← The Rachel Maddow Show
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump accidentally builds broad coalition of opponents energized by his unpopular agenda
00:43:59
Rachel Maddow surveys the varied and widespread protests in opposition to Donald Trump's wanton destruction of the federal government. From weather scientists to immigrants to LGBTQ+ and its allies to consumer advocates to park rangers, each round of firings or extremist executive orders brings a new collection of anti-Trump activists under an ever-widening tent.
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- [00:01]
Rachel Maddow
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- [00:30]
Chris Hayes
Really happy to have you here. On July 10, 1940, the German Air Force started its large scale attack on our closest overseas ally on Great Britain. That was the start of the Battle of Britain. And at that point, Great Britain was the last man standing in Western Europe. The Germans had spread out into Austria and then into Czechoslovakia, and then they took Poland and Denmark and Norway and Belgium and the Netherlands and Luxembourg and France. Nazi Germany was just rolling through all of those countries and at the end, Britain was it. Starting July 10, 1940, the might of the German Air Force turned its sights to destroying and ultimately trying to take Britain as well. Because they wanted all of it. They wanted all of Europe. And at that point, the United States had to decide what we were going to do. Here was not just our closest overseas ally, but here was the last country standing in the way of total Nazi domination of all of Europe, which is what Hitler seemed to want to use, not only for its own ends, but he seemed to want to use that as the cornerstone of a global Third Reich Nazi world domination. And here's little Great Britain standing as the last thing between them in control of that continent. So what were we going to do? What President Roosevelt wanted to do was help our ally, help Great Britain stand up to the Nazis, help them hold the line. FDR expended a huge amount of political capital to do that, and also just capital money to send Britain as much support as he could manage short of us getting into the war ourselves in 1942. That's what FDR did. That is what we remember the United States doing as a country. But at the time, it definitely wasn't like a consensus decision. That is definitely what President Roosevelt wanted to do, but lots of other people in the country did not want to do that at all. Remember that date, July 10th. That's when the German Air Force started attacking the British mainland. July 10. Exactly one month later, on August 10, 1940, a sitting US senator gave a national speech on the radio in which he demanded that England should say thank you to us. They should be way more grateful. They should show us some respect. Frankly, all our allies should. For all that We've done for them and it was time frankly for them to start paying us back. That senator's name was Ernest Lundeen. He was a senator from Minnesota and in Congress he had formed something called the Make Europe Pay War Debts Committee which said that we shouldn't be helping our so called allies in Europe at all. Because frankly, those allies, especially England, they owed us. They owed us money from the first World War, money they hadn't been able to pay back yet. We should focus now on making them pay us back rather than us giving them any more help. I mean, who cares that they're being invaded and attacked by the huge Nazi war machine which has already invaded and taken over the whole rest of Western Europe? Not our problem. We should be collecting right now on what they owe us for helping them already the first time around. And no way should we be giving them any more help. Ernest Lundin was actually so into the idea of the Make Europe Pay War Debts Committee that he formed a second committee with a similar name that focused specifically on how they should pay their debts to us. His other committee said that they should pay their war debts to us by giving us their islands. Islands for War Debts Committee. That was his idea. Our allies are in the middle of being invaded and bombed and occupied by the Nazis, but this seems like a good moment to see if we can get some stuff off of them.
- [04:46]
Dr. Sarah Cooley
Seizure of the islands may be necessary as was once advocated by Andrew Jackson, our great American president. Danish and Dutch, British and French island possessions in America all must become American. In the meantime, our debts are piling sky high, approaching 50 billion with a 6 billion dollar deficit this year.
