>> we should get some sort of statement from the president. thank you for joining me. that is "all in" for this evening. "the rachel maddow show" starts right now. >> good evening, my friend. this is the p3-c owe ryan aircraft. they've been making it since the 1960s. this is a plane that can fly really, really far and stay in the air for a really, really long time. the navy says the p-3 owe ryan has been its landbased maritime patrol aircraft since the 1960s. they've got a bunch of these and they use them all over the world. they are about $36 million each. as i said, the military has a lot of them. but it's interesting, it's not just the u.s. military that has a lot of them. a bunch of other militaries around the world have them, too. this is one of these american military aircraft that we are

very happy to sell to friendly governments all over the world. and that is what allowed this to happen in 2014. look carefully at that picture. yes. that is a roof punctured by the top tail fins of a bunch of airplanes. this is 2014 in japan. they had a really big snowstorm and there was this 60-year-old aircraft hangar and maintenance facility that had four p-3s that belonged to the navy. the roof cannot deal with the weight of the snow, the roof collapsed, the hangar collapsed and all of the planes got squished but not before their tail fins poked through the ceiling. so, yeah, that was a very expensive snowstorm crushing all those planes. that same kind of plane, a p 3-c owe ryan was on role last

wednesday in the south china sea when it had what the navy is calling aen unsafe encounter with a chinese military plane. now, this is not one of those things where they send a little fighter jet out to do barrel rolls around our surveillance aircraft or something. it was the u.s. plane involved here but this was the chinese plane. look at that. this is the plane that was involved in the unsafe incident on the chinese side. this is a weird looking plane, isn't it? it's also a four engine turbo prop plane, sort of potbellied, sway bellied. it's got a sharp little pug nose. and then it's got this big thing that sticks off the top that looks like a solar panel from the '70s before we knew how to put them on right. it's like the least aerodynamic radar r.a. but that was the plane involved on wednesday of last week. that weird looking plane, or one just like it, quote, crossed the

nose of a u.s. navy p-3 owe ryan. it was in international air space. it was on routine patrol and this lumbering strange looking chinese plane that looks like a big billboard on its back crossed right in front of the navy o ryan. the american pilots in the o ryan had to take a hard turn and alter their course abruptly in order to avoid a midair collision and came within 1,000 feet. there are a couple of weird things about this. the first, these are not the kind of planes that you expect to be involved in an incident like this. these are big -- both of them, big lumbering surveillance aircraft that have been flying for decades. they are both turbo props, right? the o ryan virtually unchanged since the 1960s. that chinese plane, it's actually a derivative of a

soviet union aircraft from back in a previous century when we had a soviet union. so these are old, big, weird lumbering planes to be involved in something that's this close of an encounter. another thing that's strange about it, we didn't find out about it until two days after it happened. this unsafe encounter and having to take the evasive action reportedly happened on wednesday. the pentagon did not make any announcement until friday. the chinese military has still made no announcement about it at all. but if you are keeping a list of things to worry about and wonder about these days, i think it's fair to say you can go ahead and put this on the list. and i mean, you know, keep it in context. there's a lot going on right now. we just got a new treasury secretary tonight, steve mnuchin, sworn in moments ago. another goldman sachs guy. his dad worked for goldman sachs, too. the labor secretary nominee looks like he may be crashing and burning. we'll have the latest on that

coming up in a few minutes tonight, including the weird oprah winfrey part of it. the big parlor game that the beltway media is playing, that the trump administration appears to be delighted to play along with, is whether the president will fire his national security adviser mike flynn. whether or not you enjoy the will he or won't he apprentice-style who's going to get fired drama that the white house, real stuff, out in the world, there are some serious kareening going on right now by our government. whether or not the national security adviser is going to be fired and the washington post just broke some hot new news about that we'll have the author here to explain this new development, whether or not mike flynn is going to get fired, he's the national security adviser. he heads the national security council and the national security council still doesn't have most of its staff. and late on friday night, we

