tv Alex Wagner Tonight MSNBC April 3, 2024 1:00am-2:00am PDT
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big, major evangelical leaders in this country who won't go on the record to say these kinds of things, these people that go to trump rallies often well. >> michael bender, thank you very much. that is all in on this tuesday night. for now, good evening, alex. >> the church of trump, i never thought i would live to see it but here we are, thank you, my friend. >> thanks to you at home for joining me this hour. do you remember this moment in may of 2021? >> what is going to be different about florida's election in 2022, what are you about what are you about to sign? >> so right now i have what we think is the strongest election integrity measures in the country. i'm actually going to sign it right here. it's going to take effect. so bill is signed. >> governor ron desantis nearly three years ago signing florida's voter suppression bill and doing it live on fox and
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friends. that little exclusive became sort of a campaign hallmark. desantis built his ill-fated presidential candidacy on turning his state into a maga wonderland. a year later desantis signed the so-called stop woke act, a law that essentially banned the teaching of race and racism in the state of florida if it made white people uncomfortable. governor desantis came up with the idea slavery benefitted enslaved people, doubling down that suggested slavery was sort of a skilled training program. he signed the don't say gay bill which banned any teaching about homo sexuality or gender identity in florida public schools. and all-this was supposed to transform florida into a conservative utaupe you that would put desantis on the path as the next president of the united states. it was highlighted in speeches and even broadcast live on fox news. all of it except for one thing.
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there was one agenda item that was so toxic, so unpopular with so many people including republicans that governor desantis decided he would sign off on it very quietly in a closed door ceremony under the cloak of night. it was florida's 6-week abortion ban. since governor desantis signed that law, florida's abortion bans have been stalled in the courts, but yesterday the florida supreme court gave governor desantis exactly what he wanted. mostly. the court upheld florida's abortion ban allowing desantis' six-week ban to take effect. at the same time, though, florida's highest court also decided to allow florida voters the chance to amend their state's constitution this november and enshrine the right to abortion. putting abortion on the ballot in a presidential election year is the last thing republicans
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wanted today happen. the last time abortion rights were on the ballot in florida during a presidential election was the year 2012. that year voters soundly rejected new abortion restrictions by a 10-point margin, and that in turn almost certainly helped president barack obama narrowly carry the state over republican mitt rumny. that marks the last time a democratic presidential candidate won florida. yesterday nbc news was the first to report on a new memo from president biden's campaign outlining how it believes democrats might win back that state this november. today a group of house democrats traveled to florida for a field hearing about the state's restrictive abortion bans. among the witnesses at that meeting is debra dosher, a florida woman who was forced by state law to carry her baby to term despite doctors assessments that the newborn would not survive long after birth and
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that carrying that pregnancy to term could risk her life. >> florida law forced you to carry the baby until 37 weeks with no amniotic fluid and a certainty he would not survive? >> yes. the next few months were the toughest times of my life. as i continued to grow and experience horrible pain from the baby pushing up on different body parts, i struggled with my mental health, experienced depression, and anxiety. >> debra dorber joins the chorus of women speaking out in states across this country about the absolutely appalling and dehumanizing experiences they have had to have while trying to end pregnancies in states with new abortion bans on their books. and those stories have reshaped traditional battle lines. in california and vermont it's one thing, but in red states
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like kansas and montana and kentucky and ohio, in bellwether states like michigan and virginia and wisconsin, literally everywhere abortion rights have been on the ballot or been a central issue in the election, the side favoring access to abortion has won because the war on women's bodies is a very real menace here. republicans have already banned abortion in 21 states, and that is something that joe biden and the democrats are going to speak about unceasingly until election day. it is an issue that has the potential to change political reality. the biden campaign is already running this ad as part of a $30 million ad buy across seven swing states. >> because for 54 years they were trying to get roe v. wade terminated, and i did it. i i'm proud to have done it. >> in 2016 donald trump ran to overturn roe v. wade. now in 2024 he's running to pass a national ban on a woman's right to choose. i'm running to make roe v. wade
