and at some point they're the ones facing the consequences. they are not hiding out in washington. he needs to show republicans that he supports them. >> charlie sykes, jason, thank you. "the rachel maddow show" starts right now. >> thanks, chris. and thanks to you at home for joining me at this hour. happy monday. i'm going to join you, this a block, the show has evolved where i've done a big a block and it ends with an exclamation point. this is one of those a blocks. you have not otherwise been hearing about this in the news, but stick with me. this is worth it. check this out. okay. let's say you are a thief. you've stolen a bunch of money or maybe you're a crook and you have obtained a bunch of money through illegal means through drug dealing or fraud or prostitution or something. or let's being very discrete

about it. let's say you somehow have amassed a large amount of money d youus don't want to talk about where it came from. in any ofse hypothetical circumstances, you're not some podunk, thief, shady bastard. we're talking millions of dollars, tens of millions of dollars, hundreds of millions of dollars that you have amassed through, let's not talk about it, means. if you want to ever be able to actually use that money and enjoy that money, you can't move it around just in like, you know, bags full of loot. you're talking about millions and tens of millions of dollars. there aren't enough briefcases and duffle bags in the world for you to move that money around easily. if you want to buy like a private island or a fleet of ferraris, if you show up to pay with bills, somebody is going to

notice that and start asking questions. and if you decide to deposit all of your money in a bank, they're going to want to know where that came from in most banks under most laws, in most countries. so if you've made lots and lots and lots of money in some shady way, you need something to do with that money that makes the money look sort of legit just so you can use it. and we often think of that process as like a mobthing, right? like an organized crime thing, money laundering. but money laundering can also be a bank thing if you know the right kind of bank to go to. a couple weeks ago, the german bank, deutsch bank, got fined $630 million for money laundering. they moved roughly $10 billion out of russia and disguised that source. it's part of a stock fraud

scheme or something. but some of the accounts that were involved in that $10 billion money laundering scheme, some of those accounts were personally held by relatives of vladimir putin. and by some of vladimir putin's closest and oldest friends. and when this money laundering scheme, including their accounts, was exposed at deutsch banks, the russian authorities decided they needed to look into this. they were very concerned about someone wanting to siphon money out of russia without them knowing about it. they decided to fine deutsch bank $5,000. let me mention again here that the fraud here, the money laundering scheme here was $10 billion. but that's how much they levied against them as a fine. luckily, though, this was not just a russia thing. this scheme did involve a deutsch bank office in moscow but also in new york.

interestingly, also in cypress. stick a pin in that. we'll come back to cypress. it ended up in the crosshairs of the obama justice department and when the russians looked into it, they may have decided only to fine deutsch bank $5,000 when loret loretta lynch and justice department found out about it, they fined them $630 million. for the people at the top when these things happen, it always seems to be a soft landing, doesn't it? i said the offices were in moscow and new york and cyprus. when the last chairman of deutsch bank needed a new job after deutsch bank, where he landed was, very softly, as the chairman of the bank of cyprus. and cyprus is a lovely place in a lovely part of the world and

has a lot going for it. but in global finance, cyprus is the locking black briefcase in to which the ill-gotten gains before they handcuffed that briefcase to a russian somewhere. this is where they launder their money. deutsch bank takes part in this huge scam to launder russian money to smuggle billions of dollars out of its office in moscow and new york and cyprus. the bank chairman ends at a bank in cyprus. he was appointed chairman by the two largest shareholders. one of the two largest shareholders is a close personal friend and business associate of russian president vladimir putin. one of the other major investors in that bank, this is where it gets good, is a russian oligarch who they call the king of fertilizer. i know, some of my critics call

me the queen of fertilizer but they mean it differently. but this is where the news comes home tonight for americans trying to make sense of our new president in this new government that he's putting in place and what really explains their behavior when other political norms don't seem to. because the king of fertilizer is just an amazing story. he's not the richest person in russia. that would probably be vladimir putin. but he does hold the title for what is believed to be the most expensive divorce in modern history. as part of his divorce proceedings, at one point, a swiss bank awarded his wife 4$45 billion as her divorce settlement. wow. and a couple's divorce would usually be a private matter, especially involving people we don't care from another country. the reason we all have to know about it now is because is becoming part of what we need to know about our current american presidency. the split-up of this couple reportedly started in 2008,