learned that one of the senior directors in the national security council, somebody who mike flynn had brought on board to the nsc with him, has now had to leave that post, leave the national security council all together because he was denied his request for a security clearance. we don't know why he was denied his request for a security clearance but he's out. that seems like a big deal. whether or not that is distracting to the national security adviser, whether or not it's distracting to him to have the president of the united states dangling his potential firing for everybody else's enj enment for days now, there is also national security stuff going on that does increasingly feel out of control, even wildly out of control. so we had this incident last week with the chinese plane and the american plane coming within 1,000 feet of each other in the south china sea. this was last week. this was wednesday. the last incident, before this one, between the u.s. military and the chinese military in that part of the world, you might

remember, it was in early december. do you remember this, right after our presidential election, barack obama was still president. you may remember then president trump took a phone call from the president of taiwan. and from china's perspective, that's the diplomatic equivalent of the united states throwing a drink in their face and then cursing their mother and leaving the toilet seat up. that's like -- it was rattling to them. and is surprise. and at first, our american shock about that was that we didn't know if our new incoming president actually understood the magnitude of what he had just done by taking this call from the president of taiwan. we have a sort of deal with china where we don't recognize the government of taiwan. when he took that call, we didn't know if he understood that. did he just blunder into this? his initial comments about taking that call are basically, ah, what's the big deal? president of taiwan? she called me. she had nice things to say to me. it would have been rude for me not to answer. eventually they realized that

was not going to fly. they had to give some indication that the president knew what he was doing. and so a few days later they rolled out a new explanation. they rolled out a new explanation saying that the incoming president knew exactly what he was doing and actually what he was doing was just driving a very hard bargain. >> i fully understand the one china policy but i don't know why we have to be bound by one china policy unless we make a deal with china having to do with other things. >> i understand it. but why do we have to be -- we'll turn it into a deal. right? that was december 11th. he's not yet president. the incoming president, the president-elect at that time saying, one china policy, i don't really plan to abide by it unless i get something for t you can forget the cornerstone of 40 years of relationship between the united states and china. you can forget this one china policy so painstakingly crafted in the 1970s to allow us to have

diplomatic relations with china, we're going to throw that out of the window. that doesn't apply unless we get something for it. well, within five days of those comments, remember the chinese navy stealing a u.s. military underwater drone from the south china sea? remember that, leading to another tense standoff, the chinese a reportedly agreed to give the drone back after they kept it for a few days and then the president-elect said we don't want it back. it was very awkward and strange. nobody knew what was going to happen. ultimately, donald trump was sworn in the following month, january 20th. after he was sworn in, the chinese president did not call. despite all the other world leader conversations, the new president had, china made no overtures. that, in turn, led to a bit of graveling from our new president, 11 days after the start of the chinese new year, the white house sent belated happy new year's greetings to the chinese president and the

chinese people. and then on friday, he did finally take his call with the chinese president and the white house put out a statement about it. quote, the two leaders discussed numerous topics and president trump agreed at the request of president xi to honor our one china policy. at the request of? president trump throws the one china policy out the window and puts it at less than zero and just as suddenly, he capitulates. if china wants that back, they have to give us something for it. and then it goes into effect.

at the request of the chinese president. so what we get out of that big bargain is nothing. that was the big deal. you want this thing, you're not going to get it unless you give us something and what we want for it is nothing. you can have it. what kind of a negotiation is that? what was that about? why bother provoking china? why bother provoking that country in that way at the very outset of your administration if you're going to take it back when they ask. it was really strange. i mean, that is where we were heading into this weekend, this bizarre, unfocused, unforced display of american weakness by our president. that was friday. and then on saturday, north korea tested a brand-new ballistic missile they claim is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. and at the time of that north korean missile test, the president was having dinner at his florida club with the prime

minister of japan. japan is one of the countries most threatened by north korea's military and blij rans and nuclear capability and so far heading into this new presidency, our president's take on north korea has not always inspired confidence. >> one of the papers called the other say and they said, would you speak to to to the leader of north korea? i said, absolutely, why not? trump would speak to him. who the hell cares? i'll speak to anybody. who knows. there's a 10% or a 20% chance that i can talk him out of those dam nukes because who the hell wants them to have nukes and there's a chance. i'm only going to make a good deal for us. >> wait until you see what kind of deal i got with china.

