B. Pritzker
As some of you know, Skokie, Illinois once had one of the largest populations of Holocaust survivors anywhere in the world. In 1978, Nazis decided that they wanted to march there. The leaders of that march knew that the images of swastika clad young men goose stepping down a peaceful suburban street were would terrorize the local Jewish population, so many of whom had never recovered from their time in German concentration camps. The prospect of that march sparked a legal fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court. I do not invoke the specter of Nazis lightly, but I know the history intimately and have spent more time than probably anyone in this room with people who survived the Holocaust. Here's what I've learned. The root that tears apart your house's foundation begins as a seed, a seed of distrust and hate and blame. The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime ago didn't arrive overnight. It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame. I'm watching with a foreboding dread what is happening in our country right now after we've discriminated against, deported, or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minorities. Once we've ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our friends, after that, when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the face, what comes next? All the atrocities of human history lurk in the answer to that question. And if we don't want to repeat history, then for God's sake, in this moment, we better be strong enough to learn from it. My oath is to the constitution of our state and of our country. We don't have kings in America, and I don't intend to bend the knee to one. If you think I'm overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this. It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. And all I'm saying is that when the five alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control. Those Illinois Nazis did end up holding their march in 1978, just not in Skokie. After all the blowback from the case, they decided to march in Chicago instead. Only 20 of them showed up, but 2,000 people came to counter protest. The Chicago Tribune reported that day that the rally sputtered to an unspectacular end after 10 minutes. It was Illinoisans who smothered those embers before they could burn into a flame. Blame tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let the tragic spirit of despair overcome us when our country needs us the most. Thank you.
- [04:09]
Rachel Maddow
Illinois Governor J.B. pritzker today, speaking 30 days into the second presidential term of Donald Trump, raising the alarm explicitly that you don't need much longer than that to destroy a democracy and cause a major problem for the world and for humanity in perpetuity. Another big state Democratic governor today, Kathy Hochul of New York gave a shorter, more pugnacious version of kind of that same message today after Trump ordered the end to a popular congestion pricing program in New York City. And in so doing, he proclaimed himself the King. He posted online a picture of himself in a crown with the phrase Long live the King. Under a message about his action toward New York City. Here was New York Governor Kathy Hochul's response. At 1:01pm today, the US Department of Transportation emailed us a letter from Secretary Duffy announcing their attempt to end the congestion pricing program in the state of New York. At 1:58pm President Donald Trump tweeted, long live the King. I'm here to say New York hasn't labored under a king in over 250 years. We are not, we sure as hell are not going to start now. The streets of this city where battles were fought, we stood up to a king and we won then and we win. In case you don't know New Yorkers, we're in a fight. We do not back down. Not now, not ever. At one point in her remarks today, Governor Hochul pulled out this photo that Trump had posted online of himself today showing himself in a crown as a king. She held up a printout of that and said, the next time, next time you're stuck in traffic Think of this. She then took questions from the press. Is this marking a new era of your approach to the Trump administration? Or should we expect to see more resistance from you to things that he's doing? Or are you still going to continue your, your, your strategy of trying to find middle ground and, you know, maybe not poking the bear? I think the bear has been poked. The bear has been poked. Let me give you one more. And this is from a piece posted at the Nation tonight by the founders of Indivisible. We've talked to these founders on this show before. We've focused a lot on their organizing activities. They're a big grassroots national organizing group that has seen a record number of new chapters form in these last four weeks, turning out people to make calls and show up at congressional and Senate offices to protest, to demand town halls from their elected representatives to attend those town halls, to pressure Democrats to fight harder and more quickly and more comprehensively against what Trump is doing, to try to persuade and shame Republicans into standing up against Trump at all? At the Nation, the Indivisible co founders wrote today that Democratic members of Congress and senators should start pushing harder specifically against the Republicans they serve with, quote, break the norms around congressional collegiality. It's typically considered rude for one member of Congress to confront another in public, but these aren't typical times. The complicity of congressional Republicans in the trashing of our democracy cries out for the kind of loud and frequent