justice system. a conviction can mean you'll lose certain jobs. there are serious ramifications. >> i don't think you'd ever have to take a drug test to apply for a mortgage. >> go introduce that. thank you all. rachel maddow starts now. >> that was such a brilliant an tech dote. >> thanks for staying with us. car companies make pianos. the same one that makes pianos makes motorcycles. i feel like -- if it was just motorcycle and piano company, but it's not. a whole bunch of companies have these kind of combined product lines. behold for example the hyundai

piano. it is the same company that makes hyundai cars. also daiwo cars may or may not be your style, but pianos, hey, everybody could invent how nice those look. and it is not just an asian car company either. this is the very high style piano that is now made by the car company pugot. looks very nice. i love the, kind of looks like it's got a clam foot. this apparently is the thing. this product design -- peugeot

also makes really nice salt and pepper grinders. wikipedia says they also used to make dresses. and the car company has also just made history in the island nation of cuba because this is the communist government owned deeper ship. this is sell iing cars and that weird because it's cuba, right? today, for the first time sin since -- cubans are allowed to purchase new cars. the reason the footage from cuba has romantic appeal to people who like old cars no matter what else is going on in the footage

is because before now, practically every car on every road in cuba aside from some russian ones, reflected the state policy that only automobiles that were in cuba before the revolution could be bought and sold among the citize citizens. given the revolution happened in 1959, that meant 1959 has been the end of the line in terms of cuban automobile availability until now. now, starting today, under these very, very slowly loosening restrictions on cuban live under the dictatorship, cuban citizens can now by new vehicles on the open market. at least theoretically they can do that because the average cuban wage is only around $20 per month and at the dealership, you will find this representative car costing $262,000. what? yes. that's the mark up.

people make 20 bucks a month, but the cars cost a quarter of a million dollars. the price is roughly seven times the price you would pay for the same vehicle if you bought it in this country. but in cuba where the people are least able to afford a vehicle like this, they've still got to pay a 400% mark up or 700% mark up on the cars thanks to the government owned dealership. that's the beauty of the communist economy, right? real communism, in this country, any economic policy advanced by any democratic president is routinely denounced as a form of communism, but cuba is the real deal. when president obama made the decision to bail out the u.s. auto industry in the middle of the financial crisis in 2009, his critics said it foretold not only communism, but the death of the american auto industry because of it. it would never work. once gm became government motors, the american automobile industry was deader than it would have ever been if we just

let nature take its course like mitt romney said we should. but the bailout did happen. now, the bailout is over and the american auto industry is not only not dead, but look at these end of the year numbers. volume of u.s. auto sales best since 2007. quote, chrysler finished 2013 with a 9% sales increase, posting its best increase in six years. the recovery hit full stride. really positive epd of the year numbers for the american automobile industry were sort of a crowning glory for what started off as a bad few years and ended -- but the numbers being a real shiny spot, they were end of the year numbers that were really dpood throughout the economy. on new year's eve, the u.s. markets finished off what was a record breaking year.

the dow jones industrial average finished the year up 26% for the year. 2013 was the best year for the dow since 1995. the s&p 500 posted its biggest gain in 16 years. nasd nasdaq, seventh biggest gain in the history of nasdaq. the u.s. economy finished off with a bang, too. grew by 4.1% in the third quarter. that beat expectations and marked the fastest growth rate in two years. that was due in large part to increased consumer spending, which was higher than the expergts expected. also, a huge increase in business investment, which beat out expectations. a lot of really good numbers for 2013. as we head into the new year, there's all these economic indicators that frankly look pretty good. the u.s. economy, which has slowly been trying to dig itself

out of the ditch it fell into during the financial crisis appears to be gaining some momentum. last year, u.s. factory activity hit a two and a half year high. in november, construction spending hit its highest level in nearly five years thanks to what looks like the recovery of the housing markets. that same month in november, the u.s. economy added the total of 203,000 new jobs, which is the number that beat out expectati n expectatio expectations. for all of the troubles we are still having is finally starting to come along and to build on this success, congress has just come up with a plan to see those 203,000 jobs we just added to the economy in november, to see those 203,000 jobs and to take away 240,000 jobs. 240,000 jobs lost. that's the labor department's estimate of how many jobs are going to be lost because of what congress just did.

