vermont, this thursday night. donald trump will be holding a rally in bernie's backyard. that's going to be fun. more details to come. that is all in for this evening. t"the rachel maddow show" start right now. >> donald trump campaigning in vermont is a smart thing to try to see up close. >> i love it. i love it. it's got everything. >> politics in vermont is so amazing anyway, but politics in vermont with donald trump smoothed in. >> i'm already hearing all sorts of, the lefties of burlington are hatching all sorts of plans we'll be reporting on. >> pack long underwear. it's cold. thanks, chris. and thanks for joining us this next hour. president obama made a big announcement today on guns, course. we'll be talking about that. basically throughout the show tonight including with a very special guest who is intimately involved with what happened today and he's here tonight for the interview. you are not going to want to miss that. there's no exact historical parallel to what president obama

did today, especially the fact he has chosen to act alone through basically the administrative power he has as president rather than trying to go through congress. but presidential frustration with congress not acting on this issue, with congress being enthralled to the gun lobby, that is not unique to this administration. even when other presidents have been able to get more sweeping gun reforms done, it has been generations and generations now in which the gun lobby has so threataled congress that even the most modest gun reforms are barely possible. >> this bill as big as this bill is still falls short because we just could not get the congress to carry out the requests we made of them. the voices that blocked these safeguards were not the voices of an aroused nation. they were the voices of a powerful lobby, a gun lobby, that has prevailed for moment in

an election year. we must complete the task with this long needed legislation begins. we have come a long way. we have made much progress. but not near enough. >> president lyndon johnson in 1968 announcing at that point what were the biggest reforms to gun laws since the 1930s. those gun reforms that he announced that day in october, 168, those came in the wake of the assassination of martin luther kinging and the assassination of robert f. kennedy and riots and violent protests traumatizing the nation that year. yes, johnson got through a gun law that was supposed to prohibit convicted felons from buying guns and the pently ill from buying guns and outlawed mail order purchases of shotguns and rifles. lbj at the time expected even bigger reforms than he got that

year. even then in 196, the president was lamenting the nra had stopped more important reforms that should have passed and that would have saved even more lives. and we're going to be talking later on on the show tonight about the persistence of the gun lobby as a force in american politics and the way it constrained even president obama's executive actions today. but that was president lyndon johnson in 196 announcing at that point what were the most aggressive reforms to gun laws since the 1930s. and you know, it's interesting. i mean, the -- we look at that. we're looking at that moment tonight, in part because of the parallels to what happened with gun reforms today and other major gun reforms announced by various presidents. but there's another reason that moment from lbj is also really interesting. and that is what was going on in american politics at that moment. because that was a very, very

strange time. and this brings us to what is beak kind of the second in a very small historical series we are doing to try to explain the relevant context for what's going on in american presidential politics right now. we did it last night. we're doing it again tonight because i think this is important. so 1968 was lbj on guns, that tape you just saw. lbj had been elected president by a huge landslide in 1964. he of course, had been jfk's vice president after president kennedy was killed in 1963. lyndon johnson just romped to one of the most lopsided american presidential victories ever in 1964. but by 1968, by the time he was ready to run again, things were much more uncertain for him. the republicans would, of course, go on to nominate richard nixon.and for an while everybody assumed richard nixon would be running against the incumbent president against lbj. and at the start of the

democratic primary season, lbj in fact was in the running. he competed in the new hampshire primary in 1968 on march 12th of that year. and he won the new hampshire primary. but as an incumbent president though, he really should have won the new hampshire primary by a mile. instead, as you see the headline there, lbj barely wins. he only won by seven points in new hampshire. as the incumbent president. and then four days after the new hampshire primary, jfk's brother, bobby kennedy decided he would jump into the race against lbj. two weeks after that, lbj shocked the country by dropping out of the race all together saying that he would not run for re-election. in 1968 was nuts for a million reasons in u.s. history. right? including the assassination that summer of bobby kennedy including the assassination that spring of martin luther king, including the riots that racked the democratic national