confrontation that will cause members of the Washington Post editorial board to clutch their pearls. For those Republicans who refuse to face their constituents, Democrats should travel to their districts or states in order to publicize the real costs of MAGA appeasement to working families in those places. Get creative and give protesters and activists a morally righteous conflict to rally around. Every time one of us, a family member, a community organizer, a representative, a senator, takes a step forward in this fight, a thousand pairs of eyes watch and learn. Courage is contagious. Take that step and steel yourself with the knowledge that you are the defender of a 250 year experiment in self governance. A real life pluralistic democracy, imperfect as it is. Striving to be more perfect. Our predecessors deposed a brain addled king. They crushed the violent insurrectionists of a slaveholding confederacy. They forced the robber barons to contend with workers and unions. They kicked the Nazis asses throughout Europe. They broke the back of the southern segregationist political bloc. They fought back against the terrorizing forces at Stonewall. We have planted ourselves in stubborn opposition to monomaniacal fascists of one form or another for a quarter of a millennium, no entitled reality TV has been backed by an adult brained billionaire who cheats at video games is going to roll over us now. Need some inspiration? 30 days into this new administration, the radical nature of what's going on is waking something up in the braver politicians among us and in the activists as well. It is thus far not waking anything up at that we can tell among Republicans in high elected office. And while that might sound like the dumbest Captain Obvious observation in the world, it's one that I'm going to keep making because it is really, really crucially important to the outcome of this lightning speed authoritarian collapse that Trump is trying to force in Washington. I mean, not any one thing is going to do everything right. Democrats getting big and getting smart in oppos, opposition like we're seeing from governors. And that's going to matter regular people broadly standing up and saying no and protesting and organizing and making it as hard as possible for him to keep doing what he's doing that matters, the survival of the press so people know what he's doing that matters. But the closest you're going to get to stopping it at the source, to stopping, for example, the destruction of the American legal system, to stopping the destruction of our health system and the basic services that keep people alive and that keep the country functioning, the hardest leverage that can be applied against him at the source is what hypothetically would come from Republicans. And I know cynically you may never expect to get that, but strategically, you cannot stop trying to get it because of its crucial importance. And I'm just going to give you one example here, just one case study. Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy. I always think of him as having kind of an unforgettable name, but a very memorable haircut. He always looked to me like an otherwise healthy person who has just been gently electrocuted. But Senator Bill Cassidy is a senator. He's also a physician. He's a gastroenterologist. He got into the Senate in a campaign in 2014 that largely focused on his role as a doctor. He was best known, including in that campaign, not just for being a good doctor for his individual patients, but for having championed, in his home state of Louisiana, having championed a new free vaccination program for Louisiana school kids, specifically hepatitis B vaccination. And he frequently told this important, heartbreaking story about what he called his worst day as a doctor. Senator Bill Cassidy, as a doctor, had an 18 year old patient who had contracted hepatitis B. And as an 18 year old, her health Crashed. He had to scramble to have her airlifted to Shreveport, Louisiana to get an emergency liver transplant. He said in one interview with the Washington Post, quote, I was sitting there thinking, if we had vaccinated this girl with a $50 vaccine, we could have saved a $250,000 operation and a lifetime of $50,000 a bills. And that was just one interview that he did about this case. But he's given a ton of interviews about this case. He talks about it all the time. He talked about it for years. He still talks about it. He relayed that story again in his opening statement in the confirmation hearings that he oversaw for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. To be Secretary of Health and Human Services. Senator Bilcassity is now chairman of the Health Committee in the Senate. And he explains his calling to public service by telling that story of his personal experience with that patient. That tragedy of his young patient nearly losing her life for having not had a hep B vaccination when she was little. That caused him to create a really important program that vaccinated tens of thousands of kids in his state. But that program and that revelation about the importance of that kind of public health effort, it's arguably the whole reason he is a senator at all. Hep B vaccination for kids is his origin story as a public servant. It is the one thing he most wants to be known for, and probably the thing he most is known for, at least so far, because now he's the chair of the Health Committee in the second Trump term. And as the senator who chairs the Health Committee, he did just oversee the confirmation of Bobby Kennedy Jr. To be the nation's Health secretary. And here's him on hep B vaccination. And what a stupid idea it is.
