← The Rachel Maddow Show
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump's poor choices for national security staffing have new relevance after Iran bombing
00:43:13
Rachel Maddow reviews the cast of characters that staff important national security roles in the Trump administration, and whose lack of qualifications for their jobs matters even more now that Donald Trump's bombing of Iran has raised the threat level for Americans everywhere in the world.
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Rachel Maddow
Really happy to have you here. Do you want to start with the spy movie stuff? Let's start with the spy movie stuff. So you have probably heard the term state sponsor of terrorism. It's not a commonly used term, but the US Government occasionally will designate another country in the world as a state sponsor of terrorism. And what that means is not just that there is international terrorism somehow associated with that country. It means the government of that other country is, according to the US Using its power as a government, as a country to sponsor international terrorism and terrorist groups. So it's always and only a very small list of countries that get this very serious designation from the United States. Right now, I think there's only like four countries on the list. But it goes without saying if the US Government has put another country on this list, if the US Government has declared a country to be a state sponsor of terror, goes without saying the United States does not have formal diplomatic relations with that country, obviously. But then for the purposes of any good spy movie plot, you have to think, well, okay, that explains what happens between the two governments if the U.S. government declares another country's government essentially Persona non grata, right? State sponsor of terrorism. Obviously, our government and their government are not going to have relations. But our country is not just our government, right? Our country is also made up of more than 300 million people. And you have to think, well, what would the US Government do if an American person, an American citizen, decided on his or her own steam that they were going to cultivate personal ties with a government like that, right? Our government will not touch a country that is a designated state sponsor of terror. But what if somebody who's Just an American citizen tries to tries to develop a relationship with that regime on their own. What would the US Government have to say about that? Let's say you have an American citizen, a US person who surprise plans a trip to a country that is listed as a state sponsor of terrorism. And then when they are in that country, they personally meet with the dictator who leads the government of that country. Then while they're there, they take another meeting in that country with a radical cleric who is on the record having made a public pronouncement that he controls a network of suicide bombers within the United States and he is prepared to activate his US Based network of suicide bombers inside the United States of America at any time. What do you do if you're the US Government and you learn that an American citizen has done that? Right? An American citizen has gone abroad specifically to meet with the dictator of a state sponsor of terrorism country. And then immediately after, that person meets with this cleric who proclaims himself to have a network of U.S. suicide bombers. And then as soon as that person gets back from that trip, U.S. intelligence gets a new piece of information about her. Quote, Shortly after her visit, US Spy agencies intercepted a phone call between two members of Hezbollah concerning this American citizen. According to current and former former officials briefed on the intelligence, the intercept was of a Hezbollah member reporting that this American citizen had met with a person whom he identified euphemistically using a word in Arabic that can be translated as the boss or the big guy. The Hezbollah member did not say the name of that person in the communication, prompting some speculation among us int as to who was being referred to. Some US Intelligence officials assumed that the big guy referred to a senior Hezbollah official. The American citizen denied that she met with anyone from Hezbollah, but she did acknowledge that she did meet with a variety of officials from Lebanon, including some who are close to Hezbollah. Okay, so what do you do at this point? Here's an American citizen who goes abroad to meet with the cleric who says he has a network of suicide bombers in the United States that he still controls and plans to activate when he thinks it's necessary. That person also meets with the dictator who is formally listed by the US Government as a state sponsor of terror. And she's being talked about by name by Hezbollah operatives who are in conversation with each other talking about this American because they say she also just met with their big guy, with the boss, with whoever Hezbollah calls the boss. She then admits to meeting with Hezbollah linked officials. What is the US Government supposed to do with this Right. With, with this record that they're learning about of a US Citizen, like from a counterterrorism perspective, what's the US Government supposed to do with something like this? Oh, but, but wait, there's more. Because after all this comes to light, this same person then flies abroad again, this time to a European country where she goes to a meeting with a man who was on an FBI watch list. And we don't know exactly why he's on an FBI watch list. The FBI does not tend to comment on things like that. But there has been public facing reporting alleging that this guy is connected with a Russian militia leader who has been convicted of shooting down a civilian airliner over Ukraine. He was convicted of shooting down Malaysia Air Flight 17, which you will remember, 298 totally innocent civilians were killed. So if you're the US government, what do you do with this information? Right? This is all the same person meeting with the dictator who's leading the government that's the state sponsor of terrorism, meeting with the cleric who has publicly proclaimed himself to control the network of suicide bombers inside the United States. The same person then reportedly appears in intercepts of a conversation between Hezbollah operatives in which they say she has also met with the