convention that year in chicago in august. but by the time lbj wasnouncing both his regret that he hasn't been able to go further and also his modest accomplishments with that gun reform bill in october of that year, by the time october of that year rolled around, another dynamic had drawn up alongside the two major parties in the race that year. another dynamic that very nearly upended the whole system and freak aed a lot of people out. i have to give a note to the control room. what you are putting is the previous crypt to what is edited for tonight's show. i've got the script in front of me. but i want you to get the right one into the teleprompter. all right. ross perot. we think of ross perot as the great modern independent candidate for president, right? because of his presidential run in 1992. ross perot though did not carry a couple state in 1992. he scored a goose egg in terms

of electoral votes. in 196 though, there was a third party candidate in the race that year who did rack up a ton of electoral votes. the third party candidate who ran in 1968 didn't just win a portion of the popular vote. he carried five states. he carried five southern states as an independent. he got 10 million votes in the election that year. and the way he was talked about in the media at that time during that race it, might sound familiar to you if you have been following the current race for president this year in 2016. listen to this and see if this rings any bells for you. this was in 1968. >> his popularity is a river fed by many streams an of discontent. it is wider than the race issue, broader than a southern movement. his support comes from people angry about a lot of things. >> he's i don't know how to put if. he's got guts. let's put it that way. that's the best way i know on that to stand up against all kinds of criticism and maybe he's not a politics but i'm not

either. >> his support comes from people who are angry about a lot of things. maybe he's not a politician but that's to his favor as far as i'm concerned. that was 1968. close your eyes and just listen to the news reports from that election, it's almost like they're talking about donald trump, but of course, it's 196 and the man they are talking about then is george wallace, alabama's governor ran for president as an independent in 196. the indelible memory of george wallace today is the segregationist alabama governor who stood in the schoolhouse door and blocked the first black students from entering the university of alabama. he was that, that was him. he was also a hugely conscious convention the presidential candidate in that 196 election. we tend to think of the george wallace presidential run as one of those kooky runs like david duke because of the way we think of george wallace in politics now looking back on him from

this distance of decades. but at the time, 10 million votes in five states and he freaked everybody out in that presidential election year because of the way he was getting success but also because of the way he ran. and everybody this year is trying to figure out now if we've ever seen anything like donald trump, the way he deals with the press, the way he talks and deals with his critics. everybody is trying to figure out if we have ever seen anything like this before. it's not like we've never seen before a big and successful presidential campaign built very obviously on fear and anger and a cultive be personality build up around the combativeness of the candidate ca himself. >> this is wallace country but he ran into one of the worst and one of the loudest protest demonstrations of his campaign so far. >> you've got some folks out here who know a lot of four-letter words. but there are two four lit are words they don't know.

w-o-r-k-and soap. work and so. that was how george wallace campaigned for president in 1968. wallace finds attack on press and tv is a successful campaign tactic. sound familiar? "the ridicule and content mr. wallace expressed for the baltimore sun, the milwaukee journal and the television networks in general got nearly as strong an audience response at a rally." that was 1968. this is now. >> these are just lying people. they're bad people. the press is really bad. >> so "the new york times," i call it the failing "new york times," i call it the failing at "new york times." i put it in the twitter. they are so dishonest. a lot of them are dishonest. "washington post" is very dishonest. today, in the "new york times," they had a report on the front page that was false.

really false. >> reporter who's covered george wallace in 196 like l. a. times reporter jack nelson said at the time that wallace would often make the reporters the target at his campaign rallies. jack nelson wrote at the time that wallace spoke so angrily at times he inflamed the emotions of supporters and heck herself alike along with other veteran political reporters i sometimes described audience reaction as scary and chilling. >> the they said, you know, he's killed reporters. i don't like that. i'm totally against that. by the way, i hate some of these people but i'd never kill them. i hate them. no, these people, honestly, i'll be honest. i'll be honest. i would never kill them. i would never do that. let's see. no, i wouldn't. i would never kill them. but i do hate them. and some of them are such lying disgusting people.