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J.B. Pritzker
The vaccine schedule, immediately after they passed the Vaccine act, exploded because all these companies were rushing to get new vaccines onto this schedule, many of them for diseases that weren't even casually contagious. Like ridiculous diseases that are on that, like hepatitis B. Why would you give you get hepatitis B from, you know, from sharing needles or from, like, going to a really seasoned prostitute or from, you know, sort of compulsive homosexual behavior.
- [14:46]
Rachel Maddow
Compulsive homosexual behavior or going to a really well seasoned prostitute. That's the only way you get hepatitis B. He intones on Joe Rogan's podcast. Which is not at all true. And that's okay. You can believe stuff that's not true. You can say anything you want on a podcast, knock yourself out. But in a working political system, you probably don't then get confirmed as Health Secretary in the United States government. If the chairman of the health committee in the Senate that has to confirm, you actually does know what he's talking about on this issue because he's a gastroenterologist who's devoted his life as a public servant to the cause of hep B vaccination, saving young people's lives. Senator Bill Cassidy nevertheless ate up that pile and cast his vote for Bobby Kennedy to be Health Secretary in the United States. He said that he'd had conversations with Kennedy that assured him that Kennedy wasn't essentially as crazy on this issue of vaccines as he seemed. He also though, in the confirmation process got an explicit assurance from Kennedy that if he were confirmed as Health Secretary, he wouldn't try to change the vaccine schedule for American kids. Well now Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Has been sworn in as Health Secretary and in his first full day on the job, wouldn't you know it, he confirmed that he definitely is going to look into that vaccine schedule saying, quote, nothing's going to be off limits. He said he wouldn't, but right away he's doing it. Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana hasn't been brave yet. He does not feel inspired by calls to man the barricades to stand up for democracy. Honestly, he just does not appear to be inspired along these lines like some other Americans may be. But he does chair the health committee in the United States Senate and he did just vote to confirm someone who says that his physician's knowledge about vaccines is ridiculous because what Kennedy's sure that Bill Cassidy's 18 year old patient must have gotten the Hepatitis B from compulsive homosexual behavior or contact with a really well seasoned prostitute. Senator Bill Cassidy really did just vote to confirm someone who appears to have lied right to his face under oath in the confirmation process on saying he wouldn't revisit the kid's vaccine schedule. Something that Bill Cassidy has effectively worked on his whole life. So will Bill Cassidy get brave on this? Can't afford to give up on that prospect as a country. I should also mention that right now in this country, separate and apart from confirmation of anybody to anything, we have an active and apparently exploding measles outbreak in West Texas which has now apparently crossed the border into New Mexico. An outbreak that appears to have been caused by people not getting the measles vaccine, the MMR vaccine. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Our nation's new Health Secretary, says that taking that vaccine makes us the, quote, land of the cowed, home of the slave. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Has advocated, I kid you not, not only against that vaccine in the abstract, he has advocated specifically that getting measles is good for you, that you should try to get measles, quote, facts about measles you won't learn from Ms. Pharmapedia. I don't even know what that means. Number six, unlike Merck's vaccine, wild measles infection confers lifetime immunity from measles. Having measles in childhood, he says, quote, may also reduce the risk of atopic disease, heart disease, Hodgkin's and non Hodgkin's lymphomas, and some other cancers. Got that? Get measles. Try to get measles. It's good for you. It keeps you from getting cancer, says Podcast Man. But if you're the chairman of the Senate Health Committee and you're a practicing physician, and our country has a current measles outbreak that has already put at least 13 kids in the hospital as of tonight. You know, one of the things you could do is you could call Podcast Guy in for a hearing to ask him some questions, to get some testimony. After. I'll tell you. After Senator Cassidy oversaw the confirmation of Bobby Kennedy for that job of Health Secretary, just to add insults and further injury to injury, Senator Bill Cassidy's own home state of Louisiana announced that they will no longer promote vaccines for Louisiana school kids. On the strength, presumably, of the endorsement for vaccine quackery that the confirmation of Bobby Kennedy implied, they will no longer