Transcript
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Rachel Maddow (0:44)
Really happy to have you here. Do you remember that there was a gigantic oil spill in our country that happened in 2010? It was in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast. And it was just apocalyptic. You will remember these images, right? The explosion, the plumes of fire and smoke. Just this massive, massive, completely out of control fire on board this drilling rig out there, 40 miles off the coast in Louisiana. Eleven men died when that rig blew up. And then after it blew up and burned for a solid day, that huge oil rig, that drilling rig sunk to the bottom of the sea. But that was only the start of the disaster because they couldn't stop the oil spewing out of the well that rig had been drilling. Remember, there was literally a live feed we could all watch from the broken wellhead. You could watch the oil spewing out from this hole in the sea floor, this hole they had drilled, and then they couldn't handle it. And that oil spewed for three months. Millions of barrels of oil spewed out of that well and into the sea. And they just had no plan for how to stop it. You might remember they tried something called junk shots, which sounds dirty and it was, but different than how you're thinking about it. The junk shot was where they literally shot junk into the top of the well to try to clog it up with anything they could find. They used, I'm not kidding, golf balls and pieces of plastic and pieces of old tires and knotted up hunks of rope. They just flung them at the spewing oil well, thinking that might stop it, when nobody could believe that this was the big idea, that this was the level of technological prowess the most profitable industry on earth was bringing to bear on this ongoing disaster they had caused and couldn't stop. When people were like, seriously, golf balls is your idea? Torn up bits of tire. The company then changed the language they were using to talk about their efforts to stop the spewing oil well they stopped talking so much about the junk shots. They instead started insisting they would do something they called a top kill, which sounds way cooler, way more technologically advanced, way less desperate and random than a junk shot. But it was still the same result, still the same kind of strategy that, like, you know, the characters from south park might dream up to try to stop an oil spill. But the junk shots and the top kills did not work. They tried a whole bunch of times. It did not work. Then they decided they would just dump tons of chemicals in the water. They wouldn't say what the chemicals were. They called them dispersants, though. And the idea was that they would just dump these mystery chemicals into the ocean in huge amounts, these dispersants. And hopefully that would make the oil disperse, go away. Oil disperse. And that didn't much work either. It was just disgusting and toxic, and it wreaked havoc on not just everything in the ocean, but in the whole fishery and those coastal Louisiana towns and that whole region of southeast Louisiana and Barataria Bay. I remember reporting down there in 2010 and being nauseous from breathing the sea breeze, which is a thing that will mess up your head both in the moment when it happens and for a very long time after that disaster happened. As I said in 2010, that was the worst oil spill disaster in US history. There was supposed to be a blowout preventer to prevent this underwater blowout. Turns out the blowout preventer did not work to prevent blowouts. There was supposed to be a bulletproof, foolproof, multiple redundancies, comprehensive emergency plan in case of any type of accident. But the emergency plan was ridiculous. This was again, in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana. But the emergency response plan, specifically for a spill at that site, called for rescuing the walruses. Okay? Walruses live on sea ice like polar bears. There are no walruses in Louisiana. But nevertheless, that was part of their emergency response plan that was supposedly specifically designed for this location. You might also remember that that emergency response plan had a call list, like, who to call in case of a disaster, in case of a spill. And the call list was like, people who had died years prior to that emergency response plan being produced. It was just an utter failure, just a comprehensive disaster. You remember what that disaster was called, what the rig was called that blew up? It was the Deep Water Horizon. It was called that because that drilling disaster happened in really deep water, in 5,000ft of water. 5,000ft of water. The pressure is incredible. The temperatures are incredible. We as humans have basically as little experience operating in that kind of an extreme environment as we do operating in space. I mean, that Deepwater Horizon disaster 5,000ft down, it was sort of, sort of living proof, living terrifying, toxic, fatal proof that even though the oil companies say they're great at doing stuff like that, they're actually not. The overall cleanup and compensation costs for Deepwater Horizon topped out at something like $65 billion. BP was held responsible for the disaster, not only in court, but also in Congress where they basically had to prostrate themselves and apologize for all they had done. Deepwater Horizon. Deepwater Horizon. Worst oil spill disaster in US history happened in 5,000ft of water. This past Friday, late in the day, very quietly, the Trump administration announced that it has approved a new ultra deep water drilling project. Unlike the Deepwater Horizon, which was at 5,000ft, this new ultra deep water project that they just approved will be at more like 6,000ft. But don't worry, the Deepwater Horizon company that botched the 5,000 foot drilling and killed all those people and ravaged that whole part of Louisiana and they couldn't shut it off for three