>> when north korea tested on sunday night and the president was with the japanese prime minister, he decided that they would work it out there at dinner on the terrace at mar-a-lago in front of all of the other guests attending the dinner as well. they did not leave and go to a secure facility. they did not take steps to isolate themselves. we all just got to see it unfold on facebook while paying club guests documented the american and japanese reaction to the latest north korea missile test on their cell phones because they were allowed to see it happen and post it on their social media feeds. it happened in front of them. the white house insisted that nothing classified was being discussed at that dinner table in front of all of those guests. the white house said even though it looked like there was people scrambling around and paperwork, they were reading things, discussions involving multiple

aides and translators, the white house says today that whole discussion was not about north korea at all. it was just about, quote, reviewing logistics for the press conference that happened later that evening after the dinner. for the record, here was donald trump's complete participation in that press conference. you can see why the logistics must have been really hard to work out. >> thank you very much, mr. prime minister. i just want everybody to understand and fully know that the united states of america stands behind japan. it's a great ally. 100%. thank you. [ speaking in foreign language ]

>> that's it. you thought there was going to be more there for a second, right? no. that was it. all of the scrambling, all of the aides, all of the documents, all of the conferring and translators, it was nothing to do with north korea. it was to plan the very complex press conference. i want everybody to know that the united states of america stands behind japan, our great ally, 100%. that was it, full stop. that's how they left it on saturday night at "the situation room." i mean dinner. and now tonight they careen back into traffic again because nikki haley put out a formal statement tonight on behalf of the u.s. government also responding to the north korean missile launch after the comments from the president on sunday night and the comment tonight from nikki haley threatens war over that

missile launch. "we call on all members of the security council to use every available resource to make it clear to the north korean regime and its end ablers that these launches are unacceptable." what actions are you threatening here? actions against not only north korea but enablers. they mean china. what actions is the u.s. government now threatening against not just north korea but china tonight and does that threat from the u.n. ambassador have anything at all to do with the president just saying we love japan, good night, is his official response to the missile launch and the same president doing a 180 on his most important china policy the day before that with no explanation for the u-turn. was that near miss between our plane and a chinese military plane last week an accident or was that a provocation on purpose? is there anybody running china

at the national security council? tonight, we have a new treasury secretary, a new va secretary. tomorrow we'll get a former wrestling executive confirmed as yet another cabinet secretary. in california tonight, nearly 200,000 people have been evacuated in the face of very worrying failures at the lastest dam in this country. and the national security adviser might be getting fired. the acting attorney general before she was fired warned the administration that the national security adviser might be vulnerable to russian blackmail. we've got that story next. there's a lot to keep an eye on. but on national security, on the potential for military conflict with other countries, this white house is short circuiting and starting fires all over the place and careening incoherently from one position to another.

and in a world where you can always see the news coming, there was no snowstorms destroying the aircraft in japan, no insane autocratic dictator shooting off missiles. if it was a world where stuff was predictable, we could afford to be another incoherent but to have the united states be the source of this much chaos and incompetence, that really is new on this earth. and i don't know how we're going to deal with did in terms of our domestic politics but increasingly with each passing day, i don't know how the rest of the world is going to deal with it either. ♪

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so we have some breaking news tonight that goes to the question not just of whether or not the national security adviser is about to be fired but it also goes to how many people in the new administration knew the kind of trouble that national security adviser michael flynn was in. how many people knew about that and when they knew it. this is brand-new reporting from "the washington post" published just before we came on the air tonight. it's headlined justice department warned white house that flynn could be vulnerable to russian blackmail. "the acting attorney general informed the white house that michael flynn mislead officials about the nature of his communications with the russian government and warned that the national security adviser was potentially vulnerable to russian blackmail." now, you'll recall that the acting attorney general, until last month, was sally yates.