promote vaccines for kids in Louisiana. Senator Bill Cassidy, that is your home state. Look what you have wrought. Look what you are doing to your own life's work. And I say that, Senator Cassidy, because you have a ton of power here. You are the chairman of the Health Committee in the Senate. You can call Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Into the Senate and hold hearings and demand information and demand testimony. And in so doing, you have more power than anybody in this country to turn this thing around. And it is something on which you are an expert and on which you are emotionally committed and to which you have devoted your life. You think, I'll do it? Here's one last point. While all this is happening domestically, the Trump administration, of course, has also moved radically and quickly to move our country in international affairs to the other side of the board. Since World War II, since the end of World War II, we have been allied with Europe and essentially allied against Russia. Now we are apparently allied with the dictatorship in Russia, and we're against Europe. And today, as part of this 180 degree realignment of the United States from the proverbial allied side of the democracies to the axis side of the dictatorships. Today, President Trump said that in the Russia Ukraine war, not only are we switching sides, but we're switching sides because it's Ukraine who's the dictatorship and it's Ukraine who started the war, which is Orwellian backwards speak right. Ukraine got invaded. They didn't invade themselves. That's why until now we have been standing up for them. It's one thing for me to tell you that here on MSNBC in the 9pm Eastern show, but what do Republican senators think about that who have power to turn the country around, at least more power than anybody else does? Republican Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota asked about what Trump said today. He said, actually, quote, zelensky was the duly elected president of Ukraine saying, quote, I think that has been, excuse me, I think he has been a key component in the fact that they've been able to withstand the Russian attacks. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, quote, I would like to see that in context because I would certainly never refer to President Zelensky as a dictator. Trust me, Senator, the context doesn't help. Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina says dictator is not a word that I would use to describe Zelensky. You could push back on that if you disagree. It might matter. Given that your job is Republican United States Senator, you alone might actually have a limiting effect on what is happening to our country right now. Along these lines in which you plainly disagree with what the president is doing. Have you considered using your power? Here was Republican Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi about what he thinks of our, apparently our new closest ally, Vladimir Putin.
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Bill Cassidy
My position is that anything meaningful, any, any sort of peace talks that might get a fair result would definitely need to have the Ukrainians at the table and make sure that European interests are, are considered and carefully weighed.
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J.B. Pritzker
Do you think that Putin can be.
- [23:55]
Rachel Maddow
Trusted in these negotiations?
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Bill Cassidy
No. No. Putin is a war criminal and should be in jail for the rest of his life if not executed. Vladimir Putin has violated every tenet of international law and should be indicted and prosecuted in jail, possibly executed.
- [24:17]
Rachel Maddow
How big of a blunder was it.
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J.B. Pritzker
To take off for Hexa to take.
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Rachel Maddow
Out the NATO Ukraine issue off the table?
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Bill Cassidy
Well, you know, I made a statement about that and let me just say Secretary Hegseth and I spoke while he was in Poland and I was in Munich. And we, I think to the extent that his subsequent statement was somewhat of a walk back, that was a Favorable development.
- [24:53]
J.B. Pritzker
And do you have any concerns after.
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Rachel Maddow
Being there about the stability of the NATO alliance, given what the US Is doing with Russia?
- [25:01]
Bill Cassidy
The NATO alliance is very important. We've been drawn into two bloody wars, massive killing conflagrations in the last 100 years. I think the best way for a European general war to be avoided that would eventually cause us to become involved is to ensure that the rule of law that's been observed for 70 years, Europe, be enforced and protected. That's why we have NATO. That's why the European Union exists.
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J.B. Pritzker
So you think Trump is undercutting NATO.