because of the decision by republicans in congress to end unemployment benefits for people who have been out of work for longer than six months. right after christmas, just days before the new year, congressional republicans decided to cut off employment benefits for people who have been hurt the most. because those unemployment those checks tend to be injected back into the economy, that one decision is threatening to take what was the economy that was starting to come along. in addition to the 240,000 jobs now projected to be lost if this isn't fixed, economists are now predicting the decision to kill those benefits will cut u.s. economic growth by 0.4 percentage points in the first quarter of the year. nearly a half a point on annual economic growth will be cut in the first quarter.

to a certain extent, a new report out by house democrats, a total of congressal democrats are trying to build as much pressure as possible to get republicans to change their mind. to get republicans to come back to congress and agree to extend those benefits and stop kicking the economy in the teeth. house democrats produced this map -- is killing the local economy where you live. the data the democrats put out, it's zip code by zip code. go to their website, click on your state. find your zip code and by doing so, you will find out how many people are about to be cut or have just been cut off entirely because of this decision. i did this today for all of the

places that i have lived in the last few years that i could remember the zip code for and it's not, it's sad. it's heartbreaking. putting out that sort of information. putting it out in that way where you can make it really local in terms of understanding the impact. that is designed to put pressure on individual members of congress because you can see how their districts, how their hometowns are affected. it's supposed to get some individual republicans, maybe least one or two or three or four to come along and so far, at least one republican has shown an interest in trying to fix this problem. it's dean heller of nevada. right now, he's the lone republican cosponsor of legislation that the senate is going to vote on on monday to try to fix this problem for at least another three months, to put off this face punch for another three months. if just a handful of republicans joined with dean heller in the senate, then the unemployment

extension would likely pass in the senate. that would have to go to the house and today, the number two house republican, eric cantor, he put out the house republican agenda for the next month, the list of this things he says might come to the house floor and extending benefits is not -- democrats don't appear to be -- people who have lost their unemployment benefits and if the senate vote to extend fails on monday, they seem to be prepared to make republicans vote against those benefits over and over and over again, all of this designed to pressure republicans into changing their mind. what are the odds of that happening? joining us now is ryan grim. thanks very much tr being here. >> thanks for having me. >> what is your latest prognosis on the odds? do you think there is any hope of an extension of unemployment

benefits taking place? >> in the senate, i think there is some hope. what i'm hearing is that if democrats will allow amendment, you'll get enough republicans who will at least allow a debate to happen. they might try to tackle all sorts of weird amendments and stuff because like you said, you know, you might get susan collins. you have dean heller, but that only gives you 57 and gets you short of 60, but maybe the political pressure will be so intense on them that you find a couple more moderates and get it through. that puts more pressure on house republicans, u be they don't feel a ton of pressure on this like democrats kind of expected they might when they punted on this back in december. >> when the labor department came out with the estimate that this policy decision was going to cost the economy 240,000 jobs and then the economists at jpmorgan came out with their assessment that this would retard economic growth by almost

half a percentage point for the half quarter, i thought those were kind of slam dunk political bombshells, really, to mix bad metaphors. once you're talking about jobs in those numbers, retarding economic growth at that level. that it ends up being the sort of thing that does pressure republicans. is there anything that explains why factors like that wouldn't be effective right now? >> republicans are pushing back with a different type of analysis. what they're saying is that giving unemployment benefits to people discourages them from taking jobs. so, therefore, you're actually hurting them. they're being compassionate about pulling away and in a sense, there's some truth to that. but the political question is you know, what is the value of someone's basic dignity. sure. if your unemployment benefits run out, then you're more likely to take an 8 or $9 an hour job to keep your electricity on, you