the boss. Now she's with the FBI watch list guy in Italy who appears to be linked to this shoot down of a civilian airliner. I mean, all this same American citizen meeting with all these different people. If you're the US Government with all the counterterrorism and intelligence responsibilities that you have as the US Government, what do you do about that person? Well, one thing you could do is you could make it more likely that there would be an air marshal, a federal air marshal on any flight this person gets on might be safe to do that, right? That's called the quiet skies program. They don't have the air marshal follow the person or anything. And there's nothing punitive about it. They just make sure that there's an air marshal on the flight. If this person gets on board, that's one relatively sort of low intensity way the US Government can put an extra layer of security around a person like this, who has this very odd track record from a counterterrorism perspective. And again, nothing punitive. Right? It's not even intrusive. It's just one way. The air marshal program for US Air travel isn't totally random, Right? If a person with that kind of a troubling track record flies quiet skies, means it's more likely there will be an air marshal on board that plane with that person. That's it. It's called Quiet Skies. That's one way the US Government might handle a person with this kind of a record. But it really depends on who's running the US Government, right? What kind of judgment they have, what they prioritize. Because when Donald Trump returned to the White House and took over the US Government again, you know what he did with this particular person I'm describing, who has this particular record, you know what he did? He named her Director of National Intelligence for the United States government. The person who met with the state sponsor of terrorism, dictator, and the self proclaimed head of the US Based network of suicide bombers, and the person reportedly in the Hezbollah intercepts and all the rest. He put her in the cabinet. And then Trump abolished the Quiet Skies program altogether, which she had been in because of the judgment of a previous iteration of the United States government. She had been in it, apparently because of her worrying and inexplicable foreign travel and foreign associations. She's not only not in it anymore, they've abolished the program and they've put her in charge of the US Intelligence community. So now we, the American people, have a couple of situations at hand, right? First of all, we've got this person as Director of National Intelligence and everything. That means less than two weeks ago, for instance, it meant that our Director of National Intelligence posted a bizarre video online in which she said that the, quote, political elite and warmongers are actors actively right now trying to bring about nuclear war on earth, quote. Perhaps it's because this is what she said. Perhaps it's because they are confident that they will have access to nuclear shelters for themselves and for their families that regular people won't have access to. What do you mean? I mean, to be clear, this is not the YouTube comment section I'm reading on an Infowars post. This is the Director of National Intelligence for the United States government in what appears to be some sort of official straight to camera video proclamation, basically telling the American people that there are secret, impenetrable nuclear shelters just for the elite, just for the warmongers. And because of that, they are, well, the warmongers and their families. And so the warmongers and the elite are planning a nuclear war. They are planning to deliberately destroy the earth with nuclear war so they can rule the rubble from their secret, impenetrable underground cities or something. That is the Director of National Intelligence for a country, for our country, which is a country that just bombed Iran after President Donald Trump said he didn't care what US Intelligence said about Iran. He knew. He knew somehow from mysterious other sources, he knew that Iran was on the brink of a nuclear weapon and therefore we had to bomb them. Now, tonight, he says there will be a ceasefire between Iran and Israel. Iran's foreign minister just moments ago said on social media that there is no ceasefire agreement, but that if Israel stops attacking Iran, Iran will stop responding. The final decision on the cessation of our military operations will be made later. So we don't exactly know what that means. We will see. But here in the United States, this follows a new National Terrorism Advisory alert from our government's Department of Homeland Security, which advises that Trump's decision to bomb Iran, quote, could contribute to US Based individuals plotting violent attacks here in the United States. Again, if you're the US Government, think about what you're going to do to respond to circumstances like this, right? How do you prepare us as a country? How might you harden our defenses or try to avert any such attack, which our government, again, is now warning about? Well, again, it depends on who is running the U.S. government. And in the case of President Donald Trump, the way he has been preparing the government for this eventuality is by forcing out the head of the National Security Branch at the FBI. Don't worry, though. There's also a National Security Division at the Department of Justice. While Trump demoted the acting head of the National Security Division at the Department of Justice, apparently because that acting chief didn't move quickly enough after the inauguration to take down the picture of President Biden and put up the picture of President Trump. And so he was demoted out of that job. That said, the FBI also has its own specific counterterrorism division. He appears to have been pushed out. He left the FBI last month. Ah, but don't worry. There is at least one senior counterterrorism position in the United States government that has been definitively and deliberately filled by this president. It's at the Department of Homeland Security. Department of Homeland Security's domestic counterterrorism hub leads nationwide efforts to prevent targeted acts of violence, violence of all kinds. President Donald Trump, in his infinite wisdom, has put this man in charge of that at Homeland Security. Feast your eyes. He's 22 years old, one year out of college, with no evident