president trump fired her when she said publicly that she believed his muslim ban was illegal and she would not have the justice department defend it. that view, by the way, has been born out by many, many federal judges since she first put that in a letter to the new president. but before she was fired, she apparently told the white house that the national security adviser might be personally compromised and, again, vulnerable to russian blackmail. "the post" story conditions, "in the waning days of the obama administration, james clapper and john brennan shared sally yates' concerns and confirmed. flynn put himself in a compromising position." a senior trump official said that the white house was aware of the matter adding, quote, we've been working on this for weeks. for weeks the trump administration has known about this. for weeks. really? joining us now is adam, "the

washington post" reporter who broke this tonight. thanks for making time for us tonight. really appreciate it. >> no problem. thank you. >> obviously the headline here and the lead graph are arresting, jarring. why exactly did the acting attorney general, sally yates, conclude or surmise that the russian government might be able to blackmail mike flynn, the national security adviser? >> right. so what happened was when this intelligence first came in, which would be in late december, early january, you know, yates saw the intelligence and was concerned that flynn was potentially in violation of what is known as the logan act, a very obscure statute which would bar a nongovernment official from trying to influence another government's policies. and so that really -- she knew that that was not something that would be pursued in court.

there wouldn't be a prosecution based on the logan act. after pence, the vice president-elect and other officials started speaking publicly in defense of flynn when it emerged that these calls existed, when they started to say, i checked with you flynn and i can tell you now categorically that the issue of the election sanctions imposed by the obama administration were not discussed in his phone calls with the russian ambassador, when yates and clapper and brennan heard that, they knew because they had read the intelligence that that was not accurate. and so at that point, they knew that also the russians knew themselves that what was being said was inaccurate because the russian ambassador had reported to moscow his conversation with flynn. and so russia knew that what was being said by the white house was not true and the fear was

that basically the russians could try to use that information to put that over flynn and to try to put pressure on him. and obviously they were concerned that the vice president-elect to pence seemed to have been misled. >> so on that point about pressuring flynn, let me shake make sure that i understand this precisely. if the russians knew that they had discussed that and lied about it to senior officials, the russian government could conceivably come to mike flynn, the national security adviser, and say, hey, we want to you do this thing for us and if you don't, we're going to tell the world or we're going to tell the vice president or we're going to tell the president of the united states that you've been lying to them. you wouldn't want that to happen, would you? you better do what we want. >> i think it was less of a concern that they would tell the president of the united states or somebody else. i think the fear would be that

they would actually just leak it publicly. and then flynn would be obviously his reputation, his credibility would be tarnished. so that was the concern. and so by telling the counsel to trump at the white house, the goal was to take that leverage away from the russians. so as long as people in the white house were aware that this was an issue, they could try to address it and try to mitigate the risk that this could compromise flynn and potentially compromise the trump administration in its future dealings with russia. >> adam, do you have any information about how the white house counsel reacted to this or whether the trump administration took any internal action that they haven't disclosed thus far publicly? >> yeah. i mean, so if -- so we know that yates pro vutvided this informa to the counsel sometime before the end of january before she

was fired. obviously there's a period of a couple of weeks that have passed since then and based on the surprise that pence had to the breaking of the story last week that flynn had discussed the sanctions with kisliak, i'm surmising but i'm assuming he didn't share it with flynn. we had an interview last wednesday and said that flynn had not discussed the sanctions with kisliak. it appears, based on that, that he was not aware. i don't know who the council at the white house consulted about this. >> that's remarkable, that something this explosive comes to the white house council's office and it doesn't get fixed. that's amazing.

adam entous, thank you. appreciate it. >> thank you. again, this news breaking tonight in "the washington post" within the last hour, justice department warned the white house that national security adviser mike flynn could be vulnerable to russian blackmail, as adam entous just indicated. the white house appears to have not acted on that news. much more ahead tonight. stay with us. with the help of the lowest taxes in decades, a talented workforce, and world-class innovations. like in plattsburgh, where the most advanced transportation is already en route. and in corning, where the future is materializing. let us help grow your company's tomorrow - today at esd.ny.gov i love how usaa gives me the and the security just like the marines did. at one point, i did change to a different company with car insurance,

