you try to do on the show every night. >> my great thanks to seth meyers, and that is all in for thnk. t"the rachel maddow show" start right now. >> you talking to seth meyers spectacular and you talking to lawrence lessig is spectacular. you're always great, but your interviews on the democratic side in terms of what's going on presidential politics is so much better than anyone else's. >> thank you, rachel. >> have a great weekend. >> you, too. >> thanks for joining us this hour. fridays are supposed to be boring in the news business. whether you are a liberal or a conservative or neither or you're not sure or you don't even care enough to care what you are, you, right now, by virtue of the fact that you are living right now, all of us right now, we are all living through an era in american politics that is, a, very exciting, but, b, it's one where there is one super interesting

unresolved and now enduring question at the heart of everything else that happens in politics. it's one big unanswered question. and that's not to say that there aren't important questions out there about policy, right? that's not to say there aren't questions out there about the world of challenges that our countries are going to have to face. but in terms of how we're going to face our challenges when it comes to just political questions, questions about our political system and us as a political nation, there really is just one, one big one. one big unresolved question that equally applies to all of us, because it controls almost everything that happens. and that big question is this -- who runs that one party? who is in charge over there? we're supposed to be a two-party system. that's the way the whole kit and caboodle is supposed to run in this country. we all knows who runs the democratic party? there's no lack of clarity around in leadership and who's in charge on the democratic side. but on the republican side, on the other side, who is in charge?

>> and i say this as an enduring question, because, obviously, at the turn of the century, george w. bush and dick cheney won the white house for the republican party, thanks in part to an arcane and contested supreme court decision, but they got two terms in office and their two terms in office were consequential, to say the least, a pretty good proportion of the people in this country would agree those two terms overall were disastrous, but they left office after those two terms, and since then, what has happened to the other party, what has happened to their party in american politics? i mean, who is it? who's in charge? is it john mccain? mitt romney? mitt mccain? john romney? a swing and a miss for both of those guys, right, and what's happen to them since their presidential runs. and i don't mean to suggest that you have to be elected president in order to have an important leadership role in this country. but in the absence of being able to elect a republican president, it's really hard to say that there is a person who leads republicans.

frankly, it's hard to find a single person in the country who you could say, ah, republicans generally tend to like that person. who's in charge. who are they? and even years of republicans struggling with this issue and fighting over this issue and not solving this issue. seven years of this unresolved question so far led this year to something we've never seen before and i thought we would never see again. it led to a picture of the republican party's presidential field this year that looks like a yearbook page from a really, really big high school with a really, really small yearbook budget. got to cram everybody on to the same page. this is two whole brady bunches of candidates. this is not a normal field of candidates for one party's nomination for president. i'm not impugning any of their individual normalcy, i just mean, it is abnormal to have so many people in the running. the republican party is in such a weird place right now that their presidential field this year started off as 17 candidates.

rick perry and scott walker have already dropped out and there are still 15 of them, which is an unimaginably large number itself. it's just remarkable. this is a remarkable number of people running, it is a remarkable picture of a presidential field. look at that and know we will never see anything like that again. oh, except for what happened today. except for this. we have another one now. oh, republican party, when you have a leadership vacuum, you really like to show it off, don't you? after 17 republicans filed to run for president this year, right here the the cast of republicans whose names have been put forward from second most powerful job in washington after the presidency. these are the 20 republicans, the 20 people whose names have been put forward so far, for the new leadership hole at the top of the republican party, the position of speaker of the house. the person who gets to run congress. here is the list of the names that are out there thus far. and the only reason, frankly, we can even get it down to 20 is

because we decided not to count newt gingrich, which, please, god, do not make me count newt gingrich, because it would break our chart. technically, he can do it. he told sean hannity yesterday that he would love to do it. and maybe they'll pick newt gingrich and we'll have to blow up our chart. but newt gingrich is not a member of congress right now. all of these other people are. all 20 of them are being discussed as potential choices for speaker. big john stanton from buzz feed news will be here in just a moment to tell us the latest reporting on the 20. who they're going to pick and how they're going to do it, more importantly. but the sheer number of people said to be in the running is amazing. we're all just barely over learning to squint and tell the difference between george pataki and john kasich from a distance, right? but now for this contest at the top of the republican party, this other top position in the republican party, this other top political plum, get ready to memorize and tell the salient