national security experience whatsoever before volunteering for the Trump campaign. His LinkedIn page reportedly explains that his work experience includes, quote, lawn care work around my neighborhood, also working part time as a clerk at an HEB supermarket. He also apparently once had an internship at the Heritage foundation, an internship. And according to a recent ProPublica profile of this young man, again, who is Donald Trump's best guess at who would make a good counterterrorism chief for the United States government at this moment in time? According to ProPublica, quote, the bulk of his leadership experience comes from having served as Secretary General of a model United nations club in school. But now that is who Donald Trump has running domestic counterterrorism efforts for the U.S. government. For the U.S. department of Homeland Security, I feel duty bound to inform you that the left eyebrow is itself registered as a lethal weapon. So underestimate him at your peril, ladies. In April, there was an arson attack targeting Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and his family at the Governor's mansion in Pennsylvania. Four days later, a self proclaimed white supremacist shot up the campus of Florida State University, wounding six people and killing two. ProPublica notes that he used a picture of Hitler as the profile picture for his online accounts. In May, there was a car bombing of a fertility clinic in California. Somebody who ascribes to some sort of antinatalist, bizarre extremist ideology. In late May, two employees of the Israeli embassy were murdered in Washington D.C. in June, an event in support of Israeli hostages in Gaza was the target of a bizarre firebombing attack in Colorado in which 12 people were injured. Last weekend, One Minnesota Democratic leader and her husband were assassinated. Another Minnesota Democratic legislator was shot nine times and has thus far survived. His wife was shot eight times. She has just miraculously been released from the hospital. So it's not like domestic counterterrorism is a niche concern in America right now, even before the new and explicit warning about potential revenge inside this country for Trump's decision to bomb Iran. But from the office of the Director of National Intelligence, where the director is off the quiet skies air marshal list herself now, and Trump has thrown out that whole program for the whole country because who cares about that stuff. Where they are now unleashed at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence so the office can be unfriendly. Full alert for the lizard people to move their power centers into the secret underground cities, right from. From the DNI to the decimation of the Justice Department and particularly the FBI, which is now led at the director and deputy director level by two right wing podcasters to the Department of Homeland Security, where a lawn boy and model UN kid has been appointed to lead counterterrorism in every element of its responsibility to keep the American people safe. The US Government under Donald Trump is, I guess, doing the best they're capable of. This is the best they can do. This is your government under Trump Republican leadership working to keep you safe. Members of the United States military were targeted by Iran today with a retaliatory Iranian missile strike at the major US Military base in Qatar. Nobody appears to have been hurt in that attack. But members of the US Military know that this president has their interests in mind in some ways, and those are their families. How does he have them in mind? Well, this is the father of three U.S. marines, two of whom are on active duty at Cam Pendleton, one of whom is recently retired. This father of three US Marines was beaten by masked federal agents this weekend when they turned up to arrest him at his job site. He was beaten. He was pepper sprayed, according to one of his U.S. marine sons. They also dislocated his shoulder. His son told the LA Times that his father is 5 foot 6 or 5 foot 7 and weighs about 150 pounds. This was the use of force they chose against this man. Again, this man with the three sons in the United States Marine Corps. His oldest son said that when his father called him from the immigration facility they first sent him, his father didn't want to talk about his injuries. He instead wanted to talk about the job that he had left incomplete. He asked his son to please go back to that job site where he had been arrested. He asked his son to please finish the job that he had been working on, trimming the grass, when he was attacked by Trump's immigration agents. This is another young US Marine Corps veteran in Louisiana whose wife was just arrested by Trump's immigration agents. This is a young married couple. They have a nine week old daughter. This Marine Corps veteran dad has been bringing their baby daughter to the immigration prison where Trump's agents are holding his wife and their baby's mother so he can try to figure out how the baby daughter can still breastfeed from the mom while Trump has her locked up. These are two young National Guardsmen in Illinois who went to the immigration office in full uniform with their mom to try to stop Trump's immigration agents from arresting their mother. This is an active duty US army sergeant who has now flown to Honduras to try to reconnect with his wife, who Trump's agents arrested while her husband is serving on active duty as a sergeant in the United States Army. The pushback against what Trump is doing to immigrants and to American families that include immigrants. It continues and continues and continues to build. This was Albuquerque, New Mexico, this weekend, a really big march in downtown Albuquerque to support immigrants and to oppose what Trump is doing. This was Lawrenceville, Georgia this weekend, another large scale march to support the immigrants and to oppose what Trump is doing. This was Port Washington, Long island in New York this weekend where friends and neighbors rallied to demand the release of their local bagel shop manager, Fernando, who has lived in their town for decades and is a beloved part of it. This was Pasadena, California this weekend. A big protest. A big protest, but one with a live band led by clergy. The local Fox affiliate covering the protest said it was a big protest, but it felt at times like a block party as it just kept getting bigger and bigger.