it's true. it's true. >> it's also the parallels in how these candidates dealt with protesters in the crowds. and the media coverage of the crowds themselves. in 196, george wallace "ridiculed pointy headed reporter who's don't tell folks about what big crowds i get." george wallace in 196 was infatiated with the idea that the media would focus on two or three protesters against him in the crowd rather than the thousands of supporters had he in the same crowd. >>er from he goes these days, wallace gives the impression his real opponents in this election are not nixon and humfully, but the polls and the press. wallace spends almost as much time attacking pole centers and reporters and editors as he does the other presidential candidates. >> we're going to show some of these pollsters they don't know what they're talking about because they're trying to rig the election. they don't go out and try to the ask and find out what public

opinion is. they want to go out and make public opinion. you news men have a fit, run on over there. they're more interested in two or three picketts now than thousands of people here. that's what they show on television. >> so the first day he was terrible. he was rough. the second day -- >> shut up. [ shouts of usa ] >> oh, i was going to tell you

the second day but you know. do you ever notice how few it is? and they will make it tomorrow sound like this was the biggest -- we've got 9,000 or 10,000 people in here. they'll talk about one or two guys, headline, trump had picketts. they had like three people. >> even the language the two candidates use to describe their protesters at their events ends up being similar. watch this. >> you know what you are? you're a little punk. that's all you are. you haven't got any guts. you've got too much hair on your head, partner. you've got a load on your mind. that's right. >> boy, what a bunch of losers. i'll tell you. you are a loser. you really are a loser. get him out. >> we've gotten used to images of protesters at donald trump rallies and the way that the presidential candidate treats them and sometimes like the video you're seeing here it,

actually leads to physical altercations between and trump supporters and protests are. this is a black lives mat her protester who says he was punched and kicked and called the "n" word by other people attending that rally. on the video you could hear mr. trump saying get him the hell out of here. it is striking to see that with george wallace rallies from 168 when black protesters were being hauled out of the arenas after finding themselveses in altercations with wallace supporters. typical of what you would see atwal las's political events. >> the trouble started right at the beginning of the detroit rally when a brief fight broke out between hecklers and wallace supporters while the star spangled banner was being played. >> 12,000 wildly partisan wallace fans were there, most of them industrial workers, many of

them southern born. about 1,000 hecklers were there and they kept up a steady chant as wallace started to speak. one of the campaign workers jerked a campaign hat off the head of a wallace supporter. chairs were thrown by both sides. detroit police rushed in threw out about 20 people and finally restored order. >> we don't need that. let the police handle it. >> wallace cut his speech short and security agents hustled him out of the hall away from the violence that has become the signature of the wallace campaign. douglas kicker, nbc news reporting. > from 196. last night on the show, we dug out of sort of the nearer

chambers of the memory haul the fact that donald trump briefly ran for president in 2012 in the 2012 cycle on a different type of super inflammatory beyond the pale platform and he ran basically on the platform that president obama was secretly foreign and that he had a fake birth certificate. we talked last night about the fact that he was winning by running on that platform. the short period of time that he was running, he was winning by accusing the current president of being a foreigner, not being a legitimate president. he really was at the top of the polls for the few weeks in which he mounted that presidential campaign in 2011 for the 2012 psych. people have sort of forgotten that about him as a political figure. the reason we unearthed that for last night's show is because i this i it's a good reminder that mr. trump being popular didn't just pop right now. donald trump has something that republican voters like. they liked the last time that he offered to them only for a short period of time. and now they like it this time,

as well. it's the same type of significant popularity. it hasn't gone away this time around because he hasn't stopped running this time around like 2012. we unearthed that last night from the last presidential cycle as a reminder that the donald trump phenomenon isn't new. this is not something that's specific to this year. we shouldn't be asking, what is it about 2016 that makes trump popular among republican voters? well, he was popular in 2011 too when he was going to run in the 2012 race. there's nothing about what's happening in the country right now that explains the popularity of donald trump. his popularity we have seen among republican voters. deeper down in the memory hole though, there is somebody else who is has hit all the same notes as donald trump. and we think of him as an alabama segregationist which makes the parallels very difficult because that is clearly not what donald trump is. but this type of phenomenon and this type of campaign is

something that has happened in american politics with pretty good success. george wallace was not a joke candidate in '68. he was a very successful candidate. he won five states. he won ten million votes. he may have determined who was elected president that year. the extent to which we keep saying this is new, this is baffling, this is breaking all the rules, sort of makes for exciting commentary but it's not truly the rally. there is direct historical parallel bothing with this guy and his previous runs for office and with his historical doppelganger from not that long ago. now that we are less than a month out from iowa, what does that mean about where the presidential race is going this year? the person who more than anyone has raised this comparison, this historical comparison not just as a stylistic comparison but as a substantive comparison in terms of historically what happened and what was said and how he behaved versus how this