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the law of the land again so we'll have a federal guarantee to the right to choose. donald trump doesn't trust women, i do. i'm joe biden and i approve this message. >> today donald trump told nbc news his campaign plans to make a statement about abortion next week. we will see what that statement says, if it even happens, if it is even a statement. now, trump has sought to avoid any discussion about abortion and what he actually supports throughout his campaign thus far. in instead he would prefer to drum up fear about phantom menaces. today trump held a campaign in michigan focused on the issue of border security. while michigan is technically a border state, trump was not there to fear monger about our canadian neighbors. he's instead hoping he could drum up his own brand of rage and hurt and shock around the issue of immigration. >> the 22-year-old nursing student in georgia who was
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barbarically murdered by an illegal alien animal, the democrats said please don't call them animals, they're humans. i said no, they're not humans, they're animals. nancy pelosi told me that, please don't use the word animal, sir, when you're talking about these people. i said i'll use the word animal because that's what they are. >> to be clear migrants are not driving any sort of violent crime wave in america. violent crime is on whole down in the united states. multiple studies have found that migrants commit crime at a much lower rate than u.s.-born citizens. an analysis by nbc news found that crime rates are actually dropping in the big cities where conservatives have been busing migrants from the southern border. but the truth has never constrained donald trump. we see what president biden has his sights onto win friday. the question is which of these
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candidates can win a stronger campaign on threats both real and imagined? joining me now is melissa slotkin, democrat from michigan's seventh congressional district which includes lancing. congresswoman, great to see you. first let me get your response to former president trump tonight calling undocumented migrants animals. >> i mean, you know, look, i think it's -- it's deeply, deeply inappropriate for anyone who's a leader to set that kind of tone. i think it falls on deaf ears. he obviously was making fun of people asking him not to refer to immigrants as animals. and i think the unbelievable situation where this -- where wee a nation of immigrants, right? he had family members who emigrated here from somewhere. and it's sadly a tale as old as time in the united states. there was a time when italian immigrants and irish immigrants
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were called animals in the past. we've seen this movie. it's meant to divide us and meant to drum up fear and anger against other people. so it falls on deaf ears to say anything about it. he's proud of it, and all his allies stood behind me and were proudly smiling while he was calling immigrants animal. it's a pretty sad state of affairs over there right now. >> setting aside the poisonous rhetoric now, i do wonder about trump and the republican's efforts to drum up fear on the southern border. is there any credibility to that? >> well, look, in michigan, you know, we are a border state so we know what a healthy, functioning border looks like, and i think we need to acknowledge that no one thinks the southern border is, you know, great right now. no one says this is how business should be running at our southern border. and, you know, as someone who was a former cia officer and pentagon official, spent my
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entire career in homeland security, no one likes what's going on down there. i think the question is why is it that donald trump isn't letting republicans negotiate on some sort of bill so that we can deal with the southern border? and i think that's what just drives many of us, you know, crazy is that he comes in, he'll do a big rally, drum up all this energy, lie, call people animals, but then he stopped republicans from negotiating with us on a deal. we had a bipartisan deal. i come from the pentagon and national security. if i would have said to any of my bosses here's this number one national security issue, we've got to take care of it, we're vulnerable, but let's not do anything for another nine months because i need to make some political hay out of it, i'd be fired. it would be dereliction of duty, and he does it every single day. then all my republican colleagues who say they worry about, then get in the room with us. i'm willing to listen to anybody and negotiate on anything, but
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they're refusing to even meet on it. this guy is not serious about doing anything on the southern border. he's serious about trying to win an election, and it's frankly a little disturbing. >> i mean, in addition to the lack of sort of seriousness about policy and fixing the problem on a policy level, he's also trying to divide the country, right? i do wonder if democrats are not leaving some money on the table, if it were, by not going harder after trump on the race piece just because he very clearly is saying non-whites are poisoning the blood of the country. the racism and xenophobia is embedded in the message. trump has seen gains among latinos and black voters in the country. i wonder if there's not some sort of way for democrats to carve out that support and bring it back across their side of the aisle by focusing on the inherently, you know, bigoted message that is central to trump's campaign. >> yeah, i just -- i think he's