have to keep food on the table. if you're getting that tiny unemployment check, 200, $300 a week, then you can try to hold out and try to get a job that was a little bit closer to what you were making before you got leg go. this is the dynamic, this is what drives wages down because job seekers then have less power when negotiating their work, but republicans are very public that they're saying you know, people will stop, will take jobs if you take these unemployment benefits away from them. >> some of the polls that has been done on the subject is obviously being designed to put maximum pressure on policy polling. did some polling recently on the subject where are they looked at republican districts, including in john boehner's districts, showing that voters in those districts by large majorities support extending these unemployment benefits. do you expect to see more

tactics like that, this event at the white house, do you expect the democrats to keep pushing in those directions on this? >> absolutely. but that's basically all they have left. they had their opportunity in december. they had republicans over the barrel. they were not going to shut down the government over unemployment insurance. democrats reasoned well, we'll get more sequester relief if we don't go for unemployment now. they kind of gambled with these people's unemployment checks. the problem here is we don't really have a national political system. nationally, this is very popular stuff and locally, it's popular, but people are not going to vote out their individual republican members of congress over this particular issue and a lot of people know that. now, there are some moderates who might face the heat and that's your best chance of getting this through, but broadly, it's got to be tough to

move it at this point. >> ryan, thanks very much for being with us tonight. appreciate it. >> thank you. zblnc zblncht. if you see, read or hear that conservatives have toned it way down with regard to the culture war these past few years, please observe our next segment, which will be filled with some purr swasive dots to the contrary. stay with us. [ julie ] i've got to credit my mom. to help me become an olympian, she was pretty much okay with me turning her home into an ice rink. ♪ she'd just reach for the bounty select-a-size. it's the smaller, powerful sheet that acts like a big sheet. look, one select-a-size sheet of bounty is 50% more absorbent than a full size sheet of the leading ordinary brand. use less, with the small but powerful picker-upper, bounty select-a-size. diarrhea, gas, bloating? yes! one phillips' colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues...

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to prove to you that aleve is the better choice for him, he's agreed to give it up. that's today? [ male announcer ] we'll be with him all day

as he goes back to taking tylenol. i was okay, but after lunch my knee started to hurt again. and now i've got to take more pills. ♪ yup. another pill stop. can i get my aleve back yet? ♪ for my pain, i want my aleve. ♪ [ male announcer ] look for the easy-open red arthritis cap. of the dusty basement at 1406 35th street the old dining table at 25th and hoffman. ...and the little room above the strip mall off roble avenue. ♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. and of those who believed they had the power to do more. dell is honored to be part of some of the world's great stories. that began much the same way ours did. in a little dorm room -- 2713. ♪ this magic moment ♪ in 1990, a total of four

abortion restrictions were enacted and it pretty much went along at that pace. in total in that decade in the 1990s, about 130 restrictions on abortion rights were passed into law in various states. these are new figures from the -- institute. in the 2000s, the number of new state restrictions on abortion rights got bigger and it was a more volatile process. about 189 measures put into place versus 130 the decade before. but then after 2010, the deluge. in 2011, 2012 and 2013 and the years after republicans took control of lots of state governments across the country, after then, after the 2010 elections, more than 200 measures passed into law in various states.

more than 200 in just three years. they did more to roll back bo s abortion rights in the past three years than either of the past two decades. a dozen states now have 20-week abortion bans. and accordi ining to a recent survey, over 50 clinics have been shutdown or forced to stop performing services since 2010 and now, the question is whether the pendulum might be able to start swinging in the other direction. take v virginia under bob mcdonnell, the legislature passed into law this medically unnecessary forced ultrasound exam along with the law that closed down clinic after clinic. ken kuch nell ran and lost an

women's issues were front and center in the campaign. now, abortion rights advocates in virginia say they hope to roll back the restrictions. telling reporters yesterday they're readying a repeal of the forced ultrasound law and expansion of reproductive services in the commonwealth. that's virginia with its shiny new republican branch. in wisconsin, scott walker and the legislature there cut off funding to planned parenthood. shut down a lot of clinics in the state. the state legislature in wisconsin was all set to pass another round ofcontraception, including the ask your boss law if you could have your health insurance cover your birth control pills, but that sparked