- [05:07]
Chris Hayes
Yeah, see, we've got these debts they owe us. Let's seize their islands to cover some of their debt to us. Let them fight off the Nazis themselves. They owe us. We shouldn't be helping them anymore. Less than two weeks after giving that speech on the radio, Senator Ernest Lundin was dead in a mysterious plane crash. When they pulled his body out of the wreckage, they found in the pocket of his jacket a draft speech that he had been planning on giving in the United States Senate. That was kind of along the same lines as that radio address. Definitely don't support our supposed allies as they are fighting Hitler. Who cares about whether or not they can fight Hitler off or not? What's so bad about Germany anyway? That was the draft of the speech in his pocket. He never got a chance to deliver that speech because he died in that plane crash. But that speech that he had on him, that he had in his pocket when he died. Turns out that speech was written for him by the Nazi government, by a Nazi agent, by the Hitler government's top paid propaganda agent in the United States. Turns out that Senator Ernest Lundin was being paid by the Nazis. He had been on Hitler's payroll the whole time. Hitler's government was paying him to argue in Washington, to use his position as a US Senator to make this case to the American people that we shouldn't be helping our allies fight back against the Nazis in Europe. We should instead focus on getting them to apologize to us for not being able to pay back everything we did for them in the First World War. We should be getting them to show their gratitude to us now by figuring out what they can do, what they can give up of their own resources to prioritize paying us while they're fighting off the Nazis, or whatever that happened in August 1940. How was your day today? I have been told by a senior official here that nothing's going to happen with this minerals deal until Zelensky goes in front of cameras and makes an explicit public apology. 85 years ago, in 1940, Ernest Lundin was just a senator. He wasn't the president or the vice president. And ultimately, we did not adopt as a country this proposal that Hitler had stuffed into his mouth with a wad of cash, this proposal from him that we should refuse to even dig a grave for our allies, that we should not only refuse to help them, we should pile on them, make things even harder for them than they already were. We did not go along with that. Ernest Lundin died in that plane crash not long thereafter. He was exposed as a paid Nazi agent. And then he quickly was forgotten. We didn't choose his course 85 years ago. We chose to go with what President Roosevelt wanted to do. We chose a very different course. And in so doing, the United States not only stood up for our allies and stood against the Nazis, the United States became the leader of the free world. And now it is 85 years later. It's 2025. We're six weeks into Donald Trump's second term as president. And our ally, Ukraine, doesn't have any islands to give up to us, but they do have minerals, I guess, that we could take off them, that we could mine. And so, under Donald Trump, our offer to our ally Ukraine, as they try to fight off an invasion from Russia, our offer to them is that they should be so lucky that we would deign to take all of their minerals. They'd be lucky to get such a deal. With us. In fact, they'll only even get that deal. They'll only get the privilege of us taking their resources off of them if they grovel for it. But even then, maybe not. And there's a lot going on. There's a lot to get to just tonight in this hour on this show. We're going to be talking tonight about the protests all over the country this weekend at national parks and at national historic sites as Trump's massive and indiscriminate firings of the federal workforce have led to the first announcements that some parks will be closing down and no longer open to the public, even though those are our parks and our land. As rare winter wildfires race through North Carolina and South Carolina and Georgia tonight, forcing a state of emergency in South Carolina, forcing evacuations from multiple parts of those states. Tonight, we've got footage from the protest that was held today at noaa, at the National Weather Service, in the national oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, where Trump has inexplicably fired meteorologists and the staff at the Storm Prediction center and staff at the National Hurricane center and the technicians who maintain radar systems for the weather service and the people who staff the modeling center that is the foundation for all our national weather forecasting capability. We will have more to come tonight on the protest today and this weekend that targeted the president's top campaign donor at some of his many businesses. The president has given his top campaign donor the right somehow to fire whole swaths at the United States government. Lots of protests against that campaign donor all over the country this weekend. We'll be taking a look at some of that as well as the protests targeting the vice president when he made a genius decision to take a ski vacation in Vermont, which is a apparently a place he has never Googled. One of the remaining senior officials at USAID clicked send on a report this weekend just before he was fired. The report detailed that agency's assessment of the consequences of President Trump and his top campaign donor just shutting off U.S. humanitarian aid and foreign aid, full stop. USAID's assessment of what that will cause is a harrowing list, including nearly 28,000 new cases this year of highly infectious hemorrhagic fevers like ebola and marburg. 