differences between tom cole, candace miller, mac thornburry, martha blackburn, patrick mchenry, jack miller, darryl issa, jim gordon, jason chaffetz, daniel webster, kathy rogers, tom price, and, oh, yeah, paul ryan. that last one, i know that one. paul ryan. but as that pile of 20, right? as that wild, giant scrum in the republican party takes shape, the second wild, giant scrum in the republican party this year, as that is bestowed upon us, there is this other thing going on right new in today's news that is also about how the parties are doing in general with and this looming question of who's going to be the next president and how those two things speak to each other. i have to say, this other story, it cuts totally across the currents of the speaker of the house catastrophe that house

republicans have just brought upon themselves, though. because at catastrophically bad as things are for republicans in washington right now, things are actually kind of good right now in washington for democrats. and that has consequences that may be just as big. things are good, specifically, in washington for des moinmocra one very, very specific way. and that is, you'll be surprised to hear, the u.s. senate, right now, obviously, republicans control the senate. they have 54 out of 100 senators, are republicans. but in the next election, democrats are looking really good. really good for taking the senate back for the democratic party. i mean, just by happen assistanhappenstance, republicans will have to defend a lot more seats than the democrats are in this next election. 24 of their senate seats are up. only ten of the democrats' seats are pup. so the democrats have a structural advantage, just by the accident to have that math. and if you think about it, the democrats have two structural vangs for the senate for the

next election. because the next election for senate is november 2016. people will also be turning out to vote for president on that sam day, and a bigger turnout, which you tend to get in a presidential election year, that's generally better news for democrats. so the field tilts in democrats' directions -- democrat's direction, because it's a presidential year, the field tilts in their direction because of which seats happen to be up this year. and on top of those two structural advantages they've got, the democrats have also done really, really good work this year at getting the candidates, who they want to run. now, don't be mad at me for saying this. i realize the primaries have not happened, this is not all settled yet. there will be plenty to argue about in terms of who really is the best candidate for the democrats in a bunch of these states, but just simply in terms of who the democrat party wanted, who their number one choice was, who the democratic party wanted to recruit to run, because they thought that individual person would be most likely to win that seat for the democratic party, in all of

these states, the democratic party successfully persuaded their number one choice to actually make a run for the senate. that's a huge number of states in which they're getting their number one candidate. and in addition to that, in these three additional states, the democratic party is also psyched, doubly psyched, because in those three states, they've been able to persuade three incumbent democratic senators to stay on and defend their senate seats in 2016. all three of the democratic senators from these states, from north dakota, missouri, and west virginia, they will probably all be able to hold on to their seats when they run. but the democratic party was worried if they had to put a new democrat in there. if they had to run some new democrat for the seat, because it was an open seat, they might have hard time getting any other democrat elected. in the event that claire mccaskill in missouri or joe manchin in west virginia or jodie high kamp decided to set down or run for some other

office, the democrats were very worried about those seats. now that they've all decided to stay on and run to stay in the senate, run as incumbents for re-election, that is as big a coup for the democratic party as all their recruitment efforts in all those other states. so it may or may not work out well for the democrats in all of these states. but the democrats have gotten everything they want to set up next year's election in all of these states. and this never happens in terms of the democratic party's strategic best guess and them getting everything they wanted. the headline about this in the beltway newspaper "roll call" this week pretty much summed it up. the headline you see there on the left, senate democrats nearly run the table in recruitment. and when democrats run the table, when they get everything they want, when they set themselves up, at least in their own minds to have the best possible shot at the most possible senate seats in a year that's already going to be good for them, we now know what that