months and it made us at least thank God Barack Obama was in charge and he had a Nobel Prize winning physicist, Stephen Chu, as Energy Secretary because at least that Energy Secretary could personally do the calculations and the scientific work to try to help get the blowout shut down. No, the bad guy in that story, the totally reckless company that said it could do that drilling safely, but they absolutely couldn't. That said they had an emergency plan, but they didn't really. That said they had a cleanup plan, but I saw it with my own eyes that they did not. That had a blowout preventer that did not prevent blowouts. That company, you'll remember, was bp. Bp. Right. Well, this time don't worry. The company that the Trump administration has just given permission to do ultra deep water drilling in the same place off the coast of Louisiana, don't worry, this time the company doing it is going to be bp. They've given these drilling rights to bp, same company, because it worked out great last time. Also, don't worry, as the New York Times notes in its reporting on this new award from the Trump administration. Don't worry, the emergency plan this time from BP for the ultra deep water drilling, their emergency plan this time is still basically the same emergency plan that they had when the Deepwater Horizon blew up in 2010. The plan is still, as the New York Times notes, quote, dispersants, chemical dispersants. Once again, That'll be the plan. It'll be fine. It'll all be fine. No word on if they're still gonna focus on, you know, finding tropical walruses in case anything goes wrong. No word on if they're still going to try to call the old dead guys as their emergency contacts. The other reason not to worry, of course, is that this time, instead of Barack Obama being president and this being the Obama administration responding, this time the president and the administration telling BP to go for it. Watch out, LA, here they come. This time it's not Barack Obama and the Obama administration, it's Donald Trump and the Trump administration, where, needless to say, the Energy Secretary is not Nobel Prize winning physicist Stephen Chu. This time under Donald Trump. It's this guy who last week announced on Twitter that, hey, great news, everybody. The U.S. navy has started escorting oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. He announced that publicly when the US Navy was absolutely not doing that. And the markets went up, up, up, up, up. And the price of oil went down, down. Trump's genius Energy secretary deleted that tweet with no comment. And so then the markets went down, down, down. And the oil price went up, up, up. Because this is the level of genius and competence we are dealing with. At the helm as an arsonist. Mad King president sets the world on fire. That same Energy secretary also on Friday announced that thanks to the emergency President Donald Trump has declared, Trump administration has also ordered, in addition to the ultra deep water drilling contract given or permission given to bp, the Trump administration has also ordered the restarting of a particular pipeline in Southern California. This is a pipeline that has not been operational for more than a decade. And why has it not been operational for more than a decade? Well, because this is what it looked like the last time that pipeline was operational when it broke open and was spewing oil uncontrollably in one of the worst California oil spills of all time, affecting roughly 100 miles of the state's coastline and ocean. The Trump administration is now trying to force the reopening of that pipeline, that the last time it was in operation, it barfed oil all over Southern California. They say it's fully repaired now, so we'll see, I guess. And the Trump administration has just told bp, of all companies, they've told BP to go right ahead with a new ultra deep water horizon because nobody remembers what happened last time. Right? That was fine. Worked out okay. Walruses seem okay. When Trump's Energy Secretary, Chris Wright tweeted out that the US Navy was escorting ships through the Strait of Hormuz when in fact we weren't. Did he think they were? Did somebody tell him that we were? Did he have a good reason to believe it when he did that? That wasn't even the start of how well the Trump administration is handling this teensy little problem Trump reportedly thought would be no big deal when he decided to launch an unprovoked war on Iran. Trump reportedly told his advisers that he did not believe Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz if he attacked Iran. Of course Iran did. Then Trump's defense secretary said the Strait of Hormuz was open for transit except for the small matter of the Iranians attacking ships that tried to pass through it. Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln. Then Trump told Fox News that ship captain should, quote, show some guts and just sail through the strait because they had nothing to fear because Iran was defeated and wouldn't attack any more ships in the Strait of Hormuz. And then Iran attacked more ships in the Strait of Hormuz. And then Trump said that the U.S. navy would be happy soon, very soon, to start escorting ships through the Strait of Hormuz. And then the Navy was like, no, my Lord, no, we cannot do that. The memorable phrase there was that it would be a, quote, kill box for the United States Navy if they even tried to do that then. In advance of a presidential press conference today, Trump administration sources apparently told reporters that very soon, very soon, the US Government would be announcing a coalition of allies who would be working together to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz. We were about to announce who our allies were going to be in this joint collective effort, and everybody printed it like that meant it was going to happen. When will you learn? Watch what they do, not what they say. Because