200,000 children this year paralyzed with polio, 18 million new cases of malaria this year. USAID says we can also look forward to a 30% global rise in multidrug resistant tuberculosis just this year. A single case of multidrug resistant tuberculosis, just for perspective here, costs about $150,000 to treat, we'll have a 30% rise in multidrug resistant tuberculosis worldwide this year. Nicholas Enrich, acting Administrator for Global Health at usaid, was told this weekend that he was being fired. He then clicked send on those reports. So even though he was being pushed out, at least the country would know what they are doing there and what the consequences may be. And now he has gone from that job. So there's a lot, there's a lot going on. There's a lot to cover every day, increasingly with each passing day. But I got to tell you, even just since Friday, since our last show Friday night, the litany of things that have happened, the litany of things Trump is doing specifically for Russia is a list that would make Ernest Lundin blush. I mean, you might have seen the show that we did on Friday night. Even before today, even before this weekend, we had the Justice Department making a major change. Justice Department prosecutes foreign agents under the Foreign Agent Registration Act. Trump Justice Department announced they will no longer enforce the Foreign Agent Registration Act. The FBI and the Cybersecurity division at the Department of Homeland Security, they both have election security units that monitor and combat foreign influence operations specifically targeting our elections. Under Trump, that FBI task force and that part of cisa, the cybersecurity agency, have both been shut down. Trump's Justice Department has also announced that it is closing its unit that seeks to enforce economic sanctions against Russia. Task force. Klepto capture is now gone. Russia kicked USAID out of Russia in 2012. Vladimir Putin has sought since then to demonize USAID and to try to get USAID kicked out out of as many other countries as he can. Well, Trump decided that USAID would be the first agency he and Elon Musk would target to fully shut down. Last week, Trump specifically shut down the American project that helps Ukraine keep up its electrical grid, keep its electrical grid up and running as Russia has bombed it and attacked it over and over and over again during this war, specifically to try to freeze the civilian population to death in order to force Ukraine to surrender. Before last week, the United States was the major source of assistance to Ukraine to keep its electricity on, to keep that grid up. As of last week, Trump has withdrawn that help. At the United nations under Donald Trump, we sided with Russia and against Ukraine and all of our allies when it came to a resolution marking the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Trump now says that Russia should be allowed back into the G7. Trump sent a high level delegation, a US government delegation, to meet with the Russian government in Saudi Arabia. He says he's looking forward to meeting Putin himself in person. Maybe he will invite him to the White House. I fully expect that he will. Trump appointed a new director of the FBI who was recently paid $25,000 to appear in an anti FBI propaganda film made by a guy who has been paid by the Kremlin to make pro Russian propaganda. In his first day on the job at the FBI, he announced that he'd be moving 1,500 FBI agents out of Washington and that he'd mostly be working from home in Las Vegas. Also, that nobody has to wear a suit anymore at the FBI. The New York Times reports that he also, in his first meeting with FBI agents, seem to not know that intelligence and counterintelligence are two different things. Quote, Mr. Patel used the words intelligence and counterintelligence, quote, interchangeably, suggesting that he was confusing them, according to half a dozen people familiar with the call. That's FBI. However, how are things going over at CIA? Well, at CIA, they are carrying out the largest mass firings in 50 years. And then they sent a list of CIA employees to the White House in an unclassified email. CNN now reports on a new naval intelligence document which says our foreign adversaries, including Russia, have, quote, directed their intelligence services to ramp up recruiting of US Federal employees working in national security, targeting those who have been fired or who feel they could be soon. The Washington Post now reports that at the National Nuclear Security Administration, among the people Trump mass fired and then belatedly tried to rehire were people, quote, with Q level security clearances which gives them access to America's nuclear secrets. Nuclear non proliferation experts in Washington warned of the risks of firing such workers who have knowledge that is highly valuable to rogue states and terrorist groups. One senior Trump adviser has now publicly suggested that the US should break up the so called Five eyes intelligence sharing arrangement that we have with our closest allies, including Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. And again, these are all things. We ran through most of these on Friday, but honestly, just from a news show's perspective, you need a whole team just assigned to this beat of how fast is America becoming Belarus? I know Trump's in a hurry, but at this point, we're just deciding whether we're going to be called Trumpistan or Ameristan. Which one polls better? I mean, either way, six weeks into this term, what is on President Vladimir Putin's wish list that he is not getting? Trump is inviting the Russians to establish a full diplomatic presence in the United States. Once again, to reopen their embassy at full strength and all of their consulates. Headline on that at cnn. Russia seeks talks. Excuse me. Russia sees talks with us as an opening to rebuild its spy networks. The cybersecurity publication Recorded Future was first to report this weekend that Trump has now told US Cyber Command to stand down in all of its operations targeting Russia. From the New York Times, quote, over the past year, ransomware attacks on American hospitals, infrastructure and cities have ramped up, many emanating from Russia. Sabotage efforts in Europe, including