
Rachel Maddow makes the case that from the first day of his second term, Donald Trump has been engaged in "a concerted and intense targeting of Black Americans," from firings to executive orders and including his Supreme Court gutting the Voting Rights Act, which will likely largely eliminate Black congressional representation in the American South.
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Rachel Maddow
Really happy to have you here. There is a lot that the U.S. government and this presidential administration is failing at right now. In the courts, in public opinion, in politics, in the technocratic and practical functions of government. Even some of their schemes and scams are falling apart. Every day, every news cycle, the list just piles up of things at which they are failing.
Guest Analyst
Today, for example, the Justice Department and the Homeland Security Department learned that their officials may be held in contempt of
Rachel Maddow
court by a federal judge in Rhode Island. The administrative put out a press release lying about this particular judge, vilifying this particular judge in terms that were not true. What it said in the press release about this judge was false. Now, today in court, the Justice Department's lawyer begged the judge's forgiveness for that. He admitted in today's court hearing in Rhode island that he, in fact, had deliberately withheld information from this judge. He said he only did so because the Department of Homeland Security explicitly instructed him to do that. That's really bad. But he sort of threw himself on the mercy of the court, told the judge he's so, so sorry.
Guest Analyst
Lying to a federal judge, lying about
Rachel Maddow
a federal judge is a really big deal if you're a lawyer or a government official.
Guest Analyst
And even though Trump's Justice Department lawyer,
Rachel Maddow
quote, profusely apologized for it in court
Guest Analyst
today, the judge said at this hearing today that she is weighing contempt charges against DOJ officials and Homeland Security officials
Co-Host or Correspondent
for the lying that is very not good.
Rachel Maddow
And that happened today.
Co-Host or Correspondent
While another federal judge, a judge in
Guest Analyst
Alabama, is also weighing a very serious
Rachel Maddow
allegation, a potentially very consequential allegation that DOJ lawyers may have lied to to the grand jury in a very high
Guest Analyst
profile case in Alabama. This is the case about the Southern Poverty Law center where Trump's DOJ has brought a bizarre prosecution against that longtime civil rights group, the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Rachel Maddow
In responding to the indictment, they've done something very unusual.
Guest Analyst
Now, they have now asked the judge in that case to allow them to
Rachel Maddow
see, to allow them to see the
Co-Host or Correspondent
transcript of what the lawyers from Trump's
Rachel Maddow
DOJ actually told the grand jury behind closed doors when they went in to
Guest Analyst
talk to that grand jury to convince that grand jury to sign off in the indictment on this civil rights group.
Co-Host or Correspondent
They want to know what Trump's DOJ lawyers said to that grand jury.
Guest Analyst
This is a very rare request. This is a very unusual thing to request of the judge in a court case. But the reason they have done it is because in this case, in the Southern Poverty Law center case, the indictment
Rachel Maddow
really makes it seem like Trump's Justice Department lawyers might have lied to the grand jury, might have told them things
Guest Analyst
either about the civil rights group or
Rachel Maddow
about the law that were just factually wrong.
Guest Analyst
The arraignment in that case is on Thursday. The judge is right now considering whether to release the grand jury information to the defense.
Rachel Maddow
If it, if that happens, if it
Guest Analyst
does turn out that the lawyers at
Rachel Maddow
Trump's DOJ lied to the grand jury in order to get that indictment, not only would that instantly end the indictment,
Guest Analyst
end the case, it could very easily
Rachel Maddow
mean contempt of court or discipline or even disbarment for the Trump lawyers involved here.
Guest Analyst
The fact that this is even in play in a high profile case like
Rachel Maddow
this is unheard of for Justice Department lawyers.
Guest Analyst
But in Trump's Justice Department, that's kind
Rachel Maddow
of how they roll. They are not great at this. They are really not great at this.
Guest Analyst
Politically, they're not great at this either, it turns out, in an environment where the Republican Party is embodied essentially entirely
Rachel Maddow
by their leader, while nobody, where nobody else is allowed the oxygen to thrive or speak.
Guest Analyst
The latest Washington Post ABC News Ipsos poll has has Trump negative 25 overall.
Rachel Maddow
He's 25 points underwater on his overall
Guest Analyst
approval rating, and that's kind of the
Rachel Maddow
high point for him in this poll. -25 is kind of as good as it gets. On the economy, his approval rating is 31 points underwater. On the Iran war, his approval rating
Co-Host or Correspondent
is 33 points underwater.
Rachel Maddow
On inflation, Trump's approval rating is 45 points underwater. On Trump's handling of the cost of living, which is effectively what he ran
Guest Analyst
on to get a second term in the White House, Trump is 53 points underwater. 76% of the country disapproves of Trump's
Co-Host or Correspondent
handling of the cost of living.
Rachel Maddow
He's minus 53
Guest Analyst
as, among other things,
Rachel Maddow
his war of whim, his war of impulse, this war of choice that he doesn't even seem to understand drags on with no end in sight.
Guest Analyst
And the energy crisis he caused by starting this inexplicable war just gets worse
Co-Host or Correspondent
and worse with gas prices continuing their steady, steep rise.
Rachel Maddow
They are really, really not great at this. They're not good at this.