does to the republican side. we can now say, conclusively, that what happens to republicans in this circumstance, what happens to republicans when democrats do this great on an issue like this, we can now say, because we've seen it. so what happens to the republicans is that they freak out about rand paul. last we checked in on kentucky senator rand paul, among the polls that will be used to qualify candidates for the next republican presidential debate, senator paul was polling at an average of 2.75%. the cutoff to get in that debate is 2.5%. it has been reported by some of the bean counters in the beltway media that for that debate, if two individual people, two fewer people, told pollsters that they liked rand paul, if he lost two individual supporters out of all of those polls combined, losing two people would be enough to lower his poll average enough

that he would not make it into the republican debate. he is that close to not even making it on to the main stage. and that comes on top of a bunch of other bad news for rand paul. there used to be three super pacs supporting his presidential bid. one of them recently shut down, call as his bid for the presidency futile. another one lost its top leadership recently when they were criminally indicted. two of the top leaders of that rand paul super pac will be going on trial next week in iowa on federal charges related to rand paul's dad's presidential campaign from 2012. rand paul's dad, ron paul, is actually expected to testify in person at that criminal trial in iowa next week. rand paul also just turned in his own campaign's fund-raising numbers for this quarter and they're terrible. his fund-raising numbers have dropped by almost 65% from his second quarter to his third quarter. and now on top of all of that

bad news, there's this. this was the splash page, front page headline all day today at politico.com, and it's not like there wasn't other political news to compete with it. from the article, "rand paul is under increasing pressure from republicans in kentucky and in washington to pull the plug on his stagnant presidential campaign." "operatives worried about republicans retaining control of the senate are ready for him to start spending a lot more time in kentucky and a lot less time in iowa and new hampshire." one national republican strategist granted animty said, this presidential dream needs to come to an end. senate republicans can't afford to have a competitive race in kentucky. one member of kentucky's republican party executive counsel tells politico, quote, he needs to pay attention to the senate race or we could lose the seat. >> you get, you know, one man's ambitions, one man's vision of his future, one man's quirks and

ego and capability, you get that, that personal specific stuff about one guy, thrown into this bubbling caldron of what's going on with his party, what's going on with politics more broadly. i mean, rand paul throwing away a senate seat for a fantasy presidential bid would probably just be a poll family story, would be a kentucky story, if republicans didn't have to be so desperately worried about every single senate seat this week because democrats are running the table. because democrats are setting themselves up so well, they really might take the senate back. but at some point, if rand paul is not just jeopardizing his own career and he's not just dep jep dizing that one seat in kentucky. if the republican party sees rand paul as jeopardizing, potentially, their whole hold on one whole institution in american politics, if he might throw the senate to the democrats by what he's doing, well, we get back to that big question, there somebody in republican politics who can tell rand paul what he has to do

here? is there somebody in charge who can direct him that this is not going to happen any longer? that can push him out of this presidential race and tell him to focus on the senate? is there any way to tell whether or not he should listen? who runs the republican party? whether or not you're a republican, it is the story of our time. and it matters in this insane vacuum, in republican leadership and the scrum that it has caused with the house speaker collapse. it matters in the vacuum and the insane scrum it has caused in republican presidential politics. and this must be a very weird and very confusing time to be in politics fur an elected republican. we've got all those reports yesterday with the kevin mccarthy speaker bid collapsing that there was audible sobbing in the republican cloak room. that republican elected officials, republican members of congress, were crying so loudly, that reporters could hear them. it must be a very weird and confusing time to be a

republican in politics. elected democrats, to the extent this is a zero sum game, they're probably having the time of their lives watching the republican party completely lose the thread. but if you are a republican, this is losing the thread. this is somewhere between the great unraveling, maybe it's the great unfolding, maybe it's the great unhinging. for us citizens and those of us who get paid to watch this stuff, it is an amazing scene to watch. i don't think anybody knows what happens here next. but we've got the latest reporting on how things are continuing to unhinge even tonight, coming up next. (man) hmm. what do you think? ♪ (stranger) good mornin'! ♪ (store p.a.) attention shoppers, there's a lost couple in the men's department.