2009, thereabouts. the divorce settlement wasn't finalized until 2015. it was very, very lurid, this seven, eight-year period of this divorce, it was international news, it had all of these tabloid aspects to it. he accused her of stealing jewelry and he had her arrested as a jewel thief at some point. mostly what they thought about, though, was dividing their money. she thought that he was entitled to a multibillion dollar settlement in the divorce and, this is important, she accused him of hiding her money so she couldn't get access to it and of secreting and transferring assets in order to avoid his obligations. to keep her from getting her hands on what she believed was his money. he started putting his money in places she couldn't get to it. he started putting his money in very large chunks in the largest

chunks he could into trusts in foreign countries, trusts that own stuff or held assets. anything to get his money off his balance sheet. so she couldn't get it in the divorce. and that's the thing that happens in ugly divorces. but when you're the king of fertilizer, when that happens in your divorce, it makes the "today" show. >> this is 15th central park west, one of the most exclusive addresses and home of the most expensive condo. as you mentioned, with so many struggling to pay rent and mortgages, a college student just bought it and it will not even be her primary residence. it's a sweeping view that's breathtaking and record breaking. for the new, young order, it's just a part-time pad. it was on "architectural digest" magazine just last year.

it sits atop one of the most expensive buildings in new york. it overlooks central park. inside, guests can tour the private library. but those guests could be college students. that's because, according to forbes magazine, the new owner is the 22-year-old daughter of a russian billionaire. akatarina is studying at an undisclosed college but she's a reside of monaco. 88 million bucks, all paid for by daddy. >> the trebd right now is you're seeing a lot of money coming from overseas to purchase these super high-end properties. it's a great investment for them and a lot of people think it's safer than the stock market. >> reporter: in 2008, her father bought this $33,000 square foot estate from donald trump. he paid the donald $95 million in cash. he may reportedly lose it in an ugly divorce battle that could

cost him half his worth. the new york penthouse should be safe. it's in his daughter's name. >> again, this is a divorce that went through six different venues, six different courts. at one point, there was a $4.5 billion judgment for the wife. $4.5 billion. she accused her husband of parking all his money in overseas trusts that held very expensive assets. so she couldn't get access to more of his money and those trusts did things like hold very, very, very expensive real estate all over the world. the greek island where jackie kennedy married aristotle, he bought that island for $150 million. the actor will smith had a nice house in hawaii. he bought that for $20 million. this guy apparently has an adjoining compound of properties in the swiss alps that he bought for $135 million. and locking up your money in

assets like this, specifically to shield them from your ex-wife who you hate, it's probably kind of a fun way to stick it to your spouse and avoid the accountants and the courts but it also creates, if you think about it, this incredible opportunity for anybody in a position to sell something really, really, really expensive. because this guy's motivation is not to get a good deal on any of these things. he's trying to park as much of his russian money somewhere else, as much of his money as he can. he needs it tide up in real estate and these big assets in other countries. the bigger the deal, the bigger the price tag, the better. i mean, you want to be the guy who owns the greek private island when the king of fertilizer starts looking for islands to buy to shelter his money from his wife. right? you want to be the real estate broker in new york city looking to sell the single most expensive private apartment in new york city when that guy comes around looking to spend as much money as he possibly can. the more money, the better. i mean, for the right kind of

person, for the right kind of seller, this guy, the king of fertilizer, he's just a walking cash register if you have the right kind of thing to sell him. behold -- my only thing worse than my russian pronunciation is my french pronunciation. this means house of friendship. house of amity. it was built in 2001 by a zillionaire who moved from new england to palm beach, florida and then went bankrupt. this has 22 bathrooms. think about that. 22 people can go all at the same time. although, watch out if they all flush at the same time.

this zillionaire guy built this gaudy mansion in palm beach florida in 2001. by 2004, it was seized by the court. he was facing charging. the person who bought the house on auction is now donald trump. he bought it for $40 million. it set empty for two years. the house was thought of locally as a montrocity. it was frequently described as fake art everywhere. you know, art inspired by real painters. sort of copies of stuff painted on the walls. parts of the interior of the house were cobble stone. it also reportedly had a terrible mold problem. but donald trump bought it for $40 million in 2006. it sat empty for two years.