then the President held that presidential press conference, and he announced, quote, we don't need anybody to help us in the Strait of Hormuz. We don't need anybody. We can do it ourselves. Then he said that he'd be announcing very soon who nevertheless was going to be helping us in the Strait of Hormuz. Then he berated and insulted our allies for not doing anything to help us in the Strait of Hormuz. And then reporters all over the world started checking with their own governments. And indeed, whatever he thought he was announcing about other countries coming to help us in this Strait of Hormuz, nobody is coming to help. And in fact, he can't do it alone. And so what do we got? Maybe we'll get a ballroom. Russia's doing really well out of all this. As the skyrocketing price of oil fills up the Kremlin's coffers and makes them solvent again. After all these years of dictatorship and corruption, and four, going on five years of their disastrous war in Ukraine, Russia now is not just getting rich off of Trump's war in Iran. Russia is outright helping Iran kill US Troops and target US Facilities in the Middle East. Trump's US Ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, says Russia has a wartime, quote, strategic partnership with Iran. Iranian officials have publicly confirmed that they have Russia's, quote, military cooperation. We reported last week here on this show that Trump had responded to that by really making Russia pay. Oh, I'm sorry, no. By relaxing US Sanctions on Russia. Since then, he's done so again. He has further relieved Russia of the burden of US Sanctions while Russia is helping kill American troops. But it doesn't stop there. David Korn at Mother Jones magazine reports that Trump's DOJ has also very quietly just chosen this auspicious time. While we're at war with Iran, they've just chosen now to ask the courts to withdraw a guilty plea and reverse a prison sentence that was given to a guy who the FBI said is linked to Russian intelligence. The guy has been in jail because he pled guilty to lying to the FBI, specifically to bringing the FBI fake stories about President Biden supposedly taking bribes. The FBI concluded not only that those stories were false, but that this guy deliberately lied in bringing that stuff to the FBI and that he was linked to Russian intelligence at the time he was doing this. Now Trump's Justice Department is trying to get the guy sprung and get his guilty plea reversed. The court filing in this guy's case has been signed by Todd Blanche, Trump's handpicked number two official at the Justice Department, trying to help Russia and reportedly Russian intelligence, while Russia is using Russian intelligence to help Iran kill American troops and target American facilities in the Middle East. And, you know, maybe our president just can't stop himself from acting to help Russia, even when Russia is acting to kill Americans. Maybe he just can't stop himself. It just feels so good. He can't stop. But doesn't it seem like in the middle of this war, he should be able to stop himself from at least helping Iran, from helping the Iranian regime, which he has just declared war on. Because also quietly, amid this inexplicable war on Iran, Trump's Justice Department has also just moved to drop the largest Iranian sanctions case ever in history. This is a case involving a bank, a bank called Hawk Bank. They're being prosecuted for, again, the largest ever known violation of sanctions on the Iranian regime, which for illegally sending tens of billions of dollars to Iran. That's what that prosecution is about. And in the middle of Trump waging war on Iran, bombing Iran, supposedly because he's so opposed to the Iranian regime, Trump now simultaneously has had his Justice Department drop that case, the largest Iranian sanctions case ever, because now suddenly he wants to let all that slide. It's almost like he's not really doing things for the reason he says he's doing them. Right. So The Saudis paid $2 billion to Trump's son in law, Jared, and now Jared is the US Government's point person in the Middle East. The New York Times now reports that while Jared is serving as the US Government's point person in the Middle East, Jared is simultaneously asking the Saudis for yet more billions of dollars for his private business. More than $2 billion they've already given him. Now he wants more. You know what? Why would they say no? For the low, low price of what they've already given him. The Saudis have apparently discovered the price of renting out something called the Armed Forces of the United States of America to attack their rival nation Iran for a war. That makes a lot of sense for the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Israel, but makes no sense at all for the United States. The New York Times reports this weekend that the Saudi Crown Prince, MBS Mohammed bin Salman has been on the phone frequently with President Trump since the war started, telling him to keep bombing, keep, quote, hitting the Iranians hard. Keep up, keep it up. More of this war, right? We paid for it. We're going to get what we paid for. I got to say, I don't know why this isn't more of a show stopping scandal in our country. Right? Is it that hard to see what this is? I mean, here's this guy actively asking X country for money. They've already given him billions of dollars. He's asking for billions more dollars for his personal business, his private business. He's asking X country for money. At the same time he's asking them for money, he is also making US Government policy toward that country. That's it, right? Those are all the dots you have to connect. This is not like string theory, right? The result, I mean, if this guy's asking this country for money for himself while also making US Government policy toward that country, the resultant policy is likely to be whatever that country wants it to be. Because if it Isn't then Jared's going to be