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bigoted, he knows that, he's proud of it, he talked about it today in this rally, so it's the problem is we're used to a world where people feel shame, they're embarrassed and do something about it, they apologize. he just doesn't feel shame. donald trump does not feel shame. so it's just a very difficult thing to highlight when he just keeps doing it, keeps repeating it. yes, of course, i think it's the job of all of us who care about the country to highlight what he says in his own words he will do if he becomes president again. you don't have to make up scenarios what he will do. he's telling us every day. today in the same rally in michigan he said if i don't win this election, it's probably going to be our last election in this country. so we don't have to make it up. and it's our job to help shine a light on that for people who might be interested in voting for him. >> what do you make of president
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biden's outreach? he's focused intensely on michigan. he was on the picket line with striking uaw workers. he has the endorsement of the uaw. there's been some retail politicking. does that work get out shine the fear and loathing trump conveys and brings with him when he's in town, or do you think biden has a good operation there structurally and rhetorically? >> yeah, i think the biden operation has come in force in the state. they're there, opening offices, hiring, they're visible. i don't think it's anyone rallied by president trump. i don't think it's any one thing. i think if you're in michigan or the midwest, you've got to be speaking to people's pocketbooks and their kids. you've got to talk about what you're going to do for their pocketbooks and kids particularly with the economy right now, you need to make the case.
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and for me i always think of michiganganders as very practical people. we've got a electric battery plant going up, a factory after 40 years after not building a new one. so people can see dirt moving, and i think that matters to people. it's not any one visit of someone flying in, it's making the case every single day in ways that compel people and are connected to what they really care about, their pocketbooks and their kids. >> congresswoman elissa slotkin, thank you for your time. we'll be following this race the intently. appreciate it. joining me now is nicky freed, chairwoman of the democratic party. we began this show talking about the six-week abortion ban going to be in place in your state. i wonder on the biggest macro level how much hope should democrats pin on this ballot
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amendment, this ballot measure carrying democrat across the finish line at the top and middle of the ticket in november? >> first of all, alex, your opening kind of sets the stage of exactly what we here in florida are having to live under. i was actually sleeping outside protesting the six-week abortion ban when desantis signed, had a helicopter around where we were sleeping. the week before i'd been arrested for protesting abortion. so you're seeing four-plus years of just suffocation brought from ron desantis and republican magas in tallahassee. what this is going to be able to do is not only galvanize democrats around the message, but it's not just democrats. it's republicans and independents. almost one third of our state is independents at this point who are tired of this extremism. so this is going to be an opportunity for us to be able to get out our message, hold ron desantis, donald trump, rick scott, and the rest of republicans here in florida
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finally accountable for what they have done to the state. >> that's a political rally, and then of course there's on the ground reality for people in the state seeking reproductive choice and in neighboring states. i believe florida over 84,000 abortions were reported in the state of florida in 2023, which is an increase from 2022. can you talk about what this means for the people of florida who may need abortions and the immediate future for them in the next few weeks. >> this is going to be devastating and to your point not just for floridians, but the tire south. we all are seeing maps that has red all over the south and has access to abortion. and so florida was the last opportunity for in the front lines so many women across the entire south. so now we've got a 15-week
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abortion ban held up in the courts yesterday, which then triggers the six-week abortion ban which will go into effect now in roughly 29 days. over the course of the next several months before we finally have the opportunity to have the people vote back on this, you're going to hear stories like you were hearing earlier at the top of your show of these heart breaking stories of women having to make these ultimate decisions, a decision so private and so intimate that it should only be between the woman, her doctor, and anybody else she allows into that space, certainly not politicians. but you're going to see women making these life altering decisions. they're going to put themselves at risk, potentially future opportunities to have children, and there's going to be drastic ramifications here in the state of florida but also the entire south. >> just the unusual nature of all this is that the six-week abortion ban is going to come down in a matter of weeks, so florida women will live in the florida's version of a