Guest Analyst
We're also now seeing every day the practical impact of what it means that
Rachel Maddow
they kicked off this second presidential term for Donald Trump by wholesale breaking the government in every way they could figure
Co-Host or Correspondent
out to do it.
Rachel Maddow
And we're seeing that in very practical ways. Like, regardless of your politics, regardless of your ideological can't, we're seeing it in very practical consequences.
Guest Analyst
Last month's tornado outbreak in Kansas City, Kansas, trees damaged, homes damaged, mobile homes and RVs overturned, people injured.
Rachel Maddow
Turns out people had basically no warning
Guest Analyst
of those tornadoes last month.
Co-Host or Correspondent
And why not, right?
Rachel Maddow
Usually a tornado watch goes up a
Guest Analyst
few hours before storms are anticipated. But in the Kansas City, Kansas, tornadoes last month, they only got the tornado
Rachel Maddow
watch up about 30 minutes before the first storm hit. And that's not the warning.
Guest Analyst
Hey, it's coming.
Rachel Maddow
That's the watch which usually gives you hours of notice to let you know
Guest Analyst
that tornadoes are a possibility.
Rachel Maddow
That day, they only got 30 minutes before the watch, no time to get
Co-Host or Correspondent
ready, which undoubtedly affected people's preparedness and undoubtedly affected the amount of damage and potentially the number of injuries.
Guest Analyst
What happened there?
Rachel Maddow
Why did people get no notice? Quote, many forecasting offices in the Great
Guest Analyst
Plains
Rachel Maddow
did not launch weather balloons at 7am that day, as they have for decades?
Guest Analyst
And why didn't the National Weather Service
Rachel Maddow
offices launch the weather balloons that morning as they always have, every 7am every day for decades? Well, thank Donald Trump. Weather balloon launches was one of the
Guest Analyst
first things that had to go.
Rachel Maddow
When Donald Trump and his infinite wisdom
Guest Analyst
started radically cutting the staffing levels at
Rachel Maddow
the National Weather Service and noaa, the
Co-Host or Correspondent
national oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Rachel Maddow
Why did he cut those jobs? What do you have against weather forecasting and tornado watches? Who knows? But there's your tornado warning system on Trumpism. And again, this isn't, you know, this isn't abstract. This isn't theoretical.
Guest Analyst
It isn't ideological.
Rachel Maddow
It's just failure. It's what happens when you break things. Turns out then they're broken, so they don't work when you need them to work.
Guest Analyst
They really are not great at this. The Trump administration, in its infinite wisdom,
Rachel Maddow
also this year radically has screwed up its agriculture numbers, which has turned out to be a huge, expensive catastrophe. Here's Byline Kansas City, Missouri from the New York Times.
Guest Analyst
After Trump's Agriculture Department made its estimate last summer of how much corn American
Rachel Maddow
farmers would harvest this year, quote, the projection had to be repeatedly revised upward until, in January, the department found 1.3 million more acres of corn that it had not accounted for in its earlier estimate. 1.3 million acres is an area, quote, larger than Delaware. Why is this estimate important? Well, traders use this estimate to buy and sell commodities, affecting the prices that
Co-Host or Correspondent
farmers receive for their crops.
Rachel Maddow
Farmers use the estimate to make decisions
Guest Analyst
about how and when to try to
Rachel Maddow
sell their crop for the most money. But under Donald Trump, the apparent the US Government is apparently no longer capable of making these very basic estimates. Quote, it was a miss no other way to call it. It was the department's worst projection in recent memory. And why did they screw this up?
Guest Analyst
Why did it happen?
Rachel Maddow
I don't know. You tell me. Quote it came as the Trump administration was cutting staff at the Agriculture Department. The agriculture department lost 23,000 employees in
Guest Analyst
2025 as Elon Musk's doge slashed jobs
Rachel Maddow
across the federal government. The National Agriculture Statistics Service, which produces the crop reports, was one of the hardest hit divisions.
Guest Analyst
They took its staff from about 800
Rachel Maddow
down to about 500. Yeah, and then, weirdly, turns out the crop reports started sucking worse than they ever had, which kicks American farmers in the teeth right at the moment that Trump's other genius policies mean they can't afford fertilizer or diesel for their tractors
Co-Host or Correspondent
or for the trucks to get their harvest to market.
Guest Analyst
If anyone in the world will still buy their harvest.
Rachel Maddow
Since Trump screwed all that up with
Co-Host or Correspondent
his tariffs adventure as well, I mean,
Rachel Maddow
they're really not good at this.
Guest Analyst
As the war in Iran seems to have become a hot war again today,
Rachel Maddow
with US And Iranian ships firing at each other in the Strait of Hormuz, President Trump has decided at the same time that he's going to pull 5,000 U.S. troops out of Germany. Now, wait, why does that matter for the Iran war? Germany isn't Iran. Hmm. Well, when Trump started the war in Iran without hardening and protecting any of our gazillion military bases and installations all over the Middle east which were now in the range of fire for Iranians missiles and drones, oops, where do you think they sent the US Troops who had to be evacuated really quickly, all off of all of those undefended bases all over the Middle east where'd they send them? They sent them to Germany because we have a really big troop presence in Germany and lots of facilities for our troops in Germany. There have been hundreds of U.S. troops
Co-Host or Correspondent
wounded in Trump's Iran war so far.
Rachel Maddow
Where do US Troops get evacuated to when they're wounded in the Middle East?