suspected Russian attempts to cut communications cables, mysterious explosions, and Russian directed assassination plots have also accelerated in the past year. The US until now has been central in helping European nations fight back, often in covert cyber operations. But now that cooperation could now be in jeopardy, with again, US Cyber Command being ordered to stand down its operations against Russia. Yesterday, Mike Turner, Republican Congressman, former Intelligence Committee chair, told Face the Nation on cbs, hey, that can't be right. They asked him about those reports. He said he was, quote, certain that the Trump administration could not possibly have told Cyber Command to stand down on Russia. But, yeah, believe it. In fact, they have. Tonight, they demanded the resignation of the chief of the FBI's New York Field office, who spent most of his career investigating or supervising counterintelligence cases. Tonight, he has been forced out. Tonight, U.S. stock markets have tanked because we are imposing huge tariffs on our two closest trading partners on Canada and Mexico as of midnight tonight. We're also, for some reason, sending Stryker Brigade combat vehicles to our border with Mexico while threatening to send US Troops over the border and into Mexico. Tonight, Reuters reports that the White House has told the US State Department and the US treasury to start removing sanctions on Russia. And tonight, of course, they have made it official that we are full stop cutting off the aid we have been providing to Ukraine, the aid that Congress approved and that Trump therefore, does not have the legal power to stop, but he is stopping it anyway. Again, Ukraine doesn't have islands that we could seize, but presumably if they did, we'd have them by now. Who is this for? Tell me, who is the swing state voter in Pennsylvania or Nevada or North Carolina whose issue in this election was, I don't think Vladimir Putin is getting enough of what he wants? Tell me, who is the median voter in some bellwether county in Arizona who thinks, you know what, Russian cyber attacks have gotten so bogged down and difficult. It's getting so. It's really difficult to just ransomware a hospital in Arizona these days. Isn't there anything we can do to help with that is there a single voter in the United States who thinks that Canada is the bad guy in the world and Russia is the good guy in the world? And so let's think, threaten Canada and learn Russian. Is there anyone. Who is this for? And what did they do to get all of this? What has Russia given up to get this list of things that they have received in the first six weeks that Donald Trump has been back in the White House? He's the deal maker, right? What's the other side of the deal? This weekend, the foreign policy chief of the European Union said, quote, the free world needs a new leader. The rest of the free world is trying. This weekend, the prime minister of Great Britain and the president of France announced that they would form a new coalition of the willing to support Ukraine, and they hoped they might get support from the United States for that effort. The United States, our government has changed sides in the world, and it seems pretty clear they will not be doing that. Our government now sides with Russia and against America's allies. And we spent years trying to figure out why the Republican Party and its new leader would be inclined in that direction. It now sort of doesn't matter. What matters is the new reality is that he controls the government, and that's the way that he has changed the US Government's orientation in the world. And it really is hard to imagine what else Putin might want that Trump hasn't already given him in just these six weeks. But you know what? The American people haven't changed. We haven't changed sides. We know who we are, and we know who Vladimir Putin is. Less than 10% of the American people say the United States should trust Vladimir Putin. It's not us. It's not the people of the American. It's not the American people. It's not the people of the United States. It really isn't us. But it is our government that appears to be under some kind of sway from Russia. That said, as long as we're a democracy, we, the people, should be able to fix that. We should be able to turn our government around. I don't know how long it will take or by what means it will happen, but the government of this country and the people of this country have two radically different ideas about whose interest the United States should serve. Whether the American people come up with a way to fix that divide or not is going to determine the course of world history.
- [24:08]
Rachel Maddow
Auto insurance can all seem the same until it comes time to use it. So don't get stuck paying more for less coverage. Switch to USA auto insurance and you could start saving money in no time. Get a quote today, restrictions apply. Usaa Stay connected with the MSNBC app bringing you breaking news and analysis anytime, anywhere.
- [24:30]
Chris Hayes
Let's get up to speed. We've got some breaking news right now.
- [24:33]
Rachel Maddow
Watch your favorite shows live.
- [24:34]
Courtney Kuby
There's a lot happening here in Washington as Donald Trump's second term starts to take shape.
- [24:39]
Rachel Maddow
Read live blogs and in depth essays and listen to coverage as it unfolds. Go beyond the what to understand the why. Download the app now@msnbc.com app the first 100 days, bills are passed, executive orders are signed and presidencies are defined. And for Donald Trump's first 100 days, Rachel Maddow is on MSNBC five nights a week.
- [25:05]
Chris Hayes
Now is the time. So we're gonna do it, providing her.
- [25:08]
Rachel Maddow
Unique insight and analysis during this critical time.
- [25:11]
Chris Hayes
How do we strategically align ourselves to this moment of information, this moment of transition in our country?
- [25:17]
Rachel Maddow
The Rachel Maddow show, weeknights at 9pm Eastern on MSNBC.