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Pasadena Protester
Mood was upbeat, but their message was serious. I've been to five this week.
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Pasadena Protester
You heard the music almost before you saw the crowd marching its way down Pasadena streets this Saturday. Six months ago, Pasadena attacked by fire. Now they say the threat is ice, as in ICE raids on immigrant communities.
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Rachel Maddow
People are scared. They're in their homes, afraid to come out, afraid to go grocery shopping, afraid to do to pick up their kids from school. So why not be here and support them? Joy is a part of our people's. Even when we protest, we've got a joy that no one knows where it comes from, but it comes from the resilience of our people who built this country, brown and black people. And it's time for us to stand together.
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Pasadena Protester
The diverse crowd was organized by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. And according to Pasadena police who lined the route, it was peaceful.
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Rachel Maddow
That was Pasadena, California this weekend. The mayor of Pasadena is going to join us here live tonight. I should tell you, peaceful protests in Pasadena have just recently driven federal immigration agents out of a hotel they were staying at in Pasadena. We're going to talk about the talk about that and more with Pasadena's mayor tonight here live. We're also going to be joined here live by Democratic US Senator Tim Kaine with the latest on what's going on with Iran and Congress's efforts to assert its constitutional authority to make decisions about whether or not the United States is at war. We got lots to get to tonight, lots going on. Stay with us.
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Rachel Maddow
24 hours for it to all start to fall apart. In an address to the nation Saturday night, President Donald Trump called US Bombing strikes on nuclear sites in Iran, quote, a spectacular military success. Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. That's what he said. Completely and totally obliterated. Not much room for interpretation there. And yet, less than 24 hours later, this was the amazing headline in the New York Times, quote, officials concede they don't know the fate of Iran's uranium stockpile. So completely and totally obliterating their nuclear capacity, except for all the highly enriched uranium that maybe they still have. Secretary of State Marco Rubio then went on TV just after the US Bombing to explicitly dismiss any questions about the nature of America's intelligence on Iran and its nuclear program. He said those questions were irrelevant. His actual words were, quote, forget about intelligence. At the same time, Vice President J.D. vance went on a different TV network to say it was all about the intelligence. It was our intelligence that motivated us to act. Rubio and Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also spent yesterday insisting to reporters explicitly that the US Is definitely not interested in regime change in Iran after all three of them made that explicit. Then President Trump got online to say how much he wants regime change in Iran. Now this evening, we get an announcement of an ostensible ceasefire between Israel and Iran, but it is delivered via the president's niche social media platform. In one of the president's oddly capitalized and grammatically challenged posts, which appears to say, or at least imply that a ceasefire will go into effect around midnight Eastern time and will maybe last 12 hours. Or is it 24 hours? It's literally impossible to parse. But then he says the war will be over. Quote, congratulations to everyone. That announcement from President Trump was over three hours ago. There has still been no confirmation from Israel of any kind. And Iran's foreign minister has just moments ago said that as of now, there is no agreement. Though in a tweet this hour, he appeared to confirm that Iran is halting military operations against Israel. The chaos coming from the very top of our own government is one of the downsides of having war be one man's decision, no matter who that one man is. That structurally is not the way our country was designed. And some members of the legislative branch are trying to remind us that not only should it not be this way, it doesn't have to be this way going forward. Joining us now is US Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia. One week ago, Senator Kaine introduced a war powers resolution that would require the President to go to Congress to get explicit authorization for any use of military force against Iran. A similar resolution has been introduced in the House as well. Senator Kaine's resolution is expected to get a vote in the Senate as soon as a couple of days from now. Senator Kaine, I really appreciate you being here on this busy night. Thank you so much.