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handmaid's tale and then have the option -- not just women of of course but all florida voters will have the option to push the state to the 21st century and go back to protected reproductive choice, which i would imagine is going to actually help the cause of choice, to be able to see what the alternative is in a very concrete way before being given this choice on the actual ballot. >> yeah, and i think that's exactly the point is you're going to have over the next seven months the stories coming out of what happens, which let's also be very clear here. a six-week abortion ban is an all-out ban. most women don't know they're pregnant at six weeks. now you're going to a state libertarian in nature. 77% of floridians did not want the six-week abortion ban, but now we're going to be living under it, and it's going to bring to light the clear choice floridians are going to have
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come november. do you want free choice or an abortion pan? we are fighting, carrying this message, making sure people across the nation understands florida and our floridians are hungry for change and are certainly going to be putting in the work to make sure november we get access to reproductive health care back into our constitution and making sure we are winning seats up and down the ballot, holding rick scott who would have also signed that six-week abortion ban if he was still governor and donald trump who wants to take a national abortion ban to washington, d.c. that's a clear choice on the november ballot here in florida. protect reproductive health, protect democracy, send rick scott packing and sure we re-elect joe biden and kamala harris in november of 2024. >> well, donald trump won the state by a little over 3 points. this ballot measure needs a 60%
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threshold vote to pass. it's hard to see if that passes. thank you for your time tonight. appreciate it. >> thanks for having me on. there's a lot of news to get to tonight. this guy went from marching with white supremacists at charlottesville to elected office. and just a few minutes ago his past caught up with him. we'll have more on that coming up next. plus, the judge overseeing the prosecution of donald trump and his classified documents case makes yet another in a series of inexplicable moves. that is next. in a series of inexplicable moves that is next
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on march 1st judge aileen cannon who's overseeing trump's prosecution for midhandling classified documents held a hearing about setting a new driel date. one month and one day later we still don't have that trial date. and in the meantime judge cannon has asked lawyers on both sides of this case to do some fairly inexplicable homework. one assignment due today requires them to write a set of hypothetical instructions for a hypothetical jury that may or may not meet on a hypothetical trial date that judge cannon has yet to set. the other assignment is due on friday and it involves the
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so-called speedy trial act. but don't let the name fool you, the likelihood is that it will do quite the opposite. joining me is columnist at bloomberg law and author of the substack original jurisdiction, which has been scooping scoops in the repeat weeks. david, it's great to have you on the program here. >> great to be here, alex. >> okay, why is the speedy trial assignment a misnomer? >> because this trial has been anything but speedy. >> yes, true. >> the speedy trial act comes from the sixth amendment from the constitution which provides defendants a right to a speedy trial. and sets deadlines and timetables, and this trial as we know has been going very, very slow plach and judge cannon has asked the defendants tell me why i'm actually not that slow. >> tell me why you don't need a speedy trial, donald trump. >> it's very interesting because the speedy trial act is supposed to protect the right of a defendant to a speedy trial, but
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donald trump does not want a speedy trial. >> so she's basically saying, look, i've gone super slow thus far and has been in violation of the speedy trial act. help me tell myself and the law why i'm not in violation of it and actually want it. >> that's what andrew wiseman said and i totally agree with him. she's trying to give him some cover. >> this isn't the only area where she's asking for cover for the defendant, from trump's team. he's given herself a sheet she can use to rule in favor of trump. we'll talk about more motivations in a second, but she also has this weird request for jury instructions. they require both the prosecution, the special counsel's office, and the defense, trump's team to tell jurors trump has the authority to keep these classified documents under the presidential act. if jurors were told trump had the authority to keep these
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classified documents, he would be found not guilty here, right? i mean it's not that complicated, is it in. >> this order is bizarre. it's sort of choose your own adventure order. she lays out two possible orders of law and give me jury instructions for view "a" and view "b." the problem is both views are misstatements of the law. i don't know what jack smith is going to do. the instructions were due today, and i've been checking news and twitter and what not, and we haven't seen them yet. it's a very strange assignment because the special counsel can't agree to her premises. basically the instructions are either scenario "a," can the jury found i made these documents personal rather than presidential? scenario "b," i can decide trump, i can decide whether they're personal or presidential, and nobody can review that. but the special counsel's position is it's irrelevant whether their personal or presidential, these documents are governed by the espionage act.