(vo) there's a great big un-khaki world out there. explore it in a subaru crosstrek. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. you need to eat this special. ♪ i love it kellogg's special k... ...made with whole grains and fiber ...to help a body thrive. ♪ i love it folic acid and vitamin d... ...to make a body feel this good. start your day with 150 nourishing calories... ...in a bowl of special k. ♪ i love it eat special, feel special. discover more ways to eat special ...with special k. i love working in the salinas area becauseriselda zendejas. i always wanted to do something where i could help people around me. so being a construction supervisor for pg&e gives me the opportunity to give a little bit back to my community. i have three boys. they're what keep me going every day. our friends, families live in the area.

and it is important for all of us that we keep our community safe. together, we're building a better california. there are not many absolutes in washington particularly right now, but i'll posit one for you tonight. this guy, this one large reporter, i hereby posit, is the single most tattooed reporter in washington, d.c. and you know what?

that seems like as good a qualification as any, if we're looking for people who might understand what's going to happen next in politics right now. bottom line, i'll cut to the chase here. nobody knows what's going to happen next here. nobody's seen anything like this before. but given that, i think we should ask john stanton what he thinks is going to happen next. he's a great reporter, has great sources, and i can at least promise you he will not have the same take as everyone else. john's here next. can a business have a mind? a subconscious. a knack for predicting the future. reflexes faster than the speed of thought. can a business have a spirit?

can a business have a soul? can a business be...alive? who wants the job? who wants it? one of the most powerful jobs in the world, one of the highest profile political jobs in the world. it's next in line to the

presidency of the united states of america after the vice president, in terms of the line of succession. i mean, you get to run congress. also the job comes with a really nice office with its own balcony. who wants this job? everybody wants the job, it turns out. and no one does, at the same time. these are the 20 republicans whose names have been floated publicly thus far as the possible next republican speaker of the house. 20! if you read all the beltway press, listen to the pundits and a lot of republican members of congress, you already know that only one of these people is being talked about as a potentially viable choice. only one of these people is being discussed as somebody who could actually get the votes to get the job if they expressed interest in the job. that person, of course, is paul ryan. the beltway all day today and many members of congress keep saying today, he's the only one. congressman jason chaffetz told reporters today, even though he's in the running himself, he would get out of the race if paul ryan got in.

congressman darryl issa has also said the same thing, he would be in the running himself, but if paul ryan runs, he won't run against paul ryan. darryl issa called paul ryan the consensus candidate, he's the guy for the job. he says everyone agrees on that, except everyone doesn't agree on that. paul ryan himself doesn't agree that he should with speaker. he's said he does not want the job. and honestly, the same republican hardline forces that took down john boehner as speaker and apparently blocked kevin mccarthy from trying to become speaker. those same elements in the modern insurrectionist republican party, those parts are coming out and saying they don't like paul ryan either! they'd block him, too. the former editor in chief of red state erick erickson today called paul ryan a dangerous pick for conservatives. a conservative website called breitbart says, paul ryan is the absolute worst pick for speaker.

hardliner congressman thomas massey told cnn today that he would not support paul ryan for speaker. hardliner and occasionally hilarious texas govern louie gohmert said the same thing, he would about do it. if only he could be persuaded to say yes. or maybe we should pay attention to the process that got us here. the process that politically killed off john boehner and kevin mccarthy and maybe ask why that same process wouldn't kill off the chances of paul ryan as well? and if paul ryan isn't viable. if he the only widely known name on this chart, the only name that people say nice things about, if he's not even a viable candidate for speaker, then maybe none of the people who have been mentioned as potential speakers are actually viable as potential speakers. maybe none of the 20 of them could be elected speaker. we went through this process earlier this year and had the

giant chart of all the potential republican candidates for president and when a few said they wouldn't run, like john bolton said they wouldn't run, we poofed them off the list. there are a lot of republicans still running for president, but the ones out of the running, we poofed off the list. if we apply that same discipline to this other republican leadership vacuum. if we want to poof off the list all the republicans who really can't make it, who aren't in the running when it comes to being speaker, there's no way they'll be a viable candidate, if you do that, here's how you have to poof off the list. you ready? three, two, one. i mean, if paul ryan's not even viable, and nobody else is viable either, because he's the most viable of all of them, then it doesn't matter if it's 20 or 200 republicans whose names are being floated for that job. if none of them can get it, none of them can get it, so john boehner has to stay.