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you know, the new president

has only signed two bills since he came into office. one of them let's the government accountability office gather records more easily. wake up, sleepy puppy. don't fall asleep on the government accountability gathering records more easily. come on, little puppy. oh. that's fun. the other new law allowed general james mattis to be sworn in as defense secretary. we're supposed to have civilian control over the military. that's it. those are the two laws that the president has signed so far. that's it. in terms of actual legislation. but look, this is interesting. neither of those two new laws are posted on the white house website where they're supposed to post new laws. look at all of the bills i've signed. instead it's empty. maybe the third time is a charm. because the president may get a shot at bill signing number three this week and it's a

doozy. the obama administration created a rule to try to keep guns out of the hands of people who are classified as seriously mentally disabled by the social security administration. so if a person is too mentally disabled to be able to handle his or her own affairs, like cash your own checks and stuff, that will pop on a background check. if that seriously mentally disabled person tries to buy a gun. once president obama left office, the republican congress decided that seriously mentally ill people definitely need easier access to firearms and took a vote on it in the house and house republicans on an almost perfect party line vote voted to get rid of that rule. they voted overtly to make it easier for the mentally ill to get guns. almost a perfect party line vote on that. it passed the house. there are 52 republicans in the senate and everybody expects them all to vote yes by a mile.

also, joe manchin from west virginia, he says he will vote to end that rule. he will vote explicitly and only. it's not like it's folded into a more complicated thing. it's just a vote to make it easier for seriously mentally ill people to have guns stand-alone now. thanks to republicans and joe manchin, this bill is expected to pass easily. i mean, nobody campaigned in november on needing to put more guns in the hands of people suffering from serious and disabling mental illness. but it's probably going to be the third piece of legislation that trump signs. it has been a top priority for the nra and now the bill is moving on grease skids. a vote could happen as early as tomorrow and if passing the senate, it will end up on the president's desk. a lot of room for it.

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of people being evacuated, 188,000 people. evacuation order came suddenly. some people were told they may only have an hour to get out in time before possible failure and possibly catastrophic flooding at the site of the dam. this is the oroville dam in happier times. you can see the main body of the dam there on the right side. it's nearly 800 feet tall. it's taller than the hoover dam. it was built in 1968. or opened in 1968. it created lake oroville, one of the two biggest reservoirs in california. it's absolutely central to the drinking water system of the entire state. this is the centerpiece of how more than 20 million californians get their drinking water. because of the crazy weather in california this winter, lake oroville up at the top of that dam is quite full. as of midnight last night, it was 100% capacity. so they have to release some of that water and the way they do that is by pumping water down this concrete spillway.

so it flows, you know, nicely and calmly into the feather river below, eventually into the sacramento river out into the san francisco bay. but last week, the water coming down that spillway started looking crazy, right, shooting up and sideways and these churning plumes. when they shut off the water to look at what was wrong, they discovered this massive sinkhole in this spillway and it was growing. how big is this hole in the spillway? it's this big. that's people. those little yellow specks there are people inspecting the damage. but they have to keep running water down that spillway even if the water makes that hole worse, even if the water erodes more of that spillway because, as i said, the lake is full. even pumping as much water as fast as they could down that dam and spillway was not enough as of this weekend. and on saturday, for the first time in the 50-year history of that dam, they started pouring water over the dam's emergency

spillway as well. and the emergency spillway isn't even really a spillway. it's just a hillside. and that -- there you go. that hillside even though it's supposed to be an emergency outlet for the water coming out of the lake, it did not hold up well this weekend. i think we've got a shot of what the hillside looked like before this weekend. here's what it looked like by yesterday afternoon. yeah. and see the lake there is on the left side. if that erosion underneath the rim of the reservoir there gets so bad that it takes out basically the wall that's the rim of the reservoir, then all of that water's going to come down the hill. this is when the evacuation order went out this week, when they realized that erosion was that catastrophic on the emergency spillway, when they realized the sudden erosion was happening. when they realized it was happening to that hillside, they realized that concrete lip holding the reservoir could fail

and send a 30-foot wall of water into communities. when they sent out that evacuation order yesterday, they at that point thought that that could fail within one hour and that was the rush on the evacuation for all of those people. now, again, looking at the overall structure, you see the dam is on the right side. it's labeled oroville dam. that part of the dam is not in danger. that's good. but it's not necessarily reassuring at this point when they keep sending huge amounts of water at high speed down the main spillway even though it has a giant spillway which could get billinger and spread. if it spreads up back the mountain to the gates, that could be catastrophic. meanwhile, the hole in the emergency spillway, if they need to put more water down there, that could grow and undermine the concrete lip and that could be catastrophic. i mean, right now officials say they have managed to pump out enough water to lower the level of the lake by a few feet and the water's no longer coming over the emergency spillway but