Guest Analyst
They get evacuated to Germany because we
Rachel Maddow
have such a big troop presence there and lots of military facilities there to handle those things. Trump is now sending 5,000American troops home
Co-Host or Correspondent
from that crucial position.
Rachel Maddow
Trump is simultaneously re upping the war in the Middle east and also shrinking our ability to support that war from the place where we support a war like that, which is Germany.
Guest Analyst
Why did he decide to do this now?
Rachel Maddow
Simultaneously upping the Iran war and also taking away the military's ability to support
Co-Host or Correspondent
the troops that are there fighting the war.
Rachel Maddow
Why did he decide to do this now? Where did he get this idea? Well, you know, little clue in the fact that he's done this exact same thing before in his first term in 2020, you might remember this. It went down kind of exactly the same way. In 2020, Trump announced that he was going to take thousands of US Troops out of Germany. And the Pentagon was totally blindsided. Nobody could figure out why he announced it. Turns out he had just talked to Vladimir Putin right before making that announcement about pulling U.S. troops out of Germany. Of course, you know, Putin more than anything wants US Troops out of all of Europe. So he was delighted then. That was in June 2020. Then the following month, July 2020, Trump talked to Putin again. And right after talking to Putin again, Trump reiterated more forcefully this time, I really mean it. I want those thousands of US Troops taken out of Germany. The only reason it ultimately didn't happen back then is because that was already late in the year, in 2020. And then Trump lost the presidential election,
Guest Analyst
and President Joe Biden countermanded Trump's ridiculous, nonsensical order.
Rachel Maddow
But now Trump's back in the White House. And so here we are again, and it's gone down exactly the same way. The president publicly announced that he wants thousands of US Troops pulled out of Germany. The Pentagon, once again, totally blindsided. Nobody knows why he has done this. Then it turns out it emerges that he made this announcement about pulling U.S. troops out of Germany right after he got off the phone with Vladimir Putin. Pulling US Troops out of Germany is something that Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin really, really want.
Guest Analyst
Something that would be terrible for the
Rachel Maddow
United States, but really good for Vladimir Putin. And somehow, magically, every time Trump talks to Vladimir Putin. He emerges from that phone call with this same idea over and over again, to give the Kremlin what it wants, even though it is terrible for the
Co-Host or Correspondent
United States and particularly terrible for the United States military right now while they're
Rachel Maddow
fighting a war in the Middle East.
Co-Host or Correspondent
That Trump, for who knows what reason,
Rachel Maddow
they're not good at this.
Co-Host or Correspondent
It was three months ago tonight when
Guest Analyst
the president posted online a video depicting
Co-Host or Correspondent
former President Barack Obama and former First
Rachel Maddow
Lady Michelle Obama as if they were apes.
Co-Host or Correspondent
President Trump did later take it down.
Rachel Maddow
He refused to apologize for it and
Co-Host or Correspondent
still hasn't to this day. That was three months ago. It was five months ago when Donald
Rachel Maddow
Trump confirmed something that he had previously long denied. Back in his first term, President Trump
Guest Analyst
had told a group of senators at
Rachel Maddow
the White House that he thought it was terrible that immigrants to America were
Co-Host or Correspondent
from s hole countries. And according to reporting at the time,
Guest Analyst
he named some predominantly black countries and
Co-Host or Correspondent
he said they were s hole countries. And couldn't we instead have immigrants, Immigrants from predominantly white countries? You mentioned Norway, since countries with white
Rachel Maddow
populations are apparently good and countries with black populations are swear words. So Donald Trump said that in his
Co-Host or Correspondent
first term, and when it was reported
Rachel Maddow
that he had said that, he denied it. He said he had never, ever used that language. But then just a few months ago, he started bragging proudly, weirdly, at a speech in Pennsylvania, he started bragging that, yes, actually, despite all those earlier denials, of course he had used that term and more, he still believes it.
Guest Analyst
Predominantly black countries are s hole countries. This administration, I, I think it's clear
Rachel Maddow
from just the repeated daily news cycle,
Guest Analyst
I think this administration is bad at
Co-Host or Correspondent
everything they set their mind to. They're terrible in the courts to the
Guest Analyst
point where, like, their performance in court jeopardizes the law licenses of everybody who speaks for them.
Rachel Maddow
They're terrible in the court of public
Co-Host or Correspondent
opinion, which you can see in the polls, which is going to have a
Guest Analyst
big political impact on them the next
Co-Host or Correspondent
time people get a chance to vote for them en masse.
Rachel Maddow
They're terrible, really terrible at all the
Guest Analyst
technocratic, practical stuff a government is supposed
Co-Host or Correspondent
to do, including, like, basic stuff like the weather.
Rachel Maddow
They're terrible at war, terrible at diplomacy. They're even terrible at hiding the ball in terms of how much this president
Guest Analyst
does whatever Vladimir Putin wants, even when
Co-Host or Correspondent
it makes no sense for us.
Rachel Maddow
They're just not great. They're bad at basically everything they try to do.
Co-Host or Correspondent
But on the issue of race, on the treatment of African Americans specifically, even
Guest Analyst
being terrible at what they're doing has
Rachel Maddow
still proven to be disastrous for our country. And it is in part the posturing
Guest Analyst
and the messaging and the racist vibes
Co-Host or Correspondent
from the White House and the president.