and then in 2008, along comes dmitry rolobalov, the king of fertilizer going through the biggest divorce and ways to shelter money from his darn wife, the bigger the price tag, the better, i'm buying cregreek islands, i need places to put my money and dmitry turns around in 2008 and plays donald trump $100 million for that house. 2 1/2 times what trump had bought it for two years earlier. why did this guy spend $100 million on that property? i don't know. we know he never moved in. in fact, some reporting on the sale indicates he never once set foot in it and it's now being torn down. trump and robolov have commented publicly that they never dealt

with each other publicly throughout that sale. they only worked through intermediaries, which is interesting for a transaction that high priced. that record actually may still hold. that may be the single most expensive house transaction ever in the united states. and they never met? they only went through intermediaries? who were the intermediaries? well, the king of fertilizer, dmitri, who popped $60 million into donald trump's pocket during this transaction, he doesn't have much of an american profile but has one important american connection. remember i told you he was one of the major shareholders in the bank of cyprus? the former chairman is from deutsch bank. he was installed as chairman at the bank of cyprus by the two

vice chairman of the bank. one of the vice chairman of that bank is vladimir putin's close associate. but the other vice chairman of that bank is an american. the american is in fact the single largest shareholder in that bank. that bank that includes vladimir putin's close associate. the guy who he replaced was a guy who putin was in the kgb with before he became vladimir putin. this bank is also owned in part by the russian king of fertilizer who did this inexplicable deal that donald trump miraculously stumbled into, that netted him $60 million for doing basically nothing. there's one american who was in the middle of that bank, who was the single largest shareholder in that bank. there's one american in that bank. and tonight, that american was just confirmed as our nation's new secretary of commercial.

his name is wilbur ross. he's an american businessman, long-time friend of donald trump. not much experience in international banking but inex plik clee ended up the majority shareholder in a bank with ties to vladimir putin and a russian oligarch through somehow through an int immediaermediary had no interest in whatsoever, never bothered living in it andaybe never even visited. but trump and this oligarch, they've never met, no connection except through wilbur ross. donald trump's old, old friend who will be sworn into the cabinet tomorrow as commerce secretary. and there's basically two things to know about this story going forward. one in terms of explaining this presidency, the other in terms of what happens next in our

politics. in terms of explaining this presidency, you should know that at the time this magical deal emerged out of nowhere that put tens and millions of dollars in donald trump's pocket, he was financially having a very difficult time. it's a matter of public record that he was fighting very hard, among other things, to avoid paying off a big loan that he had with deutsch bank. deutsch bank needs the money, that means trump needs the money, that means trump needs to get the money. so it's mysterious windfall infusion of cash from the russian guy came at the right time for now president trump. every investigative reporter in the country is trying to figure out whether there is some reason that our new president seems so beholden to russia and vladimir putin. well, this part here, it's not like a loose thread. it's like a rope ladder hanging down from the ceiling begging people to crawl up this and look around. that's one thing to know about this story. the other thing to know about this story is what happens next

in the administration. we're going to talk later on this hour about what's happening with the investigation or lack thereof and to trump and his russia ties. but meanwhile, he is slowly hercule staffing up his administration. this weekend, his nomination to be secretary of the navy dropped out followed by secretary of the army who also dropped out that follows the firing of his national security adviser and then his next two picks to be national security adviser, reportedly turning him down. we also learned this weekend that michelle was asked by secretary of defense jim mattis if she would become his deputy at the pentagon. she said no. she turned down mattis. she will not become deputy secretary at the pentagon because she didn't feel like in good faith she could join the trump administration. they're having trouble staffing up but for whatever reason tonight wilbur ross got through. that may not end up being a political blessing to the

country. because wilbur ross with his unexplained russia ties, now he's secretary of commerce and any scandal that ends up affixedi affixeding to him, the scandal about him and russia may be a scandal about donald trump and russia and we're going to be joined tonight by david remnick, the editor of "the new yorker," among the news that recommend nick has turned up is this. remember that 35-page dossier about donald trump, that unconfirmed dossier of trump, the "the 35-page dossier, which included claims about trump's behavior during a 2013 trip to moscow. it concluded that russia had personal and financial material on trump that could be used as blackmail. according to current and former