more rain is forecast for the day after tomorrow. and the question is whether they can pump out enough water down the damaged spillway by the time the next storm comes and then there's the question of how they are going to shore up and rebuild these spillways. crews have been trying to fill in the hole in the emergency spillway. they've been trying to buttress that concrete wall with boulders in bags delivered by helicopter. that sounds easy. the sheriff says he doesn't know when the nearly 200,000 people who have been evacuated will be able to come back home. there's no timeline yet for when this will be safe. an extremely scary time for residents of that area and for all of california which depends on this massive piece of very broken infrastructure for a statewide functioning water system that literally provides water to tens of millions of people. joining us now from the oroville dam is congressman john

miramendi. congressman, thank you for joining us tonight. i know these are trying times. >> well, it is. and that was a very good explanation of what is going on here and it's still very serious. it still is in question. and so right now all of that noise and activity behind me is to figure out how to pile enough rocks into it that it is strengthened and secure. >> congressman, do you feel like from what you know about this infrastructure and the california department of water resources and the sheriff and the other authorities that are brought to bear on this, do you feel like this crisis is being well-managed, well-handled? do you have confidence in the people in charge of this ongoing situation? >> there's several pieces to this puzzle. let me kind of take them apart, rachel. the issue of the emergency evacuation last night i think was absolutely essential. that water was continuing to pour over the top of that

emergency spillway and continuing the erosion. looking at some of that today in the light of day, yeah, it was really serious last night. fortunately, when they were able to open the main spillway gates, they began to lower the reservoir level because the river water coming into the reservoir was about half of what they were able to expel down the main spillway. so it's stabilized. but nonetheless -- so they did make the right call last night. now, the next call will be, can this thing be patched up sufficient to withstand the storms that are clearly out ahead of us, one coming up later this week and even more as we move into march and early april, which are the heavy storm times here in the state. so we've got a lot of let's call it tight time ahead of us. what happened before and why did

that sinkhole happen? was there somebody that overlooked the safety of that spillway and then there's the question about the emergency spillway not having a concrete apron all the downhill side. why didn't that take place in the years past. >> congressman, obviously you've got 150,000 of your constituents who are not at home tonight, people not knowing how long this is going to go on. it's a scary situation. it's a human health and safety situation and quickly i imagine for many families already becoming a serious economic situation when we look at this as an infrastructure problem, it boggles my mind to think how expensive this is going to be to get it fixed. i understand that governor jerry brown has put in an initial request for an emergency declaration from the white house. do you have any comment on that or any expectations in terms of whether or not california will be able to just handle this and whether families will be able to handle this economically? >> well, it's certainly a

tremendous strain on the families. i was at one of the centers down in woodland about 50 miles downstream from this area and mostly kids, young families. and you know, they are not able to work. and so these communities are clearly having a major economic loss. can that emergency declaration that's been requested by the governor and hopefully approved by the president, would that provide some economic relief? i think the answer is probably not to the individuals. but surely there would be om some additional money to help rebuild this system. but this is just one really tragic and quite potentially a catastrophic example of what's happened to the infrastructure across america. we've seen bridges collapse in minnesota, we've seen them on i-5 up in washington state and now this reservoir which is the linchpin of california's water system may be inoperable in the

year ahead because of the silt that has now filled the river below the powerhouse which is the way in which water ultimately gets out of the reservoir and flows to southern california. so there's a whole series of problems here, not only the dam's safety but with water supply for the state of california in the coming summer. >> wow. incredibly serious situation. >> it is. >> representative john garamendi, thank you, sir. good luck to you and your constituents. please keep us apprised. >> i will. thank you. >> thank you, all right. we'll be right back. stay with us. per roll more "doing chores for dad" per roll more "earning something you love" per roll bounty is more absorbent, so the roll can last 50% longer than the leading ordinary brand. so you get more "life" per roll.