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Senator Tim Kaine
Glad to. Rachel, important topic. Glad to talk to you about it.
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Rachel Maddow
Well, first let me ask you about some of the news that's been breaking over the last hour or hour or two, just to ask if you can update our understanding of it in any way. Do you know anything about this ostensible ceasefire between Israel and Iran? As far as we know, there hasn't been any confirmation from Israel. There's seemingly contradictory responses from Iran. Can you advance our understanding of that at all?
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Senator Tim Kaine
Rachel? I really can't. I hope that it's true. I mean, we would all want there to be a ceasefire and a de escalation. But it really underscores the point that you were making in the intro. We should not allow war and peace or bombing or ceasefire to be based on the whims of any one person, this President or any one person. And that's why the framers of the Constitution said war should only be declared after a debate and a vote by Congress. It's just too risky to allow one person, Democrat, Republican, Whig or Federalist, to send our sons and daughters to war. War based upon their whim, vibe or mood of the day. And you see with President Trump, it's about the nuclear program. No, it's about regime change. We're going to bomb now. We're going to have a ceasefire. The intel says Iran was on the verge of a nuclear weapon. No, the intel says they were far away from a nuclear weapon. It's been nothing but mixed messages from these folks. And that's why a public debate in full view, the American public, by Congress with a vote, so that everybody can be held accountable, is what we ought to have before we go into war.
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Rachel Maddow
Yeah, and the founder, I wrote a book about this in 2012, which we talked about at the time. I mean, the founders made this. They made this decision deliberately. They knew it was harder for a group of people to make a decision, a difficult decision about something like war, than it would be for an individual person to make such a decision. And that's explicitly. They explain. That is explicitly why they vested that power in the Congress. Now, you introduced a similar Iran War powers resolution in 2020, and I note that it got support from seven senators who are Republicans, who are still serving as Republican senators today. Do you expect support from any of those seven or from any other Republican senators this time around.
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Senator Tim Kaine
Rachel? There will be Republican support, Republicans supporting my War Powers Resolution. The number is still murky to me because the facts are changing every day. We have a security briefing tomorrow, all senators in classified, so that we can ask all of our questions. I think that will be an important factor. And again, this backing and forthing the president, you know, launching these bomb strikes on Saturday, the day after the Israeli foreign minister said that their own attacks had set the Iranian program back two or three years at least. And then retaliation today. But the retaliation from Iran was calibrated. Donald Trump, in what was one of his most unusual tweets ever, thanked Iran for giving us a heads up so we could, you know, manage to reduce or eliminate the risk of casualties. I mean, this thing is changing every second. But I think all of this backing and forthing, which is frankly kind of terrorizing Virginia. We are a very pro military state. I mean, between veterans, active Guard, Reserve, DoD civilians, military family, DoD contractors, everybody's connected to the military in Virginia. And we don't want to be whipsawed. Virginians understand that the two wars in the Middle east between 2001 and 2021 were pretty much disastrous for us. Multiple deployments by these families. What did we accomplish other than lose lives and lose trillions in resources. We don't want to be in another war. And this backing and for thing, are we on, are we off? Is it a ceasefire? Are we bombing tomorrow? Are we negotiating diplomatically or just doing that as a ruse to trick the Iranians to drop their guards so we can drop bombs on them? We do not need to terrorize the American public with this whipsawing of emotions. Let's have a reasoned debate in Congress and establish the rules of the game. Even my colleagues who want to be at war with Iran, they should at least say, but it shouldn't be done without us. We should be able to have that debate in full view of the American public and justify our positions.
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Rachel Maddow
Yeah, if you believe that we ought to be at war with Iran. The place to make that case is not on, you know, TV or in op EDS or in tweets. The place to make that case if you are an elected official in the Congress, is in debate in a binding vote that decides what we do as a country. And that's.
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Senator Tim Kaine
And Rachel, it's interesting that my colleagues who talk tough about Iran, they never introduce war authorizations against Iran. They talk tough trying to cheerlead the president do something, but they don't introduce resolutions because they know their constituents would look at them and say, what the hell are you thinking? Were you not paying attention for the last 20 years? So my hope is that folks will see this unpredictability and decide there's a better way for this nation to decide whether to send our sons and daughters into our war.