government officials, purient details generated skepticism. one intelligence official tells "the new york times" they are continuing to chase down stuff from the dossier and at its core, a lot of it is bearing out." now, here is what is shooting up right now, some officials believe that one reason the russians compiled information on trump during his 2013 trip was that he was meeting with russian oligarchs who may be stashing money abroad. because he was helping them find places to put their money. wilbur ross was confirmed as commerce secretary tonight. david remnick from the new

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sometimes a new news story itself isn't the most important thing. sometimes the most important thing about a brand-new news story is that it upsets people and therefore shakes something loose. outrage denials. confirmation or denial of certain facts. that happened over the last few days when the white house reacted with outrage to the new story that the white house chief of staff had leaned on the fbi about the fbi investigation into contacts between the trump campaign and russia. the white house was outraged at

those stories. they were so mad about those stories. they pushed back hard on those stories and in doing so confirmed that the white house chief of staff did speak with the fbi about the ongoing investigation, which is not the thing you're supposed to concede and confirm. the white house chief of staff is really truly not supposed to do that. they hated the story. they reacted with outrage to the story but in so doing confirmed he did it. that's happened over the last few days. and it has now happened again on a story that is way weirder and more obscure. this is the wed, obscure ns story. these are text messages reportedly received by the daughter of paul manafort. "tell him he has 24 hours before i leak all the to the cops." you've got 24 hours before i take this to the feds. threatening texts. they are reported on

politico.com and quoting from their report, a cyberattack of paul manafort suggests he's a victim of a black hail attempt while he was serving as donald trump's campaign chairman last summer. manafort confirmed that the hacked texts are real. his daughter did receive them. she got those threatening texts and the threats to go to the cops. she got them along with an explanatory note from a member of parliament in ukraine. the note threatens that this ukrainian politician has, quote, bulletproof facts about paul manafort taking off the books payments from one of his former clients from the ousted putin-supported ukrainian dictator who paul manafort worked for for years. paul manafort says even though his daughters received these threatening texts, he had

nothing to do with any of it, it's all just a smear campaign. we have no idea if the note or these tlehreatening texts are actually from the ukrainian politician. he denies having anything to do with any of this. there's also a claim in the middle of the story that is specific to our new president. the person who sent these, what appear to be blackmail threats to paul manafort through his daughter, this person also claims to have evidence that paul manafort got paid to set up a meeting between donald trump and a ukrainian guy who's close to that pro putin dictator. manafort allegedly arranged this meeting in 2012, long before donald trump was ever running for president. so those are the allegations. was paul manafort being blackmailed? what do i make of this? i have no idea. there's denials all around from people who are supposed to be

the good guy in this story and bad guy. everybody denies it. sometimes the story itself is less important than what you shakes lose. with regard to the claim that paul manafort was paid to arrange a meeting in 2012, both paul manafort and the white house are pushing back on that allegation to politico and this is where it gets good because their rebuttal to that charge is that paul manafort couldn't have been paid to do that because why would anybody go to paul manafort to get to donald trump in 2012? paul manafort and donald trump had no connection back then. paul manafort, in fact, never worked with donald trump before he became his campaign chairman in 2016. and i think they see that as a great rebuttal to this story. but in offering that confirmed information to back back this allegation that really bothered

them, they do raise a whole other way more interesting question. i don't know and i don't really care whether paul manafort was the target of blackmail while running a campaign. but what's really interesting, the question of how paul manafort ended up being donald trump's campaign manager. who picked him for that? hold on. hold that thought. stay with us. beyond is a natural pet food