- [25:52]
Rachel Maddow
In any way, and at that, he walks away at that point. But you see that there's a foundation here for real leverage to stop what Trump is doing, or at least to try to stop it. I mean, he talks there about what his conversation with Secretary Hegseth might have. Might have caused. I think to the extent that his subsequent statement after we spoke was somewhat of a walk back, that was a favorable development. Senator Wicker talked to Pete Hegseth that made Pete Hegseth take back his assertion that Ukraine can never be part of NATO and Russia gets to keep all of the parts of Ukraine that it's already claimed. Why is that? Because Senator Wicker is not a commentator. Right. Senator Wicker is the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Republican chairman of that committee. He has power to wield here to stop the administration from doing what it's doing, which he plainly thinks is wrong. He doesn't think Vladimir Putin should be getting a state visit in the United States of America. He thinks if Vladimir Putin steps foot in the United States of America, he should be arrested, incarcerated for the rest of his life, or potentially executed. Well, it's one thing to think that. It's another thing to say it. You could even say it on a podcast and it won't matter. But if you say it, and you're the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Services Committee, it matters. And you can change the actions of this government. Republicans at this point have power to change what Trump is doing if they can find their spines. And it may be the whole country's job to help them find it any way we can. Shouldn't be that hard if they're interested in their own political future. New Quinnipiac polling out today shows not only that Donald Trump has gone from above water to underwater in his overall approval rating already just 30 days in, but look specifically on the issue of Vladimir Putin. 81% of American voters think the U.S. should not trust Vladimir Putin, 81%. It's a grand total of 9% that says the U.S. should trust him, just as Trump is jumping into his lap. If we still have a functioning political system, the fact that the country is wildly against him, right, that Republican elected officials on their areas of expertise are wildly opposed to what Trump is doing on this and other issues, this should matter. And it's up to the whole country, to all of us, right, to make sure that it matters. To that end, dozens of protests all across the country today. We've got more on that next. Stay with us. This was outside the home office of Republican Congressman Cliff Bentz in Oregon this week. His constituents left him little notes. They called them cliff notes. Get it? Because his name is Cliff. They stuck their cliff notes on a cardboard cutout of their congressman. They say things like, support federal workers, protect your people. The Constitution is worth fighting for. Also, we want a town hall. Don't hide out east. Well, today, Republican Congressman Cliff Bentz of Oregon did hold a town hall in his home district. The Baker City Herald newspaper reporting that more than 200 people showed up, which is, quote, much larger than has been typical over the past decade when other members of Congress have held town halls. Now, for context here, this is not blue Oregon. This is a county that Donald Trump won by 73%. He got 73% of the vote there. And yet the local paper, the Baker City Herald, reports, quote, audience members made it clear from their statements and from their reactions to both questions and Ben's answers that they do not support the administration. According to that reporting, the majority of questions today were about Trump's executive orders and about Elon Musk and about firing government workers. Today was also another national day of protests, big protests in Boston and in New York City and in Chicago and in Washington, D.C. people who work for the federal government and people who support them, they're regular fellow Americans rallying to try to stop the gutting of federal programs. There were more than a dozen protests today specifically for university faculty and researchers who work on healthcare. Healthcare researchers and faculty members. This was Center City Philadelphia. Hundreds of faculty and researchers from UPenn and from Temple University in Drexel was the same thing at Rutgers University in New Jersey and in Chicago, researchers and faculty from Northwestern and DePaul and the University of Chicago in D.C. outside the Department of Health and Human Services, scientists protested, scientists whose work is funded by the federal government. And, you know, a lot of these protests are happening in D.C. and in other big cities, but because of the kind of leverage that we've been talking about tonight and on previous shows. I do think it's really worth watching what's happening in local press around the country, too, how they're covering from a local perspective what's going on in the government right now. Take, for example, the Des Moines Register. Look at this headline from yesterday, quote, elon Musk's indiscriminate carnage brings needless misery to these Iowans. Here's the oil city news in Wyoming, quote, valentine's Day massacre, uncounted throng of Wyomingites fired by Trump administration. Also