Guest Analyst
That is stuff that validates and excites the worst bigots in the country, and that is consequential.
Rachel Maddow
But it's more than that, too.
Guest Analyst
We are now about 16 months into
Rachel Maddow
what has been from day one, a concerted and intense targeting of black Americans,
Co-Host or Correspondent
specifically by this president and by this administration.
Rachel Maddow
On his first full day in office, he proclaims war on diversity efforts, not only in government, but in any institution in the country over which he can exert leverage, everything from schools and universities to law firms to private businesses of every stripe. He then immediately started firing some of
Guest Analyst
the highest profile black public officials in
Rachel Maddow
the whole US Government, seemingly regardless of
Guest Analyst
any other thing about them.
Rachel Maddow
I mean, right away, we get the firing of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Charles CQ Brown.
Guest Analyst
We get the firing of the Librarian
Co-Host or Correspondent
of Congress, Carla Hayden, and then it's
Rachel Maddow
Gwen Wilcox from the National Labor Relations,
Guest Analyst
and then it's Robert Primus, the chair of the Surface Transportation Board, and then it's Alvin Brown from the ntsb, and then it's Peggy Carr, the head of the national center for Education Statistics, and then it's Willie Phillips from FERC from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and then it's Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and on and on and on.
Rachel Maddow
When Trump and his top political donor, Elon Musk, then started just lopping off
Guest Analyst
huge swaths of the federal government to disastrous practical effect.
Rachel Maddow
The largest and most egregious cuts targeted
Guest Analyst
federal AGENC that employed a disproportionate number of black employees. Reporter Erica Green wrote about this a
Co-Host or Correspondent
few months ago for the Times, noting
Rachel Maddow
that nothing had moved backwards in the federal government for black Americans this quickly
Guest Analyst
or this far in over 100 years
Rachel Maddow
since Woodrow Wilson came in in 1912 and resegregated the federal workforce, quote, black employees were fired or demoted to lower
Guest Analyst
level jobs, relegated to separate and inferior lunchrooms and other facilities, and accused of
Rachel Maddow
making white women feel unsafe. Those who remained were humiliated.
Guest Analyst
A black worker in the Postal Service
Co-Host or Correspondent
was surrounded by screens so white workers would not have to look at him.
Guest Analyst
Another employee had a cage built around
Co-Host or Correspondent
him to separate him from his white counterparts.
Guest Analyst
A clerk in the Treasury Secretary's office
Rachel Maddow
was assigned to rewrite all correspondence to
Guest Analyst
address black employees by their first names. The way Trump addressed the Librarian of
Co-Host or Correspondent
Congress, Carla Hayden, by her first name when he crowed publicly about firing her for no reason
Rachel Maddow
in the year of our Lord 2025 and now 2026. This President and this administration is not
Co-Host or Correspondent
just inheriting that history from the Wilson administration.
Rachel Maddow
It's furthering it in its own Ways.
Guest Analyst
Since 1965, there has been an executive order in effect. It was signed by Lyndon Johnson, 1965.
Rachel Maddow
Since 19, all federal contractors have been banned by executive order from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin. Donald Trump rescinded that 1965 rule on
Guest Analyst
his first full day in office.
Rachel Maddow
Less than a month later, Trump announced another rule change. They rescinded clause 52.22221 of the federal acquisition regulation, which doesn't sound like much,
Guest Analyst
but I'll tell you what the title of that is.
Rachel Maddow
It's Prohibition of Segregated Facilities.
Guest Analyst
That's what Trump rescinded. Less than one month into being back
Co-Host or Correspondent
in the White House.
Guest Analyst
That section reads, quote, the contractor agrees
Rachel Maddow
that it does not and will not maintain or provide for its employees any segregated facilities at any of its establishments and that it does not and will not permit its employees to perform their services at any location under its control where segregated facilities are maintained. That anti segregation clause has been in government contracts for decades. Donald Trump overtly reached out to rescind
Co-Host or Correspondent
it, which means, bluntly, that the federal
Rachel Maddow
government no longer explicitly prohibits contractors from
Co-Host or Correspondent
having segregated restaurants, waiting rooms, and drinking fountains. Make America great again, right?
Rachel Maddow
Recently fired and sidelined employees in the
Guest Analyst
Department of Housing and Urban Development have
Rachel Maddow
started sounding the alarm that the Trump administration is no longer, just bluntly, no longer enforcing a federal law known as the Fair Housing Act. Fair Housing act, another pillar of the
Co-Host or Correspondent
civil rights movements and its achievements, the
Guest Analyst
Fair Housing act dates to 1968. It says you can't refuse to rent to someone or refuse to sell a
Rachel Maddow
house to someone on account of their
Co-Host or Correspondent
race or their color or religion or
Rachel Maddow
national origin or any other factor against
Co-Host or Correspondent
which we're supposed to be protected from discrimination.
Rachel Maddow
According to current and former employees of
Guest Analyst
the Department of Housing and Urban Development
Co-Host or Correspondent
under Donald Trump, they have dropped. They have dropped enforcement of the Federal Housing Act.