- [25:26]
Chris Hayes
NOAA is 12,000 experts here to help to fly into hurricanes, to deploy underwater sensors, to train models predicting tomorrow or 2100. We need to let NOAA's staff continue its mission. We need to let them continue delivering. That was Dr. Sarah Cooley. Until recently, she was a scientist at NOAA, the National oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is the part of the federal government that that does little things that anybody can do, tracking hurricanes and tornadoes and tsunamis. You know, stuff you can do at home. Hundreds of scientists like Dr. Cooley were fired from NOAA last week, part of Trump and his top campaign donor, indiscriminately eliminating whole parts of the US government, especially the parts we use. Dr. Cooley, along with about 1,000 other former NOAA employees and supporters and just members of the public and Democratic members of Congress and the U.S. senate, all stood outside NOAA headquarters today, just outside, to protest all those firings, to protest those weather forecasters and scientists who have just been fired from their jobs. They held up signs that said save Noah. Firing the scientists creates a bleep storm. There was also another protest in D.C. today. This was to defend the federal government as well. Just a few miles down the road. This one was for employees for the cfpb, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Employees there were ordered by the White House to stop all of their work. They held this rally not at CFPB headquarters, but outside the federal courthouse in D.C. where a court fight is underway challenging the legality of that stop work order. This crowd gathered Today outside the McPherson Square Metro station in D.C. it's the closest Metro stop to the White House. It's also right near the headquarters of the VA Veterans Affairs. These protesters were there to support all the people who are still employed by the US Government and people who are employed, especially at the va. People just holding up signs and applauding for them, thanking them on their way to work. The signs they're holding say federal workers are heroes. This was all today. This was over the weekend in D.C. a big crowd turning out for a transgender unity rally. They started in front of the U.S. capitol. They marched to the White House. It was also another weekend of protests at Tesla dealerships all over the country, protesting what the President has assigned his top donor to do to the federal government. There were big protests at Tesla dealerships in Tucson, Arizona, and in Boston, Massachusetts, and in Springfield, New Jersey, and in Superior, Colorado. Also at the Tesla dealership in New York City on the west side of Manhattan. There was a really big protest there. There were actually nine people arrested at that protest. There was also a big protest targeting another company owned by the President's top campaign donor. This was SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorn, Californ, this weekend, right near the LAX airport in Southern California. Lots of people turned out there. This guy came dressed as Elon Vader. Donald, I am your daddy. Congresswoman Maxine Waters turned up at that protest as well. The SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne is in her district. This was Dublin, California, this weekend, right near where I grew up in the East Bay. Members of the community there protesting against the use of a closed correctional facility as a detention center for ice. There was also a big march in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania this weekend protesting the massive indiscriminate cuts to the federal workforce. There was another protest for federal workers in San Francisco this weekend. A crowd hung an upside down flag across from the Golden Gate Bridge. Protesters also lined up along the side of the road this weekend outside President Trump's club in Palm Beach, Florida. Then there's also what happened in the national parks this weekend. Check this out. This was in Yosemite national park in Californ, also on the edge of the Grand Canyon in Arizona, at the St. Louis Arch in Missouri, at Bar Harbor, Maine, just outside Acadia National Park. There were Save Our Parks protests at more than 100 different national parks all over the country this weekend protesting the firing of parks employees by the Trump White House. And when I say it was all over the country, I mean it. They were really all over the place. This was Denali national park in Alaska, the Arches national park in Utah, Valley Forge National Historic park in Pennsylvan, Pennsylvania. Those folks standing out in the snow were protesting at the Indiana Dunes National Park. This was outside Rocky Mountain national park in northern Colorado. People lined up on the side of the road holding Save Our Parks signs so people could see them on their drive into the park. Because of the firing of park staff by Donald Trump, the staff at Rocky Mountain national park has announced that they are not going to be able to keep that park open this summer. They will not have enough people. That is the fifth most visited national park in the entire country. They say they will be closed this summer because of Trump's firing their staff. Some protesters scaled this cliff inside the park and hung an upside down flag, a symbol of distress. You will remember protesters did a similar thing in Yosemite a few weeks ago, hanging that upside down flag. We not only saw it again in color, we also saw it at Joshua Tree national park in California and off the second Flatiron in Boulder, Colorado. So lots and lots going on this weekend. The American people are making themselves heard. They are showing up. Also this weekend. The vice president decided to take a vacation. He brought his family to Waitsfield, Vermont this weekend to go skiing at Sugarbush. Waiting for him at the ski resort were hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of angry Vermonters, others telling them how much they support Ukraine and how much they do not support JD Vance, especially after his insulting display of Russian talking points in the Oval Office with the president of Ukraine. Some of these signs are very memorable. JD Vance Zelensky is 10 times the man you are. This one, we saw a number of different iterations of this one this weekend. Vance is a traitor. Go ski in Russia. Also, I don't ski, so I assume this is some cardinal sin of the slopes. I don't know. It says Vance skis in jeans again. I don't know, but sounds bad. It wasn't just Vermont that showed their support for Ukraine. There were tons of actually pro Ukraine, anti Russia, anti Trump, anti Vance protests all over the weekend. We've got more on that ahead with a live report from our Pentagon correspondent coming up as we're starting to absorb this news that the US Is not only dropping sanctions against Russia and cutting off all aid to Ukraine, but also ordering a US Military cyber command stand down in all of its operations against Russia. Stay with us.