this headline out of Kansas City, quote, kansas City doesn't have enough jobs available for all the federal workers getting laid off. And quote, trump jobs purge. Quote, trump jobs purge hits Michigan, quote, why did the president fire you, Mommy? We talked last night about how this has been playing in Virginia where the Republican governor there is Glenn Youngkin. He has just been tying himself into a pretzel, trying both to defend what Trump is doing and say how much he supports Trump. While his state proportionally has more federal workers and federal contracts than anywhere else in the country, Youngkin promises help for federal workers but defends Trump job cuts. It's impossible to do both of those things at once, and the local press in Virginia is well aware of that. They are not fooled. Local press in Virginia, based on what they've been running lately, seems to be totally aware of what Trump is doing and what damage it means for their state. This, for example, was the editorial page in the Virginia Pilot newspaper today, quote, as a winter storm expected to bring substantial snowfall approaches, communities throughout the region are making preparations, largely thanks to the detailed forecasting done by the meteorologist at the National Weather Service. That's another invaluable service. President Donald Trump and Elon Musk hope to dismantle purposeless destruction that would make the public less informed and drive up costs to families and businesses. Having accurate, timely forecasts helps power companies prepare for outages and manage demand. It empowers governments to plan for disruptions. And it helps families prepare themselves and their homes for the possibility of severe weather, a key component of public safety. We know to prepare for near record snowfall this week because the experienced and devoted public servants at the National Weather Service told us to. If Trump and Musk have their way, it would be the last such warning. And again, don't take it from me. This is the editorial page in a local paper in Virginia, the Virginia Pilot. In Virginia, where so many people work for federal agencies, including the National Weather Service, the threat to the economy and the Relative inaction of the Republican governor there have, A, made people mad, B, ruined a lot of lives already, and C, have also caused Democrats in the state of Virginia to step into the void left by these Republican politicians who can't bring themselves to respond because they're so afraid of offending Donald Trump no matter what he does to their state. Democrats in the Virginia legislature have just formed an emergency committee to help address the devastating consequences of Trump's actions for the people of Virginia. They are stepping into the void. This is an election year in Virginia. The Virginia House speaker joins us next. Stay with us. Quote, what are you doing to protect us? This comes from the nonprofit, nonpartisan, independent and totally mighty Cardinal News, quote, serving southwest and southside Virginia. The Democratic speaker of the House in Virginia told Cardinal News this week that earlier this month, a neighbor of his who works for the va, works for the Veterans Administration, stopped him and asked him, quote, what are you doing to protect us with the Trump administration carrying out mass indiscriminate firings of the federal government workforce? He says his neighbor told him, quote, y'all need to look into it now. Three days later, Virginia House Speaker Don Scott announced a new bipartisan emergency committee in the Virginia legislature to study the effect of the federal job cuts and to figure out how to help Virginia residents whose lives have been torn apart by the chaos and the crisis in Washington as the Trump administration dismantles much of the federal government. The state of Virginia has the second largest population of federal workers of any state. About one in every 60 people works for the federal. The state economy also gets more money from federal contracts than any other state in the country, more than $100 billion last year alone. Speaker Scott tells Cardinal News that what he is trying to do in the legislature is, quote, look at the facts, the hard data, the sobering, boring facts. He says, quote, right now, they are taking a sledgehammer to everything. I don't want to be in a position where we are panicking. Joining us now is Virginia House of Delegates Speaker Don Scott. He is the first African American speaker of the Virginia legislature. 400 year history. Speaker Scott, I really appreciate you being here with us tonight. Thank you.
- [36:10]
Don Scott
Thank you for having me, Rachel. It's an honor to be on.
- [36:14]
Rachel Maddow
I can tell a little bit about the impact of what's happening in Washington on the good people of Virginia just by looking at the numbers, looking at the proportion of Virginians who have jobs with the federal government or who are contractors paid by the federal government, looking at the raw numbers in terms of how much of the state's economy is buoyed by federal contracts tied to the federal government. So I can see how vulnerable Virginia is, particularly to this chaos. But what can you tell me about how it is resonating thus far, how it is affecting people on the ground in your state?