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when russia said about trying to influence the

presidential election this first year wasn't their first rodeo. they have developed a particular m.o. for disrupting other country's political activities. in our presidential election, 17 intelligence agencies say we all got to see russia at work, undermining our election at work here in the united states in 2016, trying to help donald trump's chances of getting elected president. but it's not just us in the french presidential election. one candidate has basically bank rolled and the victim of multiple cyberattacks, a ftorret and count every ballot in next month's elections because they are so worried about russia meddling after a group of russians, who no one knew were russians, ran a propaganda op to get a pro-putin outcome that

russia wanted from that election. when sweden was showing up to town halls full of fears sparked by bogus news stories and nato soldiers raping swedish women, it was almost certainly a campaign aimed at swaying the vote and keeping sweden out of nato. russia is good at this. they change their tactics from place to place but the goal is the same. insert pro-russian candidates or political operatives, exploit divisions, empower disruptive forces, destabilize the democratic institutions in the stern alliances that compete with or challenge russia. we can see russia operate that way in country after country and we know that russia interfered in our election, too. now think about paul manafort, the sudden appearance of paul manafort running the trump

presidential campaign last year. from an american political perspective, paul manafort doesn't make that much sense as a person you would bring on to run your presidential campaign. he's a lobbyist type, honestly best known in washington for repping controversial dictators. and he hasn't been involved in republican electoral politics in a very long time. he's been so not involved in politics that politico ran a piece about him about the fact that nobody knew who ukraine's man in washington was. nobody knew this mystery man. ukraine's u.s. fixer, where was he? manafort's current location a mystery. manafort has vanished from the washington scene. there he is running a 2014 presidential campaign. if you think about it from a russian perspective, when he disappeared from washington and nobody knew where he was, the

russians knew where he was. he was laying the ground work to put up a pro-putin autocrat in power for putin's oligarch friends. who could be better than paul manafort to run an american presidential campaign. wasn't that an american guy who ran -- according to new reporting, intercepted commication among russian lligen figures included frequent reference to paul manafort. i mean, take the view from moscow. if you know a guy who needs a presidential campaign manager, how about our friend paul. from the russian's point of view, who would be the better choice to run donald trump's campaign? paul manafort made no sense. who's he? from the russian perspective, he'd be the obvious choice. or take carter page.

donald trump seemed to pull it out of the hat when he was getting pressure last spring for not having any declared foreign advisers on his team. carter page, i can give you some of the names, that's my foreign policy adviser. from an american perspective, that made no sense. his resume is nonexistent. he was a mid-level oil industry consultant who had spent some time in moscow. one american executive with experience in russia told politico, quote, you'd have to dip really far and wide to find a guy like carter page. i mean, wow. but from a russian perspective, i mean, here's how carter page is described by a spokesman for the russian state oil company. "he's an extremely well-informed authoritative expert on russia." he's got a good reputation, says russian oil company, russian state-run oil company. carter page is well-known in russia. gives speeches slamming american

policy. in russia, he gets featured on russian tv. he's a big deal from the russian vantage point. even consider rex tillerson. did you know that they had never met before the campaign, never met before the election? all of a sudden rex tillerson, mr. got the russian order of friendship awarded to him by vladimir putin personally, all of a sudden he's secretary of state in the united states? how did that happen? he and trump had literally never met before trump became president-elect. the white house adamantly denies that donald trump had any dealings with paul manafort before this campaign. and they're telling us that to try to tamp down one of these scandalous news stories. but by confirming that, who was this obscure guy, a frequent conversation among russian officials, how did he run the

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with once-weekly trulicity. trulicity is not insulin. it helps activate my body to do what it's supposed to do release its own insulin. trulicity responds when my blood sugar rises. i take it once a week, and it works 24/7. it comes in an easy-to-use pen. and i may even lose a little weight. trulicity is a once-weekly injectable prescription medicine to improve blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes when used with diet and exercise. trulicity is not insulin. it should not be the first medicine to treat diabetes, or for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. do not take trulicity if you or a family member has had medullary thyroid cancer, if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if you are allergic to trulicity. stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms such as itching, rash, or trouble breathing; a lump or swelling in your neck; or severe pain in your stomach area. serious side effects may include pancreatitis, which can be fatal.