- [32:46]
Rachel Maddow
As President Donald Trump returns to the White House, what will the first 100 days of the presidency bring? Follow along as his agenda takes shape with the new MSNBC newsletter, Trump's first 100 days weekly updates sent straight to your inbox and expert insight on the key issues and figures defining this second term.
- [33:06]
Chris Hayes
We're seeing a really radical effort to change the American system of government.
- [33:10]
Rachel Maddow
Sign up for Trump's first 100 days at msnbc.com trump100 MSNBC presents a new original podcast hosted by Jen Psaki. Each week she and her guests explore how the Democratic Party is facing this political moment and where it's headed next.
- [33:28]
Chris Hayes
There's probably both messaging and policy issues, but as you look to kind of where the Democratic Party is, do you think it's more a messaging issue, more a policy issue?
- [33:38]
Rachel Maddow
The Blueprint with Jen Psaki subscribe to MSNBC Premium on Apple Podcasts for ad free listening and bonus content. Stay up to date on the biggest issues of the day with the MSNBC Daily Newsletter. Each morning you'll get analysis by echo you trust, video highlights from your favorite shows.
- [33:57]
Chris Hayes
I do think it's worth being very clear eyed, very realistic about what's going on here.
- [34:02]
Rachel Maddow
Previews of our podcasts and documentaries, plus written perspectives from the newsmakers themselves, all sent directly to your inbox each morning. Get the best of MSNBC all in one place. Sign up for MSNBC Daily at msnbc.com.
- [34:18]
Chris Hayes
Just a moment ago, I showed you some of the protests that greeted Vice President J.D. vance when he tried to go skiing this weekend at Sugar Bar, Sugarbush in Vermont. Waitsfield, Vermont absolutely filled up with people telling him to get out of town. J.D. vance is a traitor. Go ski in Russia. But you know what? Do not underestimate the stamina and determination and cold tolerance of New Englanders. When it gets to this part of the winter, they can pretty much take anything. So not only did they protest JD Vance at the ski mountain up in Waitsfield, Vermont, telling him to get out of town, there was also a whole other group of protesters waiting for him when he tried to get out of town. This wasn't Waitsfield. Just drop the car on here so people can see here. Yeah, this was the route to the airport for J.D. vance in South Burlington, Vermont. Protesters also turned up there, sending him off as he tried to leave the state. They called it his farewell send off. And you know, it wasn't just Vermont getting out in the streets to show their support for Ukraine and their objections to the United States allying itself with Vladimir Putin. This was Charlotte, North Carolina this weekend and Bentonville, Arkansas and Washington, D.C. and Seattle, Washington this weekend. Protesters holding pro Ukraine, anti Russia demonstrations in the wake of President Trump and Vice President J.D. vance allying themselves with the Russian Federation and against our ally. That was this weekend. Now today we are confronting a series of headlines that seem to make it official. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth orders a halt to cyber operations against Russia. Trump administration halting cyber operations against Russia even as Russia appears to have intensified its cyber operations against our allies in NATO and in Ukraine. Further news just tonight as we're getting on the air that the United States is not only starting the process of dropping sanctions on Russia. White House reportedly ordering the Treasury Department and the State Department to explore the end to Russian sanctions, but also now putting a stop to all US Aid to Ukraine. Ukraine in the middle of this war. Joining us now is NBC News correspondent Courtney Kuby. She covers the Pentagon and national security. Courtney, it's really nice of you to make time to be here tonight. Thank you.
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Courtney Kuby
Thanks.
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Amanda Littman
Thanks for having me.
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Chris Hayes
Can you put sort of in layman's terms for us what these things together mean? We've seen the headline about cyber command. We've seen the headline about dropping Russian sanctions. We've seen the headline about pausing all US Aid to Ukraine. Can you help us understand what viewers might need to understand about what this means for this U turn in the US Government?