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built for speed. built for business. mystery solved. we think. last month, politico reported on the existence of an old tape, having to do with the man on the right there. nominee to be labor secretary, andy puzder. this old tape supposedly showed mr. puzder's former wife in disguise on a vintage episode of the oprah winfrey show. according to this report, his ex-wife appeared on the oprah show in disguise to describe abuse that she said took maplac in her marriage to andy puzder now nominated to the trump cabinet. both mr. puzder and his ex-wife now denied there was any abuse in their relationship. you can imagine why anybody in the world was trying to find that old tape so people could find out what she was saying about it at the time. well tonight we are learning that not only has that tape finally surfaced, it has surfaced in the united states

senate. three days before andy puzder's supposed to have his confirmation hearing in the united states senate. it's a sort of amazing story and if the reporting on this is correct, it's double amazing for how that tape made its way to washington, d.c., and who has been watching it already. that story is next. [ distorted voice ] progressive claims to show people their competitors' rates alongside their direct rate to save you money. but what's really going on? when played backwards at 1/8th speed you can clearly hear... what could that mean?

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any planned surgery, and all medicines you take. talk to your doctor about brilinta. i'm doing all i can. that includes brilinta. if you can't afford your medication, astra zeneca may be able to help. right around lunchtime today this happened at the hairs of hardee's in st. louis, missouri. these folks marched into the corporate offices of the harde ex's fast food chain.

the same time protesters were also marching outside the california headquarters of carl's jr. today. the nominee to be the new secretary of labor in this country is the ceo of hardee's and carl's jr. his name is andy puzder. his confirmation hearing is supposed to business this thursday but this is what kickoff to his confirmation week looked like in more than two dozen cities around the country. democratic senators have fought hardest so far against betsy devos to be education secretary and jeff sessions to be attorney general, but democrats actually think they've got the best chance of beating the nomination of this guy. since he's been ceo, puzder's fast food restaurants have been accused of erasing people's work hours out of time charts in order to avoid paying them overtime, accused of telling their employees to clock out and sit in the parking lot when business is slow so employees don't get paid for that time. accused of breaking child labor laws. accused of requiring their employees to pay 10 cents an

hour every hour for the privilege of wearing a work uniform. so you can see why fast food workers would be willing to make a fuss in his corporate offices today. for the record, his defenders say it's the individual restaurant store owners who are responsible for stuff like this, not andy puzdepuzder. he's just the ceo. then there's this. a court in missouri tomorrow will decide whether or not to unseal mr. puzder's divorce records. these records reportedly include allegations of domestic abuse made against him by his former wife in the 1980s. his former wife since recanted those allegations but today there's a new wrinkle in that part of the story. politico reported a few weeks ago andy puzder's ex-wife once appeared on the oprah winfrey show. around the time of their divorce. she appeared in disguise to talk about being a victim of domestic violence. reporting from politico in january set off a frenzy of people searching for that tape of that oprah winfrey show. nobody apparently found it. well today, three days before the hearing in the senate on

andy puzder's confirmation, the tape has reportedly surfaced. the "washington post" reporting that one of the four republican senators who now says he or she is on the fence about andy puzder is maine senator susan collins. she said she has reviewed footage of an oprah winfrey show interview with puzder's ex-wife. tonight politico reports further the tape was provided to senators of both parties by the oprah winfrey network. the episode was reportedly called "high class battered women." they say it aired in march 1990. republican chairman on the committee overseeing puzder's nomination says he spores puzder's nomination although senator alexander, himself, arranged for his colleagues on the committee to see the oprah tape. the top democrat on the issue disagrees, senator patry murray of washington said she watched the tape and she was, quote, deeply troubled by it. before this development, we knew andy puzder was having serious

trouble getting through the vis vetting process. it was revealed he hired an undocumented worker as a nanny and did not pay taxes for that person. his hearing has already being delayed five times. we now know this video of his ex-wife talking about abuse allegations against him in their marriage is in rotation on capitol hill. andy puzder could only afford to lose two votes if all democrats vote against his nomination. and on that committee, there are those four republicans who say they're on the fence. and all of this is the street level opposition to his nomination continues to gather momentum. this is going to be a close one and an interesting one. that does it for us tonight. we will see you again tomorrow. now it's time your "the last word," my friend, joy reid, sitting in for lawrence tonight. good evening, joy. >> good evening, rachel. you know, i'll tell you, i'm here in los angeles and i swear if hollywood, if a hollywood