Rachel Maddow
In Trump's first year back in office,
Guest Analyst
black unemployment spiked in this country from
Rachel Maddow
6.2% all the way up to 7.5%,
Co-Host or Correspondent
making it the highest of all racial groups. Under Joe Biden, black unemployment had been at a record low of 4.8%, spiking now under Donald Trump.
Guest Analyst
The Trump administration, generally speaking, is bad at its work.
Co-Host or Correspondent
It is bad at what it sets its mind to in all sorts of ways.
Guest Analyst
But black Americans, African Americans, have been
Rachel Maddow
targeted by this administration in a concerted way that has nevertheless been devastating, even
Co-Host or Correspondent
though the Trump administration isn't good at anything they set their mind to. And that was all before the conservative
Rachel Maddow
majority on the U.S. supreme Court, including
Guest Analyst
all of Trump's appointees, voted to effectively
Co-Host or Correspondent
end the Voting Rights Act a few days ago.
Rachel Maddow
As soon as the court said they
Guest Analyst
would take up that case, people started mapping the worst case scenario for what Trump and the Republicans would do, particularly
Rachel Maddow
in the south, if the court gutted the Voting Rights act of 1965, the
Co-Host or Correspondent
crowning achievement of the civil civil rights movement.
Rachel Maddow
And the before and after looks like
Guest Analyst
the snap back after the end of
Co-Host or Correspondent
Reconstruction, after the Civil War.
Rachel Maddow
I mean, look at the state of Louisiana. There, a third of the population of Louisiana is black. Louisiana's Republican governor canceled congressional elections that are already underway in that state to rush through new maps that will presumably make sure that even though one third of the population of that state is
Guest Analyst
black, there will be no black representation in Congress for Louisiana at all. South Carolina, a quarter of the population is black.
Rachel Maddow
They have one majority minority district represented by an African American Democrat, Jim Clyburn.
Guest Analyst
They are going to try to get
Co-Host or Correspondent
rid of that one black district so that South Carolina is all white, all Republican in representation, while a quarter of
Guest Analyst
the people who live in that state are black.
Rachel Maddow
Black. In Tennessee, one in six residents is black.
Guest Analyst
Republicans now want to make sure all
Rachel Maddow
nine congressional seats in Tennessee are white.
Co-Host or Correspondent
All nine of them. They want it to be nine, nine, nine to nothing, white and Republican, and one in six people in that state is black. In her dissent from the majority ruling,
Guest Analyst
Justice Elena Kagan said it will likely
Rachel Maddow
cause the largest reduction to minority representation
Guest Analyst
since the end of Reconstruction. She probably didn't need to use the word likely there. The war on black Americans that is being waged by this president and this
Co-Host or Correspondent
Republican Party is one of the only things they have put their mind to in this past year that they've actually done pretty well at. A comprehensive attack on black public officials and black public power. A comprehensive attack on black public officials
Rachel Maddow
in the federal government, black employees in the federal government, black representatives in Congress, and now all around the country, where everywhere Republicans are in charge, they are
Guest Analyst
scrambling to make sure that black public
Co-Host or Correspondent
officials can no longer hold office.
Rachel Maddow
We're going to talk tonight about the pushback against that and the strategies to make them pay for it, both in Louisiana, which is ground zero here and around the country.
Guest Analyst
We're going to talk tonight about some
Rachel Maddow
surprising pushback from churches and the clergy. We're going to talk tonight about a blistering takedown of Trump and the administration in federal court in Washington in a most unexpected case. But big picture, here we are. We are in the middle of something really radical in this country. Not just to get rid of our constitutional republic to replace our form of
Co-Host or Correspondent
government with something else, but to get
Rachel Maddow
rid of the multiracial democracy that our
Co-Host or Correspondent
Constitution is supposed to protect.
Rachel Maddow
It is a war on black America.
Co-Host or Correspondent
The fight to save it is looking like it's going to be the fight of all of our lives. More ahead tonight. Stay with us.
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Rachel Maddow
Democrats
Guest Analyst
currently hold about two dozen congressional seats in the American south on this map. Those are the islands of blue. Now that the Supreme Court has cleared the way for Republicans to erase majority minority districts by gutting the Voting Rights act, some estimates say Republicans could quickly
Rachel Maddow
pick up a minimum of half those seats.
Guest Analyst
At least a dozen people who study this thing say that by 2028, Republicans could draw maps that would give them as many as 19 of those seats in the House. One analysis shows the Congressional Black Caucus shrinking by as much as a third.
Co-Host or Correspondent
That's the risk.
Guest Analyst
That's what Democrats are looking at if they do nothing. But what if Democrats fight back with every single thing they've got? What if Democrats everywhere, they can draw maps that maximally favor them? The voting rights group Fair Fight Action estimates that Democrats could pick up 10 seats by 2028. Democrats could pick up 10 seats using maps drawn in states where Democrats control the state legislature. If Democrats gain control of more state legislatures, say, this year in November, if they win in places like, say, Wisconsin, they could pick up as many as
Rachel Maddow
22 seats, which would all but erase
Guest Analyst
any advantage Republicans are about to give themselves by losing the Voting Rights Act's protections. The first thing that means is that races for state legislature, state house, and state senate this year just got way more important in the immediate run in the right here, right now, Democrats are already taking steps to protect what they have to try to expand the map. Today, the Democratic leader in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, said he's already talking to Democratic officials in his home state of New York to come up with a plan for new maps there in time for 20. He said today, quote, this is just the beginning.