- [37:01]
Amanda Littman
Yeah, sure. So, I mean, there's really two sides to this argument. There are the people who believe that this is just part of negotiating, that you make some sacrifices or some changes during negotiation, whether it's a show of good faith or getting the other side to the table. And then there are other people who clearly think this is not nothing but capitulation to Russia. So the two sides broken down, what this Cyber command decision or order from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth does is it is pausing all offensive cyber operations against Russia and all offensive information operations against Russia. But the key here is we don't know how long this is supposed to last. There are some officials who say this is while the US Is actively involved in trying to be this mediator between Russia and Ukraine to try to end the war. And there are others who say, look, we don't have any sense of what the timeline could be and when this actually could end. Now, there are critics or people who are concerned that this is, this is a time where the United States should be stepping up their gathering on Russia, particularly when it comes to information operations. But at this point, it appears that all of that is halted. And the timeline, again, is really unclear for that. The next issue on the weapons, on these, the military equipment that the United States has been flowing in. And Rachel, you know, whether they're, whether people are in favor of actually sending these weapons and this equipment to Ukraine or not, there is no doubt that this has been a logistical feat and hurdle to get these billions and billions of dollars of, in some cases, massive equipment, weapons, ammunition into Ukraine so that they've been able to stave off the Russian offensive that began just over three years ago. What we've learned late today is that, in fact, the Trump administration, at least for now, again, has paused the delivery of any additional military weapons or equipment to Ukraine. Now you may say, well, we haven't been hearing about the Trump administration announcing any additional, additional sending of any additional weapons. And that is right. Basically the Biden administration used almost all of the money that they had allocated to send to, to, to buy weapons or to send from US stockpiles and then reimburse US stockpiles for Ukraine. There was about 3, 3.8 or so billion dollars that were left in that, but there's not any money that's still left to reimburse the US Military, military for that. So that money has basically been paused. There really hasn't been any new spending to Ukraine, but there was money, there was still additional weapons and equipment that were being sent as part of other disbursements. So for instance, one of the, the last presidential drawdown authority announcements had some refurbished vehicles, those were still being flown into Ukraine. And then there's another pot of money that has existed for the last three years called the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. That's sort of longer term weapons systems and equipment that could take years in some cases to deliver to Ukraine. What we found out tonight is that the United States is pausing all of those shipments for now. And again, just like the Cyber Command decision, it's just not how clear that's going to last. Now, why I keep going back to how long these decisions and these, these, these announcements will last is because, because it will prove whether this really is something that the United States has decided to do as part of a negotiation or whether it is, as some have claimed, that this could be a sign of, in an effort that President Trump has made very clear that he wants to normalize relations with Moscow, that this could be part of a capitulation to that effort.
- [40:42]
Chris Hayes
Rachel. And just to be clear, with all of these things that Russia has now received, effectively just in terms of deal points from the U.S. government, you know, halting aid to Ukraine, ending sanctions, moving to end sanctions on Russia, having a high level US Government meeting between the Russia and US government. President Trump publicly advocating that Russia be let back in the G7, saying that he wants to have a one on one summit with Vladimir Putin. Russia being invited to reopen their embassy in full consulate strength in the United States. With all of these things that the US has now given to Russia in terms of deal points, has Russia given us anything?
- [41:26]
Amanda Littman
If so, it's not nothing that we are aware of at this point. I mean, and you know, officials, you know, when the Cybercom thing first came up, officials were saying, look, the United States needs to show some good faith here. So is it possible that Russia will give something? Vladimir Zelinsky has made it very clear that he doesn't believe that Russia will negotiate in good faith in any way. At this point, we're not aware of anything that they have given to the US for these things.
- [41:50]
Chris Hayes
Yeah, at some point, the math doesn't work. Right. Courtney Kuby, I really appreciate you being here. Really appreciate it. Thank you. All right. We've got more news ahead.
- [41:59]
Dr. Sarah Cooley
Stay with us.