is that what happens here? is he really the only viable option? joining us now is john stanton, d.c. bureau chief for buzzfeed news and somebody i can confidently say is not going to be the 21st person on the list for the speaker's job. john, great to see you. >> god, i hope i'm never on that list. >> you never know who's going to get tap pd at this point. do you think we actually need a bigger chart? we've got 20 names so far. do we need room for more? >> there's 240 members of the conference, right? take out the three that don't want it, ryan and boehner and mccarthy and probably all of them will be there. probably master blaster from thunderdome will come out of retirement to try to get in at some point, too. >> there is reporting tonight that mitt romney has joined the effort to try to press gang paul ryan into taking the job even though he doesn't want it for obvious reasons. all this effort around paul ryan, is it folly, not just because he'll keep saying no, is it folly, because he could just be hardlined in the same way

that john boehner and kevin mccarthy were. >> his stance on immigration, his stance on taxes, cutting a budget deal with patty murray whoi who is a very progressive democrat, these are things that have basically turned him into a squish for a lot of ideologically pure conservativ s s who see the things he's done as being bad for the brand. and i think he's a guy that's very willing to compromise, he's willing to work with democrats, he's willing to work with moderate republicans. he's by no means a moderate himself. he's a very conservative person. you know, but, he's willing to work with people who don't believe in everything he believes in. and that, for these guys, is just an absolute disqualifier. they do not believe in any sort of, you know, cooperation with democrats, giving up anything. they want them to hold the line and to constantly hold the line. and that's the deal. it's take it or leave it with them. >> do you think there are approximately 30 members of the house republican caucus who look

at paul ryan and think he's a squish and wouldn't support him? that's kind of roughly the magic number that they need to pull together in order to block anybody from becoming speaker. >> yeah, i do. i think there are. i think, because, there are a enough that would do it on their own who might believe that and there are a lot of members of the republican conference, who all they are, are scared incumbents and they don't want to lose their seat. the only people who are challenging them at this point in their primary races are the conservatives. they're from the hard right. so if they -- let's say mark, a very influential conservative, you know, radio guy, says, well, paul ryan is a squish and republican x should not have voted for him, some guy decides he's going to run against him in a primary, that's the thing these guys don't want. that makes them feel like, maybe i shouldn't vote for them. i don't want to be guy that gets primaried out of my seat. >> let me ask you the apocalypse question here. i keep thinking, if nobody's viable, including mr. viable,

paul ryan is not viable or he won't run, that the fallback position is that john boehner has to stay speaker. is there so much turmoil among republicans right now that maybe that's not viable either? >> conservatives have already said that if it looks like he's going to be staying around a long time, particularly if it looks like he'll pass a debt ceiling increase and longtime budget bill and spending bills, that they will go back to what they were doing before, which is trying to force a vote on his speakership. and the reason he decided to retire is they realize ds they were going to keep him from getting to the 218 votes he needed. which would put him in the position of either trying to retire or something that would be remarkable for him, to go get democrats to vote him. and cut some of a power-sharing deal with pelosi or some kind of an arrangement with her, to make sure he remains speaker. but if he does that, that

creates an all-out civil war in the republican party between establishment types and conservatives. and that would spill over into the senate, into the presidential election, and that could just have absolutely disastrous effects for the party. so i think it's something that he doesn't want to have happen, at all. >> but it may be totally out of his control. this is amazing. it's like -- i feel like i've sort of run out of exclamation points, but this is becoming a sue per latiffly great fight. on that point, if none of the 20 candidates for seeker, names who have been floated are viable, and john boehner is not viable, right, paul ryan's not viable, including in that 20, and john boehner's not viable to stay on, and something happens like what john just described, literally what we are talking about is congress shutting down, congress ceasing to exist as an institution. they can't convene without a speaker, or some group of republicans and democrats have