- [34:33]
Rachel Maddow
That's right. That's exactly right. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, I really appreciate you being here tonight, sir. I know this resolution is coming up this week. Good luck. Keep us apprised. Thank you.
- [34:43]
Senator Tim Kaine
Look forward to talking more.
- [34:45]
Rachel Maddow
All right, more news ahead here tonight. Stay with us.
- [34:50]
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- [36:24]
Rachel Maddow
Look how you got my hand twisted. I'm American, bro. Yo, these guys are literally, literally based off of skin color. My homie was born here just because of the way he looks. On Thursday, June 12th in Los Angeles, armed masked federal agents grabbed a young man named Brian Gavidia off the street near a tow yard where he works. They pushed him up against this metal grate. They demanded an know where he was born. Mr. Gavidia is an American. He's a US citizen. He gave the federal agents his real ID to prove his citizenship, which he says the agents took and never gave back. His encounter with Trump's masked immigration agents is one of several incidents the LA Times has recently reported of US Citizens being targeted by Trump's agents. Now the city of Los Angeles is trying to push back. City council members are directing the city's attorney, the city attorney for Los Angeles, to sue the federal government over overstops like this. As one council member put it, quote, it's not reasonable suspicion that someone's a non citizen just because he or she is brown. All across the country, we are seeing elected officials starting to get creative, trying everything they can to push back against what Trump is doing with immigration agents. Members of Congress have started showing up at ICE detention facilities, demanding to be let in for the oversight visits that they are allowed by law to conduct. We've seen this everywhere. The first one we covered was in Louisiana, but we've seen it in New York. We have seen it in New Jersey. We have seen it in Illinois, we have seen it in California. We have seen it in Massachusetts. In Burlington, Massachusetts, ICE is using office space to hold people they have arrested. Democratic members of Congress recently showed up at that office space to investigate the conditions there after the local town of Milford, Massachusetts, erupted as a community when ICE agents arrested a Local high school volunteer ball player arrested him and took him to this place. Now, after that visit from local members of Congress, the Town Select Board in Burlington, Massachusetts, is looking into whether ICE using that office building to hold prisoners might actually be illegal under local zoning rules in the city of Huntington Park, California. The mayor there has now directed his police department to start verifying the identification of federal agents conducting what he called, quote, masked abduction among his constituents. Last week in nearby Pasadena, California, six people were arrested at a bus stop by armed masked agents in unmarked cars. One of the masked agents pointed a gun at a bystander who tried to take a photo of the license plate on their car. Look at that. The Pasadena police are now investigating that incident as a potential crime because no one from the federal government has told them who these masked agents are, let alone proved that they were federal agents. The mayor of Pasadena tried to visit his constituents who were taken in the bus stop raid. The mayor's. His name is Victor Gordo. He tried to visit them at the detention center where they're being held in downtown Los Angeles. Like many other elected officials before him, Mayor Gordo was turned away from that facility. But like I said, people are trying everything they can. And in Mayor Gordo's case, as he was leaving, he ran into a woman in the parking lot of the facility who was crying. She told him she needed to deliver medicine to her husband who was being held there, but she couldn't get in. She said her husband has a heart condition and advanced diabetes and he needs to take medicine with every meal. But she was being turned away, and so he did not have his medicine. Mayor Gordo had just been turned away himself. He found that even as the mayor of Pasadena, they were not going to let him in. And so the mayor turned around, but decided to switch tactics. He had, in addition to being the mayor of Pasadena, he's also a lawyer. So he, in that moment, became that man's legal representative. And then as that man's lawyer, as of about 30 seconds before he was able to get in to deliver the man his medicine. That way. Elected officials all over the country are trying everything they can to push back to stand up for the people they represent. Mayor Gordo joins us live here next. Stay with us.
- [41:01]
Pasadena Protester
These Pasadena residents spent their Sunday protesting outside the AC Hotel on Madison Avenue after social media posts showed border patrol vehicles parked outside confirming agents are currently staying there.