one state senator to declare he would bring all out hell to the senate if republicans tried to push those bills through. against that backdrop of promised all out hell, it now appears that republicans in w wisconsin are going to stand down on these new restrictions. a wisconsin state leader says they will not take up those after all. pushback either worked or at least did not hurt wisconsin. and while 2013 saw a ton of legislature wins for antiabortion advocates, when the issue went to a vote by the general republican in albuquerque, new mexico, that superdevicive antiabortion referendum lost and lost badly and that electoral loss for antiabortion advocates came on the heels in california, where abortion procedures can now be performed by more health professionals, not fewer.

it is 2014. there are gubernatorial elections on the horizon. several visible pro-choice candidates are running against republicans from wendy davis in texas -- will 2014 be the year to roll back the abortion rights rollback of the past several years? does this mean things are moving back in the other direction? will there be a significant pushback? watch this space. we're gonna be late. ♪ ♪ ♪ oh are we early? [ male announcer ] commute your way with the bold, all-new nissan rogue. ♪

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so this happened last night. howard simon, thank you for being here tonight. congratulations on this ruling. >> thank you very much. >> we received a response from a representative -- >> there is an era, hello? >> it's actually a new high-tech feature. turns out that voice rings out on this show unexpectedly when ever -- actually, a totally inrelated thing, but we have stirred up some koch brothers angry. that story is coming up and you won't want to miss it.

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america must be a model citizen. if we want others to look to as a model, how we behave at home affects how we are perceived

abroad. how we fight the terrorists -- we can't torture or treat inhumanely suspected terrorists we have captured. i believe we should close guantanamo and work with our allies. and work with our allies to forge a new international understanding on the disposition of dangerous detainees under our control. >> in 2008, the republican nominee for president ran for president by saying that we should close guantanamo and getting applause when he said it. by the time he was running for president, even running for the nomination for president, the sitting republican president, the guy who opened guantanamo, was also saying he wanted to close. >> and obviously, they brought up the concern about guantanamo.

and i understand their concerns, but let me explain my position. first, i'd like to end guantanamo. i'd like it to be over with. one of the things we will do is send people back to their home countries. >> so, when barack obama won the presidency in 2008, his belief that we should close guantanamo was just about the least controversial position that he had taken as a candidate. that position was not only shared by him and the previous president he was succeeding, it was a belief shared by him and by the guy who he ran against, but alas, guantanamo, still open and part of the reason why is this. behold, uighurville, this is technically camp iguana, but apparently, it's known as uighurville because it's part of the prison set aside by a group of uighurs, a group of chinese muslim men, even though the

united states government admitted they should not be in prison at all. after the bush administration decided to stop even trying to contend these chinese guys should be seen as enemy combatants. in 2013, a federal judge said if you have no charges against them, no contention against them, then it is unlawful to keep them at guantanamo any longer. they must be freed. the 17 prisoners were essentially guys who were in the wrong place at the wrong time when the u.s. invaded afghanistan and when there were $5,000 bountties to be paid. but when the bush administration gave up trying to make the case these guys were dangerous, when that judge recorded them released, it was a long way into them having spent years at guantanamo and when the judge said they were going to be released, it seemed like this long, strange odyssey of chinese guys at this prison finally seemed like this was going to come to an end. but then congress freaked out.

fz. >> speaker, it is my understa understanding that president obama's decision regarding the release into the u.s. the number of uighur detainees held at guantanamo bay since 2002, these terrorists would not be held in prisons, but would be released in your neighborhoods. they should not be released into the united states. when members realize who these people are -- >> they're random chinese guys at guantanamo by mistake. frank wolf decided that the uighurs was the hill he was going to die on. that was the cause he was going to lie down in front of the machinery and stop the world on. who cared that even the bush administration said these guys aren't terrorists and they aren't dangerous. >> you know, holder and this administration is, they were

actually going to bring uighurs, people who were picked up who came maybe to learn how to kill the chinese, but were going to kill americans, they were going to release them on route 7 in falls church. >> in falls church. that year, congressman wolf would let up and he got his way. the plan to relocate the uighurs in the united states was scrapped and it was hard to find them anywhere else to go and so, they continued to languish in camp i ghana. in 2009, four of them finally were sent to bermuda. two went to switzerland. that left three uighurs still at guantanamo bay with no charges against them, no contention that they're dangerous. earlier this week, the final three were finally freed after