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one thing to watch for over this weekend is whether or not the white house announces any new executive actions by president obama on the issue of guns. president obama took that big trip to roseburg, oregon, today. he did not announce anything policy specific on that trip. he only met with the families of the victims of that mass shooting in oregon. he said there would be another time to talk about what needs to

change in our country, to stop things like this from happening. but "the washington post" is now reporting that a version, interestingly, of some of those gun reforms, some of those gun reform executive actions that hillary clinton proposed on her campaign, earlier this week, those elements may actually potentially be on deck for president obama as executive actions on the issue of guns. if so, if that reporting is right, and president obama does follow some of the actions outlined by secretary clinton's campaign this week, then president obama would not need congress in order to go ahead with these changes. so, something as controversial as that, actually, anything specific on policy, did not come today on this trip to roseburg, oregon. but watch for that potentially over the course of the next few days, potentially over the course of this weekend. we'll be right back. my constipation and belly pain

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>> refusing to be rattled, the new first lady joins in the crowd's laughter. let's see how her military aid meet s t meets the crisis. >> what was going on there and what it means for your weekend is an excellent story that we've got next. stay with us. more "stay" per roll.

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she had just been accused in a 74-count indictment. there's some conflicts about whether she's still working as secretary of state while she fights off this giant indictment. the prosecutor's case against her is basically she took thousands of dollars as what started out as campaign funds and found a way to spend those thousands of dollars, instead, on gambling at various new mexico casinos. now, though, the criminal charges against republican secretary of state dianna duran have gone from 64 to 65 and the latest one's a doozy. prosecutors now say she forged her campaign papers, specifically, they say, she lifted a former republican state senator as her campaign treasurer, and she signed his name to her campaign papers. even though he wasn't really her campaign treasurer. now, the state senator says he has no idea why she did that. quote, when asked by an investigator with the attorney general's office why she would list him as treasurer, former senator dawn kid replied, according to the complaint, well, i have no idea.

i just don't know. that's amazing. end quote. agreed, that is amazing. the other state where we have been watching a stunning criminal indictment unfold against one of the highest ranking politicians in the state is in pennsylvania. and in pennsylvania, it's the democratic attorney general who is facing 11 criminal charges. attorney general kathleen kaine, like diann duran, she is also not resigning in the face of these charges. like diana duran, she says she's innocent. but unlike dianna duran, k kathleen kane has been going to work. and after they decided to strip her of her law license, kathleen kane in pennsylvania said one of the thinlgs she would do at work before her law license is suspended, while she still has the power to do legal things as attorney general, she says one of the things she will do with this time in office is that she promised to release to the public unredacted pornographic

and pornographically racist e-mails that she says was exchanged by top-ranking law enforcement and other top officials in the state. kathleen kane says that her watchdogging this issue of porn and racist e-mails on the work computers of top-ranking officials in the state, she says that's what has led to what she calls the old boys network in pennsylvania bringing these charges against her. well, when we last checked in on kathleen kane, she said she was going to start releasing those pornographic and racist e-mails with names attached for which public officials sent and received them in pennsylvania. that's what she was promising to do when last we checked. now she has gone ahead and done that. days after the state supreme court voted unanimously to strip kathleen kane of her law license, she has given investigators e-mails that she says are from a state supreme court justice, and then some of them turned up in local papers, in philadelphia, the philly

"daily news" describes the e-mails as, quote, not pretty. one mocks gay people, some make fun of mexicans or african-americans, some are pornographic. one e-mail contains a joke about an abused woman. the joke ends with her doctor telling her, quote, you see how much keeping your mouth shut helps? the pennsylvania attorney general released those e-mails a few days ago. tonight, the state judicial conduct board announced a new investigation based on those new e-mails into the supreme court justice, who's accused of sending and receiving them. the supreme court justice is saying that he will fully cooperate with this inquiry. but this is just kathleen kane's first volley. she says there is more to come. i would tell you to watch this space, but i'm also afraid to, given what she's said so far. fo. more than the medicine in aleve or tylenol. the medicine in advil is the number one doctor recommendation for joint pain. relief doesn't get any better than this. advil