is happening now, the person who has raise this had comparison more than anyone else joins us in just a moment. stay with us. can you pick me up at 6:30? ah... (boy) i'm here! i'm here! (cop) too late. i was gone for five minutes! ugh! move it. you're killing me. you know what, dad? i'm good. (dad) it may be quite a while before he's ready, but our subaru legacy will be waiting for him. (vo) the longest-lasting midsize sedan in its class. the twenty-sixteen subaru legacy. it's not just a sedan. it's a subaru. i tabut with my back paines, i couldn't sleep and get up in time. then i found aleve pm. aleve pm is the only one to combine a safe sleep aid plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. i'm back. aleve pm for a better am.

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built for business. president obama did something today that presidents almost never do, at least not on camera. that's coming up tonight along with some welcome good news on a story that we've been covering quite a bit here that has caused quite a lot of upset among viewers. we have been hearing from you quite a bit about a story we've been covering that has been a very bad news story. we might have some of the first good news tonight. it could improve a lot of lives. that's ahead. stay with us. if you need advice for your business, legalzoom has your back. our trusted network of attorneys has provided guidance to over 100,000 people just like you. visit legalzoom today. the legal help you can count on.

legalzoom. legal help is here. ♪ (cell phone rings) where are you? well the squirrels are back in the attic. mom? your dad won't call an exterminator... can i call you back, mom? he says it's personal this time... if you're a mom, you call at the worst time. it's what you do. if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do. where are you? it's very loud there. are you taking a zumba class? i tabut with my back paines, i couldn't sleep and get up in time. then i found aleve pm. aleve pm is the only one to combine a safe sleep aid plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. i'm back. aleve pm for a better am. >> george wallace apparently has

heard that the next national public opinion polls will show him to have reached a peak and to be beginning to decline because he charged today the polls are rigged. he says the polls don't show the full extent of his popularity and that any poll appearing now showing him losing grounds will be a lie. that's what he said. >> any poll showing him losing ground will be a lie. that was the george wallace for president campaign in 1968. >> i don't believe those polls, by the way. because both of those pollsters do not like me. i'm telling you. now, i'm not saying anything that goes on illicitly with polling. okay? i would never ever say that. but both of those polling groups do not like me at all. and i disagree. i don't believe it. >> parallels between the donald trump campaign of 2016 and the george wallace campaign of 1968 are eerie when you start looking

at the tape side by side. the question is, how substantive are those comparisons? and what does that tell us to expect about what's going to happen next? joining us is michael bech loss. i told you we were going to spend time digging up george wallace tape and looking at this proposed comparison. >> you did. >> did we dig up the right tape. >> i think you did great. it is a little bit eerie although i think we both agree donald trump is not george wallace and anthere's never an exact historical comparison of anything or anyone but some of the elements of this appeal are eerily familiar supply didn't want to do this in an impressionistic way. i wanted to find documentary evidence of the kinds of comparisons that seem apt here and it seems like you know, attacking the polls as lying, attacking reporters specifically not just in the way that a typical candidate does in terms of talking about the mainstream press being bad but singling out

reporters especially in front of an angry crowd and sort of directing crowd anger at them, doing the same thing with protesters and perhaps in a related fashion that the crowds in those rallies ending up sometimes attacking those protest he evers, are those the right kind of substantive comparisons that are apt? >> well, they were some of the tools that wallace used to get up to 25% at one point during that campaign. but what he didn't have is what donald trump has nowadays which is you know, we have to remember unlike george wallace, donald trump has been a famous national figure for 30 years. had a primetime tv show. a lot of americans for years fet they know him, that this is someone who's been in their living rooms, they're comfortable with him. lus, now that george wallace didn't get much air time. you know, the evening news was half an hour. there was no cable tv no, live stream on the internet certainly no twitter. wallace would have done great with twitter as donald trump does. for someone like trump, there