Rachel Maddow
Across the nation, we will sue, we will redraw, and we will win. The we will sue part of that
Guest Analyst
strategy is key because Democrats and voting rights groups are also pushing back in the courts wherever they can. As I mentioned at the top of the show, the Republican governor of Louisiana just took the extraordinary step of announcing it was an emergency and stopping an election that was already underway, specifically so his state can draw new maps that favor Republicans and that disfavor black voters. In Louisiana today, a coalition of voters and voting rights groups sued the governor for stopping those elections after Louisianans had already started to vote. In a statement announcing the lawsuit, they said by attempting to suspend an ongoing election, state officials are creating confusion, undermining public trust, and placing partisan interests above the constitutional rights of Louisiana voters.
Rachel Maddow
Black voters and communities that have long
Guest Analyst
fought for equal political representation should not be forced to bear the burden of unlawful power grabs designed to silence their voices. Elections belong to the people, not to politicians seeking to manipulate the rules. Joining us now is attorney Sophia Lynn Lakin. She is director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project. The ACLU is representing those voters and civil rights groups in court. Ms. Lakin, thanks very much for being here.
Co-Host or Correspondent
Appreciate you being here in person.
Sophia Lynn Lakin
Thank you for having me.
Guest Analyst
So first of all, have I said anything about the situation in Louisiana or what the governor there is doing or
Co-Host or Correspondent
what this case is about that strikes you wrong or the wrong way around?
Sophia Lynn Lakin
No, not at all. Not at all.
Guest Analyst
Unfortun, canceling an election after people have
Rachel Maddow
already started voting feels like it should be the sort of thing you're not allowed to do. Can you help us understand the legal
Guest Analyst
arguments here and what this case is about?
Sophia Lynn Lakin
Sure. You know, this is actually the second case that we filed. We filed an action on Friday in state court saying the governor actually doesn't have the authority to issue this proclamation, this executive order to try to suspend the elections in an attempt to stop this before early voting in person started on Saturday. Unfortunately, the court denied our, our temporary restraining order there. So we have since, as you've pointed out, moved in federal court today to try once again to put a stop on what's creating massive confusion. We are hearing Republican election administrators calling this a nightmare for election administrators. It is chaotic. People don't understand what the situation is. There are actually elections that are proceeding irrespective of the suspension.
Guest Analyst
Right.
Sophia Lynn Lakin
There are other things on the ballot as well. So voters think, think that, oh, the election is off. They may not have their opportunity to even vote in those other elections, too. So we're talking about tens of thousands of voters who have turned out, who have cast ballots already, having their ballots suspended. And we are potentially canceled. A true disenfranchisement of voters in the very real sense of the word.
Rachel Maddow
So voters are being handed a ballot where there's lots of different races in the ballot. They're being told, some of your votes here will count, but some of them will. And in terms of when you want to cast votes for that other election, we'll let you know later. But if you cast it now, we're not going to count that, but we
Guest Analyst
promise we'll count the other things.
Rachel Maddow
I mean, I can't imagine that voters, I mean, any voter would be confused in that circumstance. But what's the remedy you could even seek with, you know, 80,000 people having already voted, that can retroactively fix the confusion that's already been cast over this election?
Sophia Lynn Lakin
Well, that's what we're trying to do by going in very quickly asking for a temporary restraining order to say, please halt, halt the enforcement of this suspension of the election, let it go forward, count everyone's votes that have been currently cast and continue on with this election. If you want to redraw these maps, we can talk about that at a later date. But at this moment in time, you're just causing chaos. You're disenfranchising voters. You're creating a situation that nobody wants to see when it comes to talking about elections that have integrity.
Rachel Maddow
I know that the ACLU is also
Guest Analyst
involved in a number of other cases over gerrymandering and racial discrimination. Places like North Carolina, Texas and Missouri.
Rachel Maddow
How does this sort of world shaking
Guest Analyst
Supreme Court decision affect the legal battle
Co-Host or Correspondent
in those kinds of cases?
Sophia Lynn Lakin
I mean, it's an extraordinary gut punch to the work that we have been doing to protect fair maps for voters of color. You know, the Supreme Court in its majority opinion describes this as an update to the Voting Rights act when, as Justice Kagan points out in her dissent, it is all but dead. Yeah, and that's really going to be a challenge for us going forward. This is one of the principal tools that we have used to bring progress to this country, to bring diversity in our representation, to ensure that voters of color have have a say, an equal say in our political process. And it's going to be difficult without this primary legal tool to ensure that we aren't rolled back to a time before the Voting Rights act to a time of Jim Crow.
Rachel Maddow
Sophia Lynn Lakin is director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project. You have your work cut out for you. Thanks for being here to help us understand.
Sophia Lynn Lakin
Thank you for having me.
Guest Analyst
Appreciate it.
Co-Host or Correspondent
All right, we'll be right back. Stay with
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Rachel Maddow
Last week on the show, we showed you some of these images from Providence, Rhode Island. This was outside the Citizens park bank annual shareholders meeting.
Guest Analyst
These folks were demanding that Citizens bank, which is based in the Northeast, they
Rachel Maddow
should drop the big financial investments that
Guest Analyst
bank has in two private companies that
Co-Host or Correspondent
run immigrant prisons for the Trump administration.