i love this story. all right, the banner these guys are holding, see the banner there? the motto there in latin means, in english, none more brave. and what the none more braver than we are crew is standing underneath, what is looming there and filling the dry dock behind them, that giant thing, that is the most advanced submarine on earth. the "uss illinois" has been years in the making. it's 377 feet long, it weighs 700 tons, price tag, $3 billion, give or take. congratulations, you paid for it. your "uss illinois" comes with

twin payload tubes that can launch six tomahawk cruise missiles a piece. the "uss illinoises" ander h crew of 150 plus will be able to drive more than 800 feet and remain submerged for surveillance or secret missions for days without coming up. but, first, before they do any of that, they have to give the "illinois" a proper public introduction. and that will happen this weekend at the naef submarine base in groton, connecticut. first lady michelle obama will be there. she is the submarine's official sponsor and her initials are welded into the hull of that boat. and so to launch the "uss illinois," first lady obama will show up and do the honors of smashing a bottle of champagne across the bow. it's a recognizable and well-known tradition. but here's my note of caution. the whole christening the vehicle thing doesn't always go as planned, even when you are

the first lady. >> not prepared. >> poor bess truman. she gives it like this mighty go. tries two different grips. eventually they bring in a man to take care of things and he can't do it either. look at him! even with the -- even with a baseball grip from the other side. finally, mercifully, somebody, the way they fix this problem is that somebody got a hammer and after one misfire even with the hammer, they basically faked it and used the hammer to break that indestructible bottle of champagne that could not be broken on that plane. turns out the bottle is supposed to be scored, kind of scratched with some cuts before christening to allow for a clean break. and maybe they forgot to do that for bess truman, which is what happened there. hopefully will remember that

bess truman lesson and not but the first lady obama in that pickle tomorrow when they'll welcome this giant new submarine into the world. but if there were any first lady who were ready for a recalcitrant bottle and its meeting with a giant submarine, i think it's probably the one we have now. honestly, i think i feel bad for the bottle. i may be even feel bad for the boat. do you know the secret to a happy home in these modern times? it's a housewife who's in control of the finances. actually, any wife, husband, or human person can use progressive's name your price tool to take control of their budget. and while the men do the hard work of making money, she can get all the car insurance options her little heart desires. or the women might do the hard work of making money. [ chuckling ] women don't have jobs. is this guy for real?

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(patrick 2) that's the kind of control i like... ...and that's what they give me at national car rental. i can choose any car in the aisle i want- without having to ask anyone. who better to be the boss of you... (patrick 1)than me. i mean, you...us. (vo) go national. go like a pro. you can't work from home when you're sick. you need real relief. alka-seltzer plus day cold & flu has three cold symptom fighters to relieve your tough symptoms. stay unstoppable. (truck horn) alka-seltzer plus. >> i i'm so ready for this. i'm so ready. are you ready? are you ready? are you ready? yeah! "friday night news dump." wendy mcneil, who is playing tonight? >> tonight, we have the fabulous emily cook from perry hall, maryland.

ms. emly is the mother of two boys. she volunteers with boy scouts and football and she works part time doing accounting for a small business. rachel, please meet emily>> it's very nice to meet you. >> nice to meet you, too. >> scout and football and it's friday night. are we actually taking you away from something very important and your boys will be mad? >> no, no. it was raining and football was cancelled. >> see, i made this all happen so this will work out for our family and yours. >> simple game, as you know. three multiple choice questions about this week's news. if you get two of them right, you win this tender piece of junk. wendy, show is everybody. >> the infamous and highly requested rachel maddow show cocktail shaker. >> it's very small. can't do much damage. if you get them all right and you need extra credit or you need a consolation prize because you do exceptionally poorly, we

also have something that's cluttering our office. can you please explain the random office swag? >> yes. the #boehner face may look familiar. it was on the show last night. you can have and make your own boehner face kit. >> boehner face kit. >> we'll send you all the dowels from the signs and the pictures we put on the signs. that's one option. but there's another option, too. >> as if that's not fabulous enough, emily. we have this white board here which for years hung up in rachel's office where she would write out all the stories of the day, and there's even some information still etched in this white board. it is highly coveted and gives you exclusive access into the rachel maddow show editorial process. this could be yours, too. >> emily, i'll tell you. the reason i got rid of that white board last week after having it for seven years is because it stopped erasing.