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what she's basically done is she's conflating apples and oranges. there's the presidential records act, there's the espionage act. they are separate statutes with separate classifications. she's kind of made a royal mess of this. >> you had some scoops earlier in the week about the staff departures inside cannon's chambers, if you will. and without getting into too much detail on who left when, one of the conclusions you draw is cannon is intelligent, in theory could have been capable of this but sounds like she's very overwhelmed, overworked, anxious, and terrified of the scrutiny she's under. can you talk more about what how you see or what you've learned with the case this playing out behind closed doors. >> yes, so federal judges have these law clerks who are recent graduates of law school, really bright, hardworking people. the judges cannot do their work without these clerks. they're essential. and judge cannon has had a massive amount of turnover in her chambers.
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typically clerks you have two or three of them and stay for a year, two years. in the past couple of months she's lost two of them and she also had another clerk who was going to come but basically said thanks but no thanks. she has to find new clerks. everybody has to get up to speed the new clerks on what's going on in all these cases. so i think some of the delays in this case is not just because she's inexperienced she's running trials but also the dysfunction in her chambers. >> and that is all to trump's benefit. i do think there's a moment and it may be fast approaching don't you think jack smith is going to ask for another judge on this case? given the missteps, does he just need one more spriek before he says we've got to get rid of this judge? >> he's kind of between a rock and a hard place. generally you get judges booted off cases because of conflicts and interests and bias. and she's biased but not
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necessarily in a way easily demonstrable. she doesn't have a personal relationship with trump, she doesn't own stock in a company with implications. those are the reasons judges usually get booted. she's just garden variety messing up the case. >> when you say the judge is messing up the case is that not sufficient? >> unfortunately, our legal system -- smith is in a tough position because i'm sure he'd love to get a new judge, but it doesn't -- it's kind of like going def con 3. it's a big escalation to say give me a new judge. it's kind of weird we haven't gotten his response yet to the new jury instructions. >> ticktock. 9:30 p.m. on east coast. you have a great article, an op-ed about why we may want to put more stock in the civil cases rather than the criminal one. and the discussion we had tonight only proves that. thank you for joining me
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wireless that works for you. for a limited time, ask how to save up to $830 off an eligible 5g phone when you switch to comcast business mobile. don't wait! call, click or visit an xfinity store today. when did racism against white people become okay? joe biden put white people last in line for covid relief funds.
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kamala harris said disaster aid should go to nonwhite citizens first. liberal politicians block access to medicine based on skin color. progressive corporations, airlines, universities all openly discriminate against white americans. racism is always wrong. the left's anti-white bigotry must stop. >> believe it or not, that was a real ad that actually ran on television. now, the claims that ad makes are so false and so misleading that the ad got a brutal three pinocchio rating from "the washington post" fact checker. but the facts clearly are not the point here. the broader message, the airing of white grievance, that is the point. this ad came from a group run by former trump advisor steven miller. it is called "america first legal" and it describes itself as the long awaited answer to the aclu. i guess that depends on what you've been waiting for. miller and group are pushing the idea that white americans are actually the ones being discriminated against, not the other way around. they are not the only ones
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making that argument. >> every institution in america is under attack from this marxist concept of equity. instead of treating everyone equally, making decisions based on merit or qualifications, equity means that benefits are awarded and policies are enforced based on skin color and sexual identity. >> yes, yes, the marxist concept of equity. the logic of this conservative anti-equity argument is that we should ignore inequities that exist throughout american lifelike housing and school and policing because trying to right those institutional norms would be reverse racism. as illogical as that is, it is politically potent, and the groups pushing this argument are gaining ground. in the past few years republicans across the country have introduced anti-diversity and equity inclusion laws in
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more than 30 states. yesterday axios reported if trump gets a second term his allies are already laying the legal groundwork for the justice department to eliminate or upend programs in government or corporate america that are designed to counter racism. so now the question is how potent is white grievance at the ballot box? well, tonight we just got election results in oklahoma for a recall election of a local candidate who could serve as somewhat of a litmus test mere. these are photos from a white nationalist tiki torch rally in charlottesville, virginia, in 2017. the arrows there are pointing at a man named judd leavens. he was among the crowd chanting jews will not replace us that day and now he's a city commissioner of oklahoma. now only was he an active leader from 2017 to 2019 of the white nationalist group but he made lead up posts under the