are many more ways for him to get to the voters and i think his ceiling in that respect probably in that respect is probably higher. >> one of the things i have seen as a sort of ans a typical modern approach in the donald trump campaign and i don't mean this in a snarky way at all. it's something you don't frequently see, is that he's very negative and very dark in terms of the prospects for the united states. his initial stump speech was overshadowed by his racist comments about mex con immigrants but the repeated line he made in his announcement speech was the american dream is dead. he then put out a book called "cripped america." we've now seen his first television ad which is essentially about the impending collapse of the united states. are there parallels there in terms of the negative and fear-driven approach frommal wallace campaign. >> some of the underside of the populist comoofment. huey long was getting ready

before assassinated to run against franklin roosevelt exploiting a time of huge social change and economic change. beam were beginning to get worried about our national security and long whipped up those feelings and said i'm the one who can deal with them just as george wallace did in 196. >> michael beschloss, i have a feeling this is first of many conversations on this and related topics. thank you. i appreciate it. >> more to come. >> we'll be right back. stay with us. 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? modernizing car insurance with -- that's enough out of you! the name your price tool, only from progressive. where is your husband? the name your price tool, only from progressive. if you have high blood pressure many cold medicines may raise your blood pressure. that's why there's coricidin® hbp.

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it is not illegal in this country to buy a machine gun. it's not illegal to buy a sawed off rifle or sawed off shotgun. yes, since the national firearms act of 1934, stuff like that has been restricted seriously restricted and so you might think it was illegal to buy yourself a machine gun or a sawed off shotgun in this country. actually you can do it. you need to go through serious hoops and get high level permission to get your hands on that sort of thing. machine guns and sawed off shotguns and a few other very dangerous weapons are technically legal but severely restricted. that's why there are a ton of semi-automatic guns in america, millions and millions of semi-automatics but you don't hear a lot about fully automatic machine guns beak used on our streets because machine guns are lard to get. not that hard though. here's a loophole for you. federal law makes it hard for your average person to get a gun like that.

but if you're not a person, if instead you're a trust or a corporation that wants a machine gun, then what are you going to do, fingerprint the certificate of incorporation? demand that the stack of notarized documents that make up a little trust sit down for a background interview with a local sheriff? turns out it's a really big loophole much to mitt romney's surprise when it comes to buying machine guns at least. corporations aren't people. there's no provision in the law that requires even a basic backgrounds check for someone who wants to buy even the most restricted fire were ans like machine guns provided they go through the trouble of making themselves into a corporation. making themselves into a legal trust or a corporation before they make the buy. >> a legal loophole. or a legal protection? or both? we're talking about your ability to purchase firearms restricted right now by federal law. >> they came up with this way so people can get around it a lot

easier. >> he is manager at palm beach shooting center. >> what you have here is one of the more popular items. >> he's seen a growing number of shooting enthusiasts creating gun trusts to get their hands on class 3 type items such as automatic guns, silencers. and other firearms. ordinarily owning a class 3 weapon would require the chief law enforcement officer in the buyer's jurisdiction to sign off on the purchase. here's the loophole that the atf is now looking to close. with a gun trust, you don't need that law enforcement signature. or fingerprints. or photographs. because legally, it's the trust that owns these weapons. >> that legal loophole is one of the things that president obama moved to close today. and it might sound like a small thing. once upon a thing it was. in the year 2000 for the whole country, there were a total of 900 applications by corporations or trusts or other legal entities to buy restricted guns

like machine guns or guns with silencers. that was in the year 2000. 900. by the year 2014, it wasn't 900 applications anymore. it was over 90,000 applications. this has become a significant issue. so today president obama naupsed that people using gun trusts to buy restricted weapons he, they will now have to undergo a background collect. that will not be a way around the background check for those restricted weapons. this is one of those things where the hardest thing about it to understand is this wasn't already the case but this wasn't already the case. on the policy level, there's a lot of really interesting specific stuff about what president obama announced today that he could do as president on reforming gun laws. even if congress refuses to do anything themselves. and the policy level, there's a lot of interesting specific stuff. on the political level though, the thing that is remarkable here, of course, is the level of upset caused by this issue. how upset the right gets about