12 years of imprisonment, they were sent to the nation of slovakia. at the beginning of the year, there were 166 prisoners at guantanamo bay. over the course of the year, 11 were released. nine in the last month alone. that means we're down to 155 prisoners at guantanamo. over half of the remaining prisoners, and now, the weirdest group of prisoners at guantanamo, the last of the uighurs are finally now gone. should we see that as a sign that soon, more people will be able to go? that the burst of activity, finding them places to go around the world will continue? is progress now afoot? joining us now is senior counsel for the law and security program. thank you very much for being with us tonight. >> thanks for having me, rachel. >> do you think that the release of these chinese men says

anything about the rest of the people at guantanamo, are they really a singular case? >> i think it does say something about primarily, the main obstacle to closing guantanamo in the first place, what the administration has done now with the president giving a speech in may of this year at the national defense university is reiterate the commitment to close guantana guantanamo. so, i think this is just kind of the icing on the cake at the end of the year here. moving forward to actually closing guantanamo. >> do you think it is going to be piece mill, individual arrangements like this or is there something that could happen over the course of the

next year or two where a large number of prisoners could be freed at once? >> i think it's a little bit of both. one of the big problems is that the majority of detainees, especially the cleareded detainees, are yemenees and there be some opportunity to have a solution where many will be transferred. including third countries beyond the home countries of the detainees will have to proceed on a case by case basis, taking into account diplomatic, legal consequences. with the right amount of political commitment and right high level engagement from the president, i believe it can be done. >> in terms of that political commitment and political engagement, obviously, your senior council at human rights first and you're approaching these rights as advocate and attorney here, but when you look at the political climate, it's always seemed strange to me that

there was this level of agreement that guantanamo should be closed, that that was inevitable and then as soon as steps started to be taken towards that, there was this really bipartisan freak out about it. do you think we are passed that? as more progress is made in 2014 and more people are sent away from that prison, do you think that we're past the point where we could have another congressional freak out like we saw from frank wolf? >> there's also a chance someone will try to play politics, but i think we're getting to the point where most people most informed individuals in congress and beyond see the closure of guantanamo as inevitable. it's not a matter of when and how and so, even seeing senator john mccain, who was in your introduction, reiterate his commitment. he played an important role on the senate floor with the defense bill, which actually relaxed transfer restrictions.

so, you know, i think we're making progress here. what happens in 2014 remains to be seen, but i'm hopeful. >> thanks very much for your time tonight. nice to have you here. >> thanks for having me. still to come. debungs junction. our latest encounter with the koch brothers and a completely legitimate news reason to show and revel in this. stay with us. when our little girl was born, we got a subaru. it's where she said her first word. (little girl) no! saw her first day of school. (little girl) bye bye! made a best friend forever. the back seat of my subaru is where she grew up. what? (announcer) the two-thousand-fourteen subaru forester. (girl) what? (announcer) built to be there for your family. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.

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true or false. that russian ship stuck in antarctica, good news, they've been freed and all passengers have been rescued. false. technically, the 52 passengers stranded were rescued as we reported here last night and everybody else reported everywhere else, too. a helicopter based on a chinese ice breaker picked them up and flew them to a third ship and that australian ice breaker set sail for tasmania.