so all the stuff you can still see, it just doesn't come off. there's a lot of stuff about ben carson's birthday. >> i love the white board, but you would have to sign it for me. >> now is the disembodied voice, hello, steve. >> good evening to both of you. >> good evening. monday we reported one new fact to mix in with all the fact-free speculation that's going around about whether or not vice president biden is going to run for president. what was the actual factual thing about vice president biden that we reported exclusively on monday night that might be relevant to whether or not he's going to run? was it a, that somebody from delaware this week bought the web address joe biden 2016.com. vice president biden was seen wearing a t-shirt with the presidential seal on it instead

of the vice presidential seal. c, vice president biden called msnbc's reverend al sharpton this week to talk to him about the democratic primary debate schedule or d, vice president biden called msnbc's al sharp ton this week to wish him happy birthday. >> i am going to go with d. he wished al sharpton a happy birthday. >> did emily get that right? >> let's check monday's show. >> i can hereby report this weekend for the first time ever in the natural lifetime of al sharpton, vice president joe biden called him to wish him a happy birthday. >> which might just be a nice thing to do. it might also mean that vice president biden is definitely running nor president and called him to court al sharpton's support so he called him on his birthday. i don't know. >> yay. >> congratulations, very clearly correct on that one. emily, you're off to a strong

start. you have to get two right to win the first prize. this is from wednesday night's show. >> we reported on a mysterious letter that was sent to the republican house leadership. it was sent from a long-serving member of congress. the letter was an appeal for all the new candidates for leadership in the house, including the speaker. those candidates should step down if they had committed any misdeeds that would embarrass themselves or embarrass the party. who wrote the mysterious misdeeds letter. your hint in this is that the author signed the letter with only a first name. was that letter signed a, walter for north carolina congressman walter jones, b louie for louie lol gert, c mark wayne for mark wayne mullen. or c, cher. that would liven up congress. a, walter.

>> steve, what's the right answer to is that? >> let's check wednesday's show. >> i'm asking that any candidate for speaker of the house majority leader, majority whip withdraw himself from the leadership election if there are any misdeeds he has committed since joining congress. that will embarrass himself, the republican conference and the house if they become public. thank you, walter. >> yes, the correct answer is walter jones and emily is right once again. >> emily, you're on a roll. this is amazing. are you ready for your last question? >> yes. >> this is for a chance to get the white board. on last night's show, we ran through the various options for republicans to find their next speaker of the house. we learned that one prominent republican who's not a current member of the house, he says he could be easily persuaded to accept the job. who said that? who said that last night about being speaker. obviously no citizen could ever

turn down that kind of challenge. was that a, senator ted cruz. b, former first lady nancy reagan, c, former house speaker newt gingrich or d, cher. >> again, cher would be a blast. i will go with c, former speaker newt gingrich. >> steve, got the answer for us? >> let's check last night's segment. >> why are you laughing at my idea? this is a serious proposal. >> i'm not laughing at it. i'm saying, i'm being totally honest to you. you're going to say 218 guys call you up and give you your pledge, obviously no citizen -- i mean, could ever turn down that kind of chaj. there are moments you can't avoid. >> newt gingrich is one of a kind and emily is right once again. >> emily, you're amazing. wendy, did she win everything? >> you get the totally amazing cocktail shaker and the white board, which will be signed by rachel.

>> i will absolutely sign it. and we will not bother sending you a bag of dowels and pictures of john boehner. >> thank you. >> it was great having you here. >> thank you so much. >> if you want to play, it's very easy, all you have to do is send us an e-mail, rachel@msnbc.com. that really is the address. just tell us who you are, where you're from, why umt to play. there's more nunk in our offices every single freaking day including giant junk. i don't know where it all comes from. but we would love to give it to you. it's been a news week. lots of twists and turns in this week. it's been great to have you with us all week long. but now, we are not going to prison. we are going to switch gears because tonight right now is the new msnbc documentary "blood lions." have a good night.