- [41:20]
Rachel Maddow
ICE out of Dina, as in ICE out of Pasadena. That was this scene in Pasadena, California, recently. I mentioned moments ago that the mayor of Pasadena figured out a way to personally deliver life saving medication to one of the people who's been arrested by Trump's immigration agents in his city. When he encountered the man's wife crying in the parking lot outside the facility where this man had been taken, he. He arranged instantly and on the spot to become the legal representative for that man. Even though he'd been turned away as mayor from getting into that facility. As the man's lawyer, he was allowed in, was thus able to deliver the medication that may have saved that man's life. But Pasadena has been the site of a lot of interesting protest and response to what Trump's immigration agents have been doing. That protest you just saw here from that local news package happened after local residents in Pasadena discovered that federal immigration agents had checked in in large numbers and were staying at local Pasadena hotels. That knowledge set off a whole new, effectively spontaneous and then fast growing protest campaign by local Pasadena residents to get those agents to leave, to get them to get out of their community, to get out of those hotels. And we have a lot of footage. I can't play the sound here of exactly what happened at some of this footage because it involves a lot of cursing. Cursing in multiple languages. In fact, I will admit that watching footage of this protest, I learned some new words. But the protest was loud on purpose. At times, it even included a band. They were trying to be unmistakable and inescapable as a presence to annoy Trump's immigration agents and get them to leave that community. And according to Pasadena's mayor, the one who got that medication into the local ICE detention facility, according to Pasadena's mayor, this protest at the hotel worked. Mayor Vince Gordo told Mayor Victor Gordo, excuse me, told the LA Times that after hours of noisy rallying, hotel staff asked the federal agents to pack up their things and go. And they did. And the resulting celebration outside that hotel was just as loud as the protest had been. But I'll tell you, it had much less cursing. Joining us now is Mayor Victor Gordo of Pasadena, California. Mr. Mayor, thank you very much for being with us tonight. I appreciate it.
- [43:50]
Victor Gordo
Thank you, Rachel. Thank you for having me.
- [43:53]
Rachel Maddow
How would you describe the scope of Trump's immigration actions inside Pasadena and the response of your community?
- [44:00]
Victor Gordo
Well, you know, the first thing that I'd like to point out is we know that there are armed men jumping out of unmarked vehicles, wielding high powered weapons at our parks, at our community centers and in our neighborhoods, or there were. There have been. What we don't know is whether in fact these are ICE or federal agents at all. We don't know that these are operations. And whether we have a completely dangerous. Different situation and dangerous situation on our hands, it's creating a volatile, dangerous situation. Our police chief is making every attempt to contact the federal government in Los Angeles and Washington D.C. to confirm whether in fact these are ICE operations. We believe that they are, but we just don't know. And they won't communicate with us. And that can create a very dangerous, dangerous and volatile situation. Imagine a passenger police officer being called in response to armed men running through a neighborhood or. Or at a park or coming upon that situation. We could have a very serious and dangerous situation for the agents themselves, for residents, for kids in the parks, for everyone. And that's unacceptable.
- [45:18]
Rachel Maddow
In terms of these recent protests outside a Pasadena hotel encouraging agents to leave. They ultimately did leave. Did your office or the police department or any other entity of Pasadena city government have contact with the Department of Homeland Security or the federal government around that protest and that eventuality when those agents all left?
- [45:39]
Victor Gordo
No. That's the terrible piece, you know, is there's no communication. There's absolutely no. There's certainly no coordination, but there's no communication. And that's the dangerous and volatile situation that's being created from in our city. People are living in fear. People are working in fear. People are staying home. You know, there's also that economic impact to. To our cities. So fear is not acceptable. And certainly these, what we consider to be violations of due process and creation of dangerous situations are not acceptable. But our businesses. I'm getting most calls from businesses saying, can you tell our workers it's okay to come in? You know, workers who are here lawfully as I am. I'm a former immigrant, I'm mayor of this city. And, you know, the stigmatization of one people in our community, throughout the country of Latinos and people of Latino descent, is just wrong.
- [46:43]
Rachel Maddow
Victor Gordo, the mayor of beautiful Pasadena, California. One of my favorite places in the country. Great state of California. I've got a lot of family ties there. It's one of my favorite places to visit. It's a great town. Thank you for talking to us about what's happening there tonight. We look forward to having you back, sir. Appreciate it.
- [46:58]
Victor Gordo
Let's be safe and. But let's express our opinion known, make it known in the greatest of American ways with our voice. Thank you.
- [47:06]
Rachel Maddow
God bless you, Mr. Mayor. That does it for me tonight.
- [47:09]
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