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Don Scott
Thank you, Rachel. I live in a community in Portsmouth, Virginia. The Portsmouth Naval Hospital is there, not far, a few miles away. It's the largest naval station in the world, Norfolk Naval Base. I'm a former naval officer and a veteran. Every single day I get to see those folks and see how they're being impacted. We have a veterans hospital, the largest one right across in Hampton, Virginia, and it's on a land where they have a lease there. And then Elon Musk is saying he's going to end that lease. But who will take care of our veterans? Who's going to protect them? These people have put their lives on the line many times before to protect our country. And guess what? Many of them Republicans and Democrats, and they always stuck together. And right now I'm saying I'm worried about our country a little bit. Bit. But it's not the time to panic. It's a time to fight. I'm worried because it looks like we've lost the ability to have any empathy for people. You know, people whose spouses are worried about where they're going to live, where their next paycheck is going to come from. They're worried about their health care. They worry about are they going to be able to take care of their children, their families. We're seeing this impact and it's playing out on real time. And so we have a responsibility in government, I believe state government. We still have a responsibility to make sure that we're protecting people, but we're finding out the data. We don't want to panic. We don't want to go, because that's what Donald Trump wants us to do. He wants everybody to go look around and lose their minds and not sit down and look at the facts, look at the data. That's why we formed this emergency committee, so we can actually look at what's happened in Virginia. That's what we do. That's what Americans always do. We live in the greatest country on the planet. Our Constitution has a clear outline how we separate powers. If Congress and the Republicans there won't do their job jobs, then we'll do our jobs and make sure that we step up to protect families, because that's what our responsibility is. As we're hearing from people they're hurting here in Virginia. And it's really sad that not one Republican, not one in Virginia will step up and say what the President, United States is doing is wrong. Not one will step up and challenge Elon Musk, who's now a unelected multi billionaire. Not one will step up and challenge him. And so we have a responsibility, I think, to get the facts to get form, folks. And I think when we do that, then I think we will get some allies from the Republican Party. I hope we'll get some. But if they don't, I'm hoping that every single Democrat, because right now our country and our vision is on the line, will step in and help us. We have an election here in November 2025. I'm hoping that every single Democrat in this country will come to our aid to help fight for the values that we've already, that we've all grown up knowing and believing in the vision of America in the dream. And I think right now there are some people trying to take us backwards and we have a responsibility to fight for that and an obligation. When I took that oath as a naval officer years ago, I hadn't forgotten it. And when I took that same oath here as speaker of the House to protect and defend our Constitution. And right now, it's time for all patriots to step up and fight back.
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Rachel Maddow
Virginia House Delegates Speaker Don Scott, thank you for your time tonight. We've been following this closely and we will continue to would think it would be an advantage to have a governor who's the same party as the president, who's so supposedly so close and so complimentary to the President. So far, it hasn't seemed to pay any dividends for Virginia at all. We'd love to stay in touch with you, sir, as we watch how this unfolds. As your state, you're really at the tip of the spear here.
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Don Scott
Thank you. And I appreciate you having. I'm hoping that these Republicans will step up. They're celebrating these job cuts in Virginia when really they should be fighting back for us. We hope that they will.
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Rachel Maddow
Thank.
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Don Scott
Thank you.
- [40:17]
Rachel Maddow
Thank you, sir. We'll be right back. Little bit of breaking news for you here. If you are born in the United States, you are an American. That is not breaking news. That is something that is written in our Constitution and has been true for the duration of our republic. That said, when Donald Trump was sworn in for his second term 30 days ago, he signed an executive order that proclaimed that to no longer be true. This, of course, was immediately challenged in court. And among the federal courts it was laughed out of was one in Washington State, Seattle federal judge. Seattle based federal judge ruled that Trump's executive order could not go into effect. The judge passed an injunction against the executive order going into effect. The Justice Department or the. Excuse me. The Trump administration then appealed that. They've appealed it to the Ninth Circuit U.S. court of Appeals, which sits on the West Coast. And tonight, a three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit has just declined the Justice Department request to get rid of that judge's injunction to let Trump's executive order go into effect. The reason this is important is because this sets up potentially a rocket ship, very quick trip to the United States Supreme Court. When Trump passed this executive order, he knew he had to know that it was blatantly unconstitutionalthe point of passing it anyway, of signing it anyway, was to get the Supreme Court to rule, to effectively change the Constitution, to make it so that if you're born in this country, you are no longer a citizen. With this ruling tonight from a three judge panel on the Ninth Circuit, this would appeal to be teed up for a challenge directly to the US Supreme Court. One of the first matters that Trump has provoked a conflict with U.S. law and constitutional understanding about that is going to the Supreme Court. This ruling just in moments ago from the Ninth Circuit. We'll keep you posted as we learn. All right, that's gonna do it for me tonight. I will see you again tomorrow and every night this week at 9pm Eastern here on MSNBC. In the meantime, you can always find me on Bluesky. If you don't have Bluesky yet, why don't you try it? It might not make you want to die. I'm on blueskyadow.msnbc.com I find it to be a more constructive experience there than on other social media properties. That's just what I think. Mattow.msnbc.com.