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pseudonym conway including hitler never would have allowed this bleep. last year nevens won his election by 36 votes. tonight the city voted against whether to rerecall mr. blevins, and make no mistake this election was about his beliefs that white people are the real victims of racism. this was mr. blevins response to the very first question asked of him at a city forum last week when he was asked what his goal was when he worked with white nationalist groups like identity europa. >> what were you trying to achieve or what was your purpose? >> bringing attention to the same issues that got donald trump elected in 2016, securing america's borders, reforming our legal immigration system and frankly pushing back on this anti-white hatred so common in media and entertainment. >> we'll be joined by nbc news -- live from oklahoma with the stunning results of that
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we've been following the campaign, and there have been some reports about possible connections with white supremacy. could you tell us about that? and pulls out her sign so this isn't you, and his face turns beat red. and he goes, oh, so that's what this is about. >> that's cony vicars and nancy, two of the women who helped spearhead the effort to recall
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enid oklahoma city council member judd blevins after discovering a photo of blevins marching with a tiki torch at the unite the right rallyane charlottesville, the two women knew they had to do something. they organized a signature drive that secured hundreds of signatures, which was more than necessary to spark today's recall vote. and now tonight thanks to that vote judd blevins is out of the enid city council. he'll be replaced by republican cheryl patterson. joining me now is nbc news reporter live from the recall watch party in enid, oklahoma. thank you for put s this on our radar and being live on the scene as the results are coming in here. can you give us a picture of sort of the grass roots effort to oust a white supremacist from the city council? >> yeah, i mean you can take a
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look around this room. i'm at the watch party for the enid social justice community. this is a small group of people who have a huge effect on their community in terms of white supremacy and extremism. now, it folks around me are all different. they have different ideas, some are democrats, some are very, very progressive leftist, but they came together in 2013 when judd blevins was elected. we knew about his past, some stuff was on the internet, but these are the folks like you just showed cony and nancy, these are the folks who really, really wouldn't just let go. they kecht going to city council meetings holding the picture of judd blevins up at unite the right they kept having protests, they wouldn't let it go and now to me and all the people here just shows the power out what a small group of organized people with a goal can do. >> just to be clear you said 2013 but blevins has only been in office since 2023 i believe. and enid is like -- i believe
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republicans have a 4-1 advantage in voter registration. white grievance is a central plank of the republican party platform at this stage. and i wonder from your reporting you got a sense this kind of white replacement theory, whether that didn't find favor within the republican community in enid or whether this was largely a democratic, you know, progressive grass roots effort. >> that's the second part of this story that you're not seeing in this room but very much is a part of this win for progressives here at least, and it's that they couldn't have done it alone, right? there are conservative republicans in enid including the mayor and cheryl patterson who won this seat conservative republicans but they said this is a bridge too far, we don't
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want nazis in our city council, which seems a low bar but an important line to draw. and it's worth saying blevins lost this race. he lost it handily by a 20-point margin. 1,400 people voted, right? there was 30 something percent of people that still did vote for blevins even knowing all this stuff. again, it does show what can happen when some progressive folks, when democrats and when republicans who can say this is a bridge too far can come together to draw a line. >> yeah, i mean it's worth noting this is happening on the same night that donald trump in michigan is calling undocumented migrants animals, sunling that whole subsection of the american, you know, american society are subhuman. and i just wonder is there any connection towards that sort of poison rhetoric and what blevins
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stands for, or do they see these things as apples and oranges as neo-nazi ties, white supremacists and the nativists platform upon which trump is running. >> i can only talk right now about enid, oklahoma, but in enid i've been talking to conservative republicans at the polls all day. most of the people on the city council are all conservative republicans, and for those folks i do think they definitely can draw the line between the things that they saw from this council member who was a priet supremacist to the things they see in main stream conservative politics. i talk to a bunch of about that very thing today. they see here that there's something poisonous in a section of the republican party, and at least in enid they were able to cut it out. >> well, perhaps enid will be a bellwether for the broader republican party. we'll see. thank you for your time and great reporting. brandy, it's great to hear from you. when we come back -- when we
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come back what the deaths of seven aid workers killed by an israeli air strike in gaza means for growing humanitarian -- the growing humanitarian crisis in the region. that's coming up next. on that's coming up next. new sensodyne clinical white provides 2 shades whiter teeth and 24/7 sensitivity protection. i think it's a great product. it's going to help a lot of patients.