less likely to get the money that he is asking them for. Right? The interests of the United States are being exchanged for private income for the President's son in law. Is this hard to see? Is this hard to grasp? While we're all wondering why it is really that we're fighting this war, they can't explain. I mean, for his part, the President's son in law says he's following the law and following ethics rules. But how would we know? They also aren't even making him file financial disclosures. And Russia helps kill American service members and gets paid for it by the Trump administration. And don't worry, BP will get new oil for us from the molten center of the earth because look, they built something with duct tape. They say we'll work to drill it all up and the tropical walruses will juncture shot the thing for us if anything goes wrong. So we'll all be fine. Meanwhile, this is the most unpopular war in modern American history. The President is trying to manage that by today. Threatening to execute, threatening to kill reporters who don't report on the war the way he wants them to. That'll fix it. That'll fix it. Maybe he'll take a page from Putin and tell us we're no longer allowed to call it a war. We all have to start calling it an excursion like he does or we'll all go to jail. Or he'll kill us all. Sure, that'll do it. The war is unlikely to get more popular in days ahead as Trump's repeated declarations of victory have not proven to be enough to protect U.S. forces and facilities that have come under fire from Iran and their proxies. A U.S. facility in Bahrain, a U.S. facility in Kuwait, the U.S. embassy in Iraq, the U.S. i mean, U.S. facilities in Saudi Arabia. We weren't even capable of keeping our ally, Kuwait from accidentally shooting down not one, not two, but three of our F15 fighter jets on the first full day of the war. How was Kuwait able to shoot down three F15s? Now we're sending in a Marine Expeditionary Force as the President refuses to rule out boots on the ground, refuses to rule out ground troops. That's how he's doing internationally. How's he doing here at home? Well, he's on a remarkable, remarkable hot, hot, hot losing streak in the courts right now. Just tonight, a federal court in Massachusetts has blocked all the changes that Trump Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Made to the childhood immunization schedule. All the stuff that RFK tried to do to vaccines. The judge has blocked it. RFK fired, you'll recall, all the experts on the vaccine advisory panel and replaced them. Everybody in the Star wars bar scene, the judge tonight blocked those appointments and then blocked the implementation of all the votes taken by that group by that actively quacking collection of odd ducks that RFK put in that crucial, crucial panel. This comes on the heels of another federal judge ordering Trump's VA secretary to restore union rights, the union rights he just stripped from more than 300,000 people who work at the VA. This comes as another federal judge has just blocked Trump from stripping Somali Americans of their right to be in this country under temporary protected status. This comes as Trump's Justice Department has just had to tuck its tail between its legs and drop their effort to prosecute a US army veteran who burned a flag in protest of Trump's unconstitutional executive order that says he decrees you are no longer allowed to burn a flag in this country. First Amendment be damned. This comes as another court has just blocked the Trump administration's unlawful attempt to dismantle the US African Development Foundation. This comes as just another court has blocked the Trump administration's unlawful attempt to dismantle the U.S. agency for Global Media and Voice of America and to appoint election denier Kari Lake to tear it all down. This comes as Trump tries to shut down and potentially tear down the John F. Kennedy center for the Performing Arts. But Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, Democratic Congresswoman Joyce Beatty has pledged to defend that institution with all she's got. Trump can brag all he wants about what he is going to do to the Kennedy center, but Congresswoman Joyce Beatty has gone to the courts to block Trump from closing it or demolishing it or changing it. And those motions are pending. And we shall see. We're going to talk tonight about the disaster that is unfolding at the Department of Homeland Security on everything from tornado monitoring to the tsa. But the Atlantic reports tonight that the whole plan, the whole Trump administration plan to open a big new network of massive Trump prison camps all over the country to hold tens of thousands of people indefinitely without trial. That whole plan may now be in jeopardy as Trump has now fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem because apparently it was her plan. And on top of that, we've got another federal court, this one in Maryland, which has now issued a restraining order stopping all work on one of these warehouse Trump prison camps. This one in Williamsport, Maryland, near Hagerstown, a site where Trump wanted to start locking people up as soon as next month. But construction there now is shut down by court order and the whole warehouse mass Trump prison camp plan may be circling the drain anyway. One plucky Homeland Security official telling the Atlantic tonight that if they can't get these Trump black site prisons open at any of these warehouse sites they've bought, those sites might, quote, remain useful as federal properties that can be converted into office space or training facilities. Sure. Office space, sure. Excellent. It is 14 months since Donald Trump has been back in office. It is 17 days since he started this catastrophic war in Iran. Democratic US Senator Cory Booker is here next live to talk about plans in Congress, plans in the Senate to stop him in this war. We got lots to get to tonight. Stay with us.