- [42:05]
Chris Hayes
I'll be part of our MSNBC State of the Union coverage starting tomorrow at 8pm Eastern. One of the things that still seems quite up in the air air is how Democrats are going to handle things tomorrow. Seems like several Democratic lawmakers are going to boycott all or part of Trump's speech. Oregon Senator Ron Wyden says he'll be listening to his constituents in a teletown hall, which he has scheduled to start at the exact same time that Trump will be starting his speech. Washington Senator Patty Murray says she's also not planning on attending. Another approach among elected Democrats is to go to the speech, but to bring as their guests people who have been fired by Trump or Elon Musk. We're also watching for protests, protesters planning to turn out at state capitols around the country tomorrow and Also in Washington, D.C. most of the public pushback we've seen in these past six weeks has been directed at Trump and Elon Musk and Republicans. But some has also been directed at Democrats as people have called on Democratic elected officials to fight harder, to break protocol, do more, come up with new and creative ways to do what they can to stop things or at least slow things down or make them more embarrassing. In the past on this show, we've talked about a grassroots organizing group called Run for Something which encourages progressive Americans to run for political office, particularly if they've never done so before. Run for Something says they are now having a run on their services. 500 to 600 people reaching out every day now to say they Want to run for office? Joining us now is Amanda Littman. She's president and co founder of Run for Something. She's also the author of the forthcoming book When we're in the Next Generation's Guide to Leadership, which comes out in May. Amanda, thanks for being here. Thanks for having me. I thought this was a typo. 500 to 600 people a day.
- [43:54]
Courtney Kuby
It is unprecedented. It is a wave of people signing up to run for office that we have not seen since we launched on Trump's first Inauguration day back in 2017.
- [44:03]
Chris Hayes
Bigger now than it was in 2017.
- [44:04]
Courtney Kuby
We have had more people sign up just since Election Day and in fact, almost just since inauguration than we did in the entire calendar year of 2017.
- [44:13]
Chris Hayes
When people sign up with you, what are they signing up for?
- [44:17]
Courtney Kuby
They're saying, I'm thinking about running for local office, probably 2025 or 2026. Some of them are ready to get on the ballot. Now, we know that the average person person stays in our pipeline about 310 days. So we expect many of them to be running in 2026, which is good because 2026 could be a year in which Democrats win really big if we're on the ballot in as many places as possible.
- [44:37]
Chris Hayes
And how do you help people try to compete?
- [44:40]
Courtney Kuby
So we help people with every step of the process from thinking about what office to actually run for, how to get on the ballot, how to write a campaign plan, how to really connect with their constituents, to knock doors, talk to voters. We have an endorsement program that's helped elect almost 1500 millennials in Gen Z in the last eight years in nearly every state. We are just missing Idaho, Idaho, Idaho. So if you want to run in Idaho, we would love to help you win.
- [45:03]
Chris Hayes
We have a dedicated audience in Boise. I'm telling you, hello, Boise. I even know how to pronounce it. Amanda Lippman is right here. I'm just saying I pointed out in the intro there that some of the protests that we've been seeing, and I'm not even sure if we should call them, some of the sort of uprising that we're seeing, it's a lot of anger toward Republican elected officials and toward the administration. But we are also seeing sort of constructive frustration directed at Democrats to do more, come up with better strategies, be louder, be stronger in your opposition. Are you seeing any reflection of that in the way that people are reaching out to you at run for something?
- [45:39]
Courtney Kuby
You know, we're seeing people tell us they want to run because their school boards have banned books. And they want to fight back where they're saying they want to run because the elected official who currently represents them isn't fighting hard enough for them, their kids, their community. They're saying, if I don't do this, I don't think anyone else will. And I believe them. It has been so inspiring to see. We looked at a map of where everyone is coming from, every single state, rural, urban, suburban, exurban all across the country. And they're telling us, I feel like no one has my back, so I have to have my own back.
- [46:11]
Chris Hayes
Last question for you. Given that feedback that you are getting directly from people coming to you at Run for Something, do you feel like you have a sense from looking at that data, from interacting with those people about what the feeling is in the country among people who are frustrated with what's going on?
- [46:27]
Courtney Kuby
They're so angry. They want their leadership to show a spine. They don't want to have to do this. They feel like they need to because no one else is doing it for them.
- [46:37]
Chris Hayes
Amanda Lippman is the president and co founder of Run for Something. Amanda, thank you very much. It's good to have you here.
- [46:43]
Courtney Kuby
Thanks for having me.
- [46:43]
Chris Hayes
All right, we'll be right back. Stay with us. All right, that does it for me tonight, but I will see you back here tomorrow night. Not at the same time. Coverage tomorrow night starts at 8:00pm Eastern because there's that speech thing that happens at 9. So I'll be here with the team starting at 8:00 for the run to the speech and then we will have the reactions and the responses afterwards. I will see you then. In the meantime, you can find me on Bluesky. I'm on blueskyadow.msnbc.com subscribe to MSNBC Premium.
- [47:18]
Rachel Maddow
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