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our president is not much of a crier. our former speaker of the house was a crier. one of the most human things about republican speaker john boehner was that he could be couped on to shed tears at lots of different occasions and on a number of different subjects. i liked that about john boehner. our president, on the other hand, he is not made of stone, but he does not cry that much. there's one subject though that our president has a hard time talking about. but without shedding tears and we saw it for the first time on the day that it happened on a day when a lot of americans shed tears all day long. the day of the mass shooting of little kids, first graders at sandy hook elementary school in newtown, connecticut, in december 2012. president obama addressed the nation that day and he cried while doing so. >> i know there's not a parent

in america who doesn't feel the same overwhelming grief that i do. the majority of those who dechw today were children. beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old. they had their entire lives ahead of them. birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own. >> that was the day of the mass shooting at sandy hook elementary school in connecticut which claimed the lives of 20 first graders and six teachers and school staff. following spring, senate republicans voted to block a bipartisan bill that would have expanded background checks to cover all gun sales in the country. 90% of americans supported that

bill but senate republicans blocked it. and moments later, literally minutes later, minutes after that vote or that nonvote, president obama was introduced in the rose garden by the father of one of the little boys who had been killed at sandy hook. daniel barden's father introduced president obama that day. mark barton. >> we will not be defeated. we are not defeated and we will not be defeated. we are here now, we will always be here because we have no other choice. we are not going away. and every day as more people are killed in this country because of gun violence, our determination grows stronger. >> you could hear the emotion that day in the voice of daniel barton who had lost his son the previous december at sandy hook. daniel barden's father mark introduced president obama that day to explain that even background checks for gun sales was too much to ask even after sandy hook and how the nation

felt about that. and when president obama spoke that day in the rose garden, it was with another level of emotion that we rarely see from him. when the president spoke that day, he was pal.bly angry. >> i've heard folks say that having the families of victims lobby for this legislation was somehow misplaced. a prop, somebody called them. emotional blackmail some outlets said. are they serious? do we really think that thousands of families whose lives have been shattered by gun violence don't have a right to weigh in on this issue? do we think their emotions, their loss is not relevant to this debate? so all in all, this was a pretty shameful day for washington. but this effort is not over.

>> this effort is not over. that was president obama in the rose garden, spring, 2013. today, more than two years later, mark barton, again introduced president obama in washington, but this time he was there to talk about something that was getting done, not thing is that congress was blocking but something that the president was able to do himself even if congress won't act. >> in april of 2013, i had the honor of introducing president obama in the rose garden. and unfortunately, that was to announce that a bill proposed to close the loophole in the federal background check system for firearm sales had been blocked by members of congress. some members of congress. but president obama delivered an address that day what was palpably charged with genuine passion and commitment. the president made a promise to

not give up. i remember standing there with my family and vice president biden listening to our president speak and our feelings of despair were replaced with feelings of hope. and i remember thinking, who's going to help him with this? that's a tall order. >> that introduction today led to another emotionally charged speech by president obama, a side of our president that we see rarely. but we do see it when he talks about this. >> all of us should be able to work together, to identify a balance that declares the rest of our rights are also important. second amendment rights are important. but there are other rights that we care about, as well. and we have to be able to balance them.

because our right to worship freely and safely, that right was denied to christians in charleston, south carolina. and that was denied jews in kansas city. and that was denied muslims in chapel hill and sikhs in oak creek. they had rights, too. [ applause ] our right to peaceful assembly, that right was robbed from moviegoers in aurora and lafayette. our unalienable right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, those rights were taken from santa barbara and from high schoolers in columbine. and from first graders in

newtown. first graders. and from every family who never imagined that their loved one would be taken from our lives by a bullet from a gun. every time i think about those kids, it gets me mad. >> president obama in the east room today announcing new executive actions on gun safety and doing so with some uncharacteristic display of presidential emotion. joining us now for the interview is mark barton, who is a member of sandy hook promise who is the father of 7-year-old daniel

barton who was killed at newtown. mark, it's nice to see you again. thank you for being here. how did it feel to be back in washington today introducing the president again for ultimately what was a very different occasion? >> that's exactly right. and the honor is the same. the honor is incredible. but to be there to share in this moment of great progress was overwhelming. >> you say great progress. there's been a lot of talk today about what's possible without congress, about what the president can do. >> uh-huh. >>en 0 his own. obviously there's been reaction already from republicans saying they'll try to stop these actions that he's taking any way they can. do you feel these are substantive actions that are going to make a difference? >> yeah, i think the bigger point here, rachel, is the message that this sends that we are raising awareness of this issue. it's become part of the forefront of our conversation. we need to continue this conversation. we need to bring this