Rachel Maddow
And it was not just at that shareholders meeting. There have been protests all across the
Guest Analyst
Northeast specifically targeting Citizens bank because of its involvement with Trump's immigration prison. Citizens bank stopped funding ICE prison.
Rachel Maddow
One Rhode island union has now said
Guest Analyst
it's withdrawing hundreds of thousands of dollars from Citizens bank in protest of what Citizens is doing with Trump's immigrant prisons. On top of that, a coalition of dozens of religious groups in Boston, they've announced that they will be pulling a
Co-Host or Correspondent
million dollars out of the bank unless
Guest Analyst
leaders of the bank at least held a meeting with them to discuss their concerns.
Rachel Maddow
They made that threat that, that charge basically last week.
Guest Analyst
In a statement, Citizens bank said in response that it does not comment on
Co-Host or Correspondent
specific customer or client partnerships.
Rachel Maddow
But after having put that charge to
Guest Analyst
Citizens bank last week, well, that coalition of religious groups, the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, they say this meeting they've asked for with Citizens bank and its executives
Co-Host or Correspondent
has not been forthcoming.
Guest Analyst
And so they say as of today, they're following through on what they said they're going to do. Do members of this interfaith group, ministers, pastors, rabbis, they all gathered at a Citizens bank branch in Boston today to follow through on their pledge.
Rachel Maddow
They withdrew $1 million from the bank. Apparently this interfaith group has like something like $14 million in the bank altogether. They say they're going to keep pulling it out a million at a time,
Guest Analyst
as long as Citizens bank doesn't change its way.
Rachel Maddow
They even brought this giant $1 million
Co-Host or Correspondent
withdrawal slip with them for today's announcement.
Guest Analyst
Among the speakers today was Reverend John Edgerton, senior minister of Old South Church in Boston's Back Bay, who said in part, we are here today because we need to let the banks know that
Rachel Maddow
people of good faith, people of good
Guest Analyst
conscience, people of goodwill, our neighbors will not stand for building private prisons, for building deportation machines, for crushing our neighbors underneath their wheels for profit. No, he said. No, not with Our money. Joining us now is the Reverend John Edgerton, Senior Minister of Old South Church in Boston. Reverend, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate you making time.
Reverend John Edgerton
Well, thank you so much, Rachel, for having me. Really appreciate it and giving the opportunity to speak to your audience.
Guest Analyst
How did this come about? Why did the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization decide to start pressing Citizens bank this way?
Reverend John Edgerton
We pulled a million dollars out today. We transferred it to another bank because we want Citizens to stay. Stop doing this dirty business. Citizens is one of the only banks in the country that banks with and provides financing for CoreCivic NGO Group, two of the most notorious private prison companies in this country. This year. Emmanuel Damas, who is a neighbor, a Boston resident, a 56 year old man, he died in Corecivic detention in Arizona from a toothache. He had a toothache. He complained about it. They didn't give him proper care. His toothache became an infection, his infection became sepsis and he died. And these are the practices that Corecivic is notorious for and GEO Group is notorious for. And they will not be abusing our neighbors, not with our money.
Guest Analyst
I got the sense from the speeches today from you and your fellow clergy who are part of this interfaith group, I got the sense that Citizens bank is not a symbol. They're not a sort of a distant corporate abstraction. To you. As a bank that is based in the Northeast, as a bank that is something that deals individually with all the different faith organizations, churches and synagogues and mosques that are part of the interfaith organization.
Rachel Maddow
I got the sense that U.S. faith leaders in Boston have a real relationship with Citizens Bank.
Guest Analyst
And that is part of what, why
Rachel Maddow
it both pains you and motivates you
Guest Analyst
that you haven't been able to shift them on this. Is that fair?
Reverend John Edgerton
We feel deeply betrayed by what Citizens bank is doing. Twenty years ago, we helped them to build relationships in the immigrant community so that they could expand their business. And since then they have turned into an organization we don't recognize, into an institution we don't recognize anymore. Rather than partnering with and building up all of our neighbors in Boston, instead they are making money tearing families apart. And it is unconscionable. It is against the basic values of this country. And it is something that I find religiously abhorrent.
Guest Analyst
Do you and your fellow clergy who are part of this interfaith group plan to continue to withdraw more money from the bank as a way of sort of ramping up the pressure? Are you hearing from any other faith organizations or nonprofits or entities that bank with citizens who may want to follow your lead on this.
Reverend John Edgerton
Today, a sister organization, Greater Cleveland Congregations, joined. They pledged that they would pledge their deposits toward this as well. So we are now well over $14.5 million of deposits. We are customers of citizens. We don't want to hurt citizens. They are long. We are 20 year customers with 14 and a half million dollars and growing of deposits that are ours. And we, we want for them to do what is right. Their core customer base is in Massachusetts, Rhode island, across New England. They are fast becoming the ICE bank. And if they think being the ICE bank is going to play well with their core base here in New England, they need better advice. And that is what we are trying to do, is give them some good advice, which is that they need to stop being involved in this dirty business.
Guest Analyst
Reverend John Edgerton, Senior minister of Old South Church in Boston. Reverend, thank you so much for your time. Keep us apprised. We're really interested in this campaign, both for what it means in New England, but also, I think, the kind of model that it presents around the country. We'd love to just have you again
Co-Host or Correspondent
and to hear how it goes.