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from a hunger point of view, how do you see the situation in gaza right now? >> the situation in gaza is as we all know, incredibly bad. it's going to require all of us working together, making efforts to seize any way possible to bring meals into gaza. >> the woman in that video from a month ago, zomi, francom was an australian working with the world central kitchen whose mission is to provide meals for people in need in disaster zones all over the world. francom helped operate world central kitchen 68 community kitchens inside gaza, which provided food to some of the hundreds of thousands of
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civilians on the brink of famine there. last night francom is six of her fellow aid workers at world central kitchen including an american citizen were killed by an israeli air strike. despite coordinating their movements with the israeli military and traveling in vehicles marked with the world central kitchen logo, multiple vehicles in the group's convoy were hit after leaving a food warehouse in central gaza. israeli prime minister netp hew responded today by saying the israeli military unintentionally hit innocent people in the gaza strew. this happens in war, and so we will do everything so that this thing does not happen again. world central kitchen and other aid groups have now suspended operations in gaza at a time when the u.n. estimates that half of all palestinians in gaza, 1.1 million people have completely exhausted their food supplies. joining me now is karen
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donnelly, senior vice president for crisis recovery. thank you for joining me tonight. i first want to get your reaction from prime minister netanyahu, this happens in a war. >> let me start by offering my condolences to families killed yesterday in the world central kitchen. what happened yesterday is a horrific and appalling incident but didn't happen in isolation. the seven aid workers killed yesterday brought the total number of aid workers killed over the last seven months in gaza to over 200. that's in addition to over 350 approximately health care workers kill. what we've seen, and i should specify the majority of those have been palestinian, almost all of them until yesterday that have been killed have been palestinian workers and aid workers. what we've seen in gaza throughout this war is a systematic targeting of attacks
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on aid agency operations, humanitarian operations, and medical facilities. of course this things happen in war, but that's simply not a good enough explanation for the systematic scene we saw unfold over the last several months. >> you talk about systematic attacks. for people that don't understand can you talk about precautions aid organizations take in crisis zones and war zones? it sounds like world central kitchen went out of their way to try and mark their staff as noncombatants. how unusual is it to get targeted in a moment like this? >> across the world where humanitarian agencies are operating, we take great care to separate ourselves from political and military and security actors. we're there to serve noncombatants, serve civilians, serve people affected by the wars in the midst of which we're
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operating. that means distinguishing our facilities and sharic locations with actors like the israeli authorities so they can take all necessary precautions as they're required to do under international law. despite those precautions which agencies in gaza have been taking for months, we have seen this continued repetition of attacks against humanitarian operations. the deconfliction system, the process by which we share coordinates, share movement plans with israeli forces, and that system is effectively broken in gaza today. >> my next question is what is the broader effect on the agencies still operating in the region, and what kind of effect does it have on them and their personnel? >> it's important to note for organizations like ourselves, irc and others who operate, we're already operating at a much lower level of capacity than we should be, than we would want to be given the security situation on the ground, which
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makes it very difficult and dangerous for ourselves and partners to deliver aid and civilians to deliver access and receive aid. continued attacks like the ones we saw yesterday are only going to have a further impact on our ability to work inside gaza. >> yeah, this is coming as 32, 916 gazans have died since october 7th. 70% of people are at catastrophic levels of hunger. thank you so much for joining me and sharing this information with us. really appreciate it. >> thank you. >> that is our show for tonight. "way too early" with jonathan lemire is coming up next. on day one i'll see the border and we'll begin the largest domestic deportation operation in our country. and if other countries say we won't take them back, we're not going to take them back. i will say that, yeah, here
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