starting voyagers on their journey home. the problem is that chinese ship, the one that sent the helicopter to rescue everybody, the chinese ship might now be stuck in the ice as well, so the rescued passiers are technically rescued, but the ship they're on is not moving either. they're in a holding pattern to see if the ship needs to be saved. there you have it. also, true or false. there is a newborn island off the coast of japan shaped like snoopy. yes. is that true or false? please, please, please let it be true. true. i did not believe it when i first heard it, but it's true. back in november, a volcanic eruption was spotted about 600 miles south of tokyo around the ring of fire out in the middle of the pacific ocean. as you can see, the voe volcano

create created a new island. the new island started creeping closer and closer and closer and closer to its nearby land mass until it finally connected to an already existing island. and you know, normally, just another uninhabitable island in the middle of the ocean. interesting, maybe, but wait a minute. take a look at this island. does it remind you anybody from your childhood? maybe his best friend should be a bald headed kid in a yellow and black zigzag tee? snoopy. a snoopy shaped island right in the middle of the pacific ocean. it is true and that is almost as awesome as getting a personal letter from the koch brothers. not quite, but close and that story is next. need a spoon, dear?

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if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. [ sniffles ] i have a big meeting when we land, but i am so stuffed up, i can't rest. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil cold and flu liquid gels don't unstuff your nose. they don't? [ male announcer ] nope. they don't have a decongestant. really? [ male announcer ] really. alka seltzer plus night fights your worst cold symptoms, plus has a fast-acting decongestant to relieve your stuffy nose. [ inhales deeply ] alka seltzer plus. oh. what a relief it is. [ male announcer ] can't find theraflu, try alka seltzer plus for fast liquid cold and flu relief. over the pizza place on chestnut street the modest first floor bedroom in tallinn, estonia and the southbound bus barreling down i-95. ♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. and of those who believed they had the power to do more. dell is honored to be part of some of the world's great stories. that began much the same way ours did. in a little dorm room -- 2713.

♪ this magic moment ♪ >> did i get anything wrong? did i fairly summarize what is in that package? did i get anything wrong there or confuse any of the details? did i get anything wrong there? the reason i ask that question of guests on this show sometimes is because when you are spending $6,000 word a night explaining the news inevitably some of your word will be wrong. so, like last night, there was this amazing moment at the end of our lead story where i say good night to our guest. he says good night. i think it is over. then he says, really loud, and obviously not to me, he says "there is an error." this is a very strange moment. watch. >> congratulations on this ruling. thank you. >> thank you. >> i should tell you we received a response. >> wait, there is an error, hello?

>> hello? i couldn't see him. i deidn't know what was going. he is right. there was an error. a really strange way for me to find out about it. true. the story we are doing is about a federal courted orrer about florida's drug test the poor law, i characterized it as an action by a federal appeals court, it was an action by a federal district court. really there was an error. he is right. i'm very sorry there was an error. you never look to get stuff wrong. it does happen time to time. when we get stuff wrong on show the i try to make sure we correct it. i don't mind making corrections. that said, don't push it. we cover a lot of right-wing politics on this show. nothing against democrats, nothing against liberals. but the selection of stories that we cover on the show, reflects my belief as the the host, that the most interesting story in american politics this decade is the effort by the republican party to remake itself in the wake of the disastrous bush/cheney error and the divide within the party and

the divides particularly within the party itself, and i think that the resolution of the fights, who is going to win. who is going to lose. is truly an open question and fascinating important one for who we are as a country. so, we cover the conservative movement a lot on this show. and in so doing, we occasionally find people who have been mentioned in our coverage who are absolutely out raged that they have been mentioned in our coverage. people who are not used to being talked about by some one who does not take their instructions. and so, what happens is, they tend to try to instruct me. as to how i ought to talk about them. and the conservative political figures who you can most count on to threaten to sue you and call your boss and scream about their victimization as loud as they can when they get mentioned by name in a way they do not control, are of course, the brothers, charles and david koch

who inherited a privately held oil and chemical company by their dad and became unimaginably well thechalthy. if they were one guy they would be the second richest guy on earth. they have been political figures as long as they have been richtricht richer than god. when david koch ran for vice president, he minted gold dimes with his own head on them. they have so much money one of the koch brothers made his own money with his own head on it to persuade you to vote him into the white house. that's the level of money and the level of politics at which these guys have always operated. when you operate at that level, i think maybe you are not used to ever hearing things that you do not want to hear. particularly things about yourself. and so, very frequently when weep cover the koch brothers we then hear from the koch