Reverend John Edgerton
Wonderful. Absolutely. Anytime. Really appreciate it, Rachel.
Co-Host or Correspondent
All right, we'll be right back. Stay with us.
Rachel Maddow
This is the East Potomac Golf Course in Washington, dc.
Guest Analyst
It's a public course, so that means
Rachel Maddow
you don't have to be a member.
Guest Analyst
Anybody can sign up to play there.
Rachel Maddow
I don't know anything about golf. I can't tell golf from mini golf, but I can tell you that East
Guest Analyst
Potomac is thought of as a really beautiful course. It's a lovely and well loved amenity in New York. Excuse me, in dc.
Rachel Maddow
Or at least it was last year after President Donald Trump demolished the East Wing of the White House, bulldozed it, surprise, on his own, say so to build himself a ballroom nobody asked for. After he bulldozed and tore down the historic East Wing of the White House, he had the dirt and the rubble from that hauled away from the White House in trucks and had those trucks dump it all at the East Potomac Golf Course with, again, no warning or explanation.
Co-Host or Correspondent
That's nice.
Rachel Maddow
Like I said, this is a public golf course. This is not one of Donald Trump's private golf clubs. This belongs to the people.
Co-Host or Correspondent
People. But then,
Rachel Maddow
even after he turned it into his own personal construction dump, how did that happen? The Trump administration then announced that they were going to seize control of that course and DC's two other public golf courses as well. Again, no consultation, no explanation. Just gimme Just hungry, Hungry Hippo style. I'm taking it.
Guest Analyst
At East Potomac, there was reporting that
Rachel Maddow
the White House planned to shut the course down as early as this week. As early as today, the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward sued the Trump administration to try to stop them from taking
Guest Analyst
control of this course, which is part
Rachel Maddow
of a whole park that belongs to the taxpayers and not to the White House or Donald Trump. Well, today the judge in the case
Guest Analyst
told the Trump administration in no uncertain terms that the East Potomac Golf Course
Rachel Maddow
must stay open and the administration cannot make any significant changes to it without notice or approval. The judge today in court warned the White House that if so much as a shovel is seen scene at East Potomac, if anything even resembling heavy machinery pulls into its parking lot, she said, there's going to be hell to pay. Quote let's just say, given some issues
Guest Analyst
around the district recently, I would have a particular concern that we not ask,
Rachel Maddow
we not act first and ask forgiveness later, she said, quote, if anyone orders big things to show up, by big things, I mean anything bigger than my sedate, then I want the plaintiffs to have notice. Anything bigger than my sedan. Got it?
Guest Analyst
Tee times at the East Potomac Golf Course are available bright and early tomorrow morning and every morning from here on out. They are not going without a fight.
Co-Host or Correspondent
Stay with us.
Rachel Maddow
All right, that's going to do it for me tonight. Thanks for being here.
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Rachel Maddow and her expert guests dissect the Trump administration’s broad failures in governance, policy, public services, and public opinion—contrasted with one “success”: a systematic, unprecedented campaign targeting Black Americans and dismantling civil rights protections. The episode weaves together news analysis, polling, historic context, and interviews with those on the front lines of resistance, offering both a critical overview and a warning about American democracy’s current test.
Contempt of Court and Legal Failures
Poll Numbers and Public Opinion
Government Dysfunction and Dangerous Cuts
Racially Disastrous Policies
Unenforced Civil Rights Laws
Nationwide Effects
Summary (Rachel Maddow, 27:01):
“It is a war on black America. The fight to save it is looking like it’s going to be the fight of all of our lives.”
Redistricting Battles & Voting Rights Litigation (29:20 – 35:47)
Religious Groups Divesting from Pro-ICE Bank (37:10 – 43:42)
Federal Court Pushback on Executive Overreach (43:48 – 46:34)
Rachel Maddow (on government dysfunction):
“They are terrible in the courts to the point where...their performance in court jeopardizes the law licenses of everybody who speaks for them.” (16:41)
Rachel Maddow (on Trump's only "success"):
“But on the issue of race, on the treatment of African Americans specifically, even being terrible at what they’re doing has still proven to be disastrous for our country.” (17:22)
Guest Analyst (Naming targeted Black officials):
“Right away, we get the firing of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Charles CQ Brown... [and many others]” (18:33)
Reverend John Edgerton (Faith-based bank boycott):
“They are making money tearing families apart. And it is unconscionable. It is against the basic values of this country. And it is something that I find religiously abhorrent.” (41:34)
Sophia Lynn Lakin (ACLU):
“You are disenfranchising voters. You’re creating a situation that nobody wants to see when it comes to talking about elections that have integrity.” (33:56)
Rachel Maddow and her guests deliver a relentless, detailed indictment of the Trump administration’s across-the-board failures, with special focus on the coordinated attack on civil rights and Black Americans as the “one thing” where Trump’s team has proved ruthlessly effective. The episode lays bare present dangers to democracy, the rule of law, and multiracial representation, but also spotlights ongoing, creative resistance—legal, political, and religious—offering both context and urgent calls to action.
Quote to Remember (Rachel Maddow, 26:56): “It is a war on black America. The fight to save it is looking like it’s going to be the fight of all of our lives.”