conversation to the communities across our country and get folks engaged. and to the folks that say they're going to do everything they can to block this, you know, then what, what then? okay, if 30,000 people continue to die every year in this country to gun-related tragedies, then what are the answers? if the folks who say it's not firearms, it's mental health, well the president is proposing $500 million be infused into our mental health system with my group sandy hook promise, that's what we do. we try to bring programs aimed at intervention and prevention to try to get folks who are in emerging mental health crisis the help they need before it leads to violence. if it's not firearms and it's mental health, let's go. >> the president today talking about that part of his proposal said put your money where you your mouth is. if you want to about it as a

mental health issue, this is a way to do it. do you actually feel optimistic that that part of it can go? that's asking congress to an appropriate $500 million. >> that's a lot of money. i understand that. but i also know that there's an appetite to try to do some good work in that space. i think that's universal. and if you want to say it's not about new laws, it's about enforcing existing laws on the books, we're doing that, too. we're hiring -- they want to hire atf, they want to run the nix program around the clock. >> 24 hours a day. >> let's go. >> when you said today that you looked around that day three years ago when the background checks bill didn't go through and you thought who is going to help him with this, this is a tall order, do you feel like a group of americans, a group of voces has risen up to make this possible? a president like this is acting

alone. but he had to put these proposals together in a way that would bring some consensus around them in terms of what could be done. he had to get community of people that's being newly effective on this? >> absolutely, rachel. there are a lot of really good organizations out there that i'm learning from that i'm working with that are smart and effective. there are different roads we can take in this space and i think we've all been instrumental on having these conversations with our elected officials and hopefully guiding them in some of the directions they can take. >> your ability to be so constructive in the face of what you've been going through is a real inspiration. >> thanks. got to do something. mark barton, member of sandy hook promise. mark, it's again, as you say, a

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so there's some news that's just breaking at this hour, and i have to tell you it's still unclear exactly what has happened. but we can report right now that a 5.1 magnitude earthquake was detected in north korea. a short time ago, european and u.s. geological surveys detected, they said, unusual seismic activity in north korea that appeared to be an et quake. i stress appeared to be, because where the seismic activity detected was reportedly about 30 miles away from a site where north korea has been known to conduct nuclear tests in the past. north korea last conducted a nuclear test almost three years ago in february 2013, you may remember. but there are indications tonight that what just happened in north korea, although it registered as an earthquake, it may not have been a naturally occurring earthquake, it may have been shaking caused by a nuclear detonation. now, south korean officials tonight say they believe what happened in north korea was manmade. the south korean government is

planning to hold an emergency meeting tonight because of that. but to be clear, at this point, bottom line, it is still unclear whether this really was a nuclear test, whether it was a naturally occurring earthquake or whether it was something else. but south korea definitely fears it was a nuclear test. the north korean government has been working on building a nuclear warhead, small enough to be mounted on a ballistic missile. who know, if this was a nuclear test, this may be part of that very scary effort. we just don't know yet. north korea says they will have an important announcement within the next hour, which presumably will be about this. that's all the information we have at this point. we will stay on it. watch this space. woah! father, why can't we have directv like the macgregors do? we're settlers, son. we settle for things. like having cable instead of directv. hey, jebediah, how's it going? working the land. hoping for a fertile spring.

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emergency managers working for governor rick schneider decided to switch that town over to a new drinking water source and the state okayed them going ahead with that switch without treating the water to make it safe. federal prosecutors confirmed they are now investigating this case. also today in what could very well have been a total coincidence, governor snyder decided to declare a disaster declaration for flint. on the same day federal prosecutors confirmed they are look into this, he signed the disaster declaration. we're going to have much more on this story tomorrow and in coming days, but that's the very interesting news out of flint tonight. watch this space. we're going to see you again tomorrow night. now it's time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell. good evening, lawrence. >> great opening segment tonight. i mean great, comparing george wallace and donald trump. just amazing video you lined up there. i couldn't take my eyes off of it. >> thank you very much. my script ended up upside down and