brothers' lawyer. our lead story last night was about that florida drug test the poor law smacked down by a federal judge new year's eve. the law blocked by the courts twice now. hugely expensive in effect. it turned out when it was in effect it turned up levels by the drug use by the poor in florida 1/4 the level of drug use the population at large. so the florida drug test the poor law has been an expensive and embarrassing failure from the very beginning. and has failed as a fiscal policy. failed lee gaechgally, failed a bolster on the stereotypes. nevertheless political right has successfully marketed the fail flood fla po ed policy. we highlighted missouri, kansas, minnesota who have all adopted versions of the failed florida law. and are all now either reaping the negative consequences of their laws, or are worried that they're about to. an interesting political question, right?

about how obviously failed policies, nevertheless, get picked up and moved into different states as they fail everywhere they are tried. and, therefore, an interesting political question. who does that? who tells states they ought to do what florida did with the approximately s policy like this. in the case of the florida law last night. the group, florida foundation for government accountability. they went to a national meeting of the group alec in arizona to market florida's approximately see to state legislators from all over the country. quote, members should look to florida for free market medicaid and welfare reforms. who is this group telling state legislators from all over the country that they ought to adopt florida's terrible law? turns out they're part of a huge network of state-based conservative think-tanks that is frankly kind of designed to not look like a network.

they all look vaguely indigenous. they all have what look to be locally specific names. but their funding if you follow it comes in part from a central source of big money corporate donors. including groups affiliated with, the koch brothers. we are not the first news outlet to report on the koch brothers funding distribution networks and groups small and large all over the country who have received funding through mechanisms the koch brothers have set up to support conservative candidates and activism and research and advocacy. and the koch brothers lawyers are not denying that they fund these networks or that the florida foundation for government accountability is one of the groups that has been funded through these networks. but nay really do not want anyone reporting any connection between what the groups do and who gives them the money that they do tip with. the koch brother letter, includes a script they want me to read to you on the air

denouncing my own reporting on the florida drug test the poor story and telling you that they are not involved in promoting any such issue. i am not going to read their script. i'm not going to renounce my own reporting on the story. because the reporting on the story stands. it is true. and, now we also know that the koch brother do's not wish to be associated with the work and causes they have funded through their multimillion dollar, multiyear massive funding of networks of conservative organizations. you not wanting to be known for something that you have done is not the same thing as you not having done it. the koch brothers do also say that when we contacted them for comment on our story it was too late in date for them, we should have given them more time to respond. you know what, that is a fair point. we will endeavor to contact them earlier in the day. sorry our call came late. we will not stop reporting on political actions and kons

questions of the political actions of rich, powerful men even if they send angry letters every time they diet. i will not read scripts provided to me. i do not play requests. i will happily make corrections when i duo get things wrong. i will not renounce or retract reporting that is true. even if the subjects of that reporting don't like it. being a political actor means being subject to political scrutiny. if you don't want to be known for it, don't do it. don't just sccomplain when peop accurately describe your actions, your actions we are reporting on, we will do that on our own terms as a free press. if you want to control the word that are used when your actions are discussed then speak for yourself. i will renew my invitation now. mr. koch, or the other mr. koch, you are welcome on the show anytime. i would love to discuss these matters with you, right here, in person, live and without interruption. any time. and it would be easy to set up. you apparently already have my

number. that does it for us tonight. we appreciate you being with us. happy new year. we'll see you again monday. i do have to tell you, that before you can go to your weekend you do have to spend important, quality, quiet time, in prison. due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. >> msnbc takes you behind the walls of america's most notorious prisons. into a world of chaos and danger. now, scenes you've never seen, "lockup: raw." inside prison or jail, regrets are never in short supply. >> actually killed an innocent kid. that haunts me. >> and as if watching "lockup" isn't warning enough for some -- >> tell him you will get [ bleep ] up in my book. >> this is a place where people