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opposition leader, funny and uncome pro myselfing uncome pro miceing and was going to run for president last year against vladimir putin. obviously that can't stand. two weeks ago, a court convicted him on random embezzlement futures involving timber futures. the government now is indicating that he had no longer be allowed to run for president against vladimir putin because of that terrible embezzlement conviction. and that hammer fell on one of our smartest russian watchers said this. the trump administration notably said nothing. david remnick has a heavy duty

new report on russia and trump and what "the new yorker" is called "the new cold war." one, something that i just mentioned, russian intelligence officials frequently discussing paul manafort. also, some current government officials interested in donald trump before he declared his presidential intentions because he m have been a money thing and russia may have been interested in the way he was helping russians move their money out of that country. >> well, i think the reason vladimir putin was most interested in donald trump has to do with hillary clinton. trump could not stand hillary clinton. and a lot of the pieces, remember, the person who moved

nato eastward was bill clinton and this was considered in the world of vladimir putin a grave threat to the security of russia. it's not some minor geopolitical move that is a grave threat to him in his mind. remember, putin came to office in 2000, appointed by boris yeltsin who said his first deed was to ensure the safety and nonprosecution of boris yeltsin and almost instantly shut down in the history of communism and russian history. in the beginning, putin was relatively up in the air where the west was concerned. he even concerned the question of whether russia should join nato. and he gave up hope after a

while, for reasons you can justify or not justify, having to do with kosovo, nato. and his policy turned. so when it came to obama who considered russia a regional power, a grave insult to russian ego, and then the possible presidency of hillary clinton, he wouldn't have it. i don't think the russians ever thought that they could turn an election around. i really don't. and i don't think necessarily they did turn this election around. it's hard to quantify what effect -- >> won't be able to prove it either way. >> how do you stack it up next to the fbi letter and a very poor campaign in certain respects by hillary clinton herself to say nothing of the, you know, the appeal like it or not of donald trump. but at a certain point he just could not bear the idea of hillary clinton. to some extent this campaign, if that's what we find out it had been and we want more

evidence -- i do. i want more concrete evidence, not just assertion by the intelligence community, it was to destabilize a clinton presidency. >> you think they expected her to win and the damage that they were doing was something that they could continue -- >> of course. everybody expected her to win. you expected her to win. the polls expected her to win. trump on the day of the election, as i've heard from trump, expected her to win. so they succeeded, in some sense, beyond their wildest dreams, and now they are freaked. if you talk to people in moscow now, there's a lot of buyer's remorse. there was an order sent down to russian television, enough with celebrating about trump. they are really worried about the lack of stability from trump and don't want to -- and they also see that the criticism of trump, having to do with rsia, is going to undermine his ability to help them. >> new yorker's piece, david

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we're back with david remnick, editor at the "new yorker," front paged a story called "trump, putin, the new cold war." david, thank you. in terms of the big look you were taking at the stuff, the ofgoing reporter of "the new yorker" what do you think is necessary in terms of a proper investigation here? i feel like a lot of good reporting has given us a lot more information than we had

even six months ago. what's your take on that? >> well, our reporting will continue for the "new yorker." i'm sure "the new york times," the "washington post" are spending hours and hours on this and everybody else. but there's certain things that investigative reporters can do but certain things a well-intentioned, independent investigatory body, whether it's law enforcement or congress can do that's quite different. having to do with subpoena power, having to do with calling witnesses and all the rest. and you're now seeing tension in congress about what to do about this. and you're seeing much more reluctance on the house side. after all, they have to run every two years. >> right. >> somebody like john mccain is throwing caution to the wind, he's never going to run again probably and he wants -- it's interesting to see senator burr, a republican, who has had an interesting relationship with the president, being quite forthright about the need for an investigation. it's almost amazing. >> while also telling reporters, telling -- i mean, burr -- when

burr and nunez -- >> absolutely. >> -- started calling reporters and telling reporters to get off the story, there's nothing there, by the way, i'm the chair of the intelligence committee, so i should know, that, to me, made me give up all hope for burr. >> do not give up all hope. don't do it. in other words, look, i think, at the risk of self-congratulation, i don't mean about the "new yorker" but as an institution, the press is rigorously going after this and it should because it goes off intoany differt directions whether it has to do with the question of potential collusion, about financial deals, about banking, which you pointed out at length, the political questions about how this was handled, by the way, by the obama administration, you know, that's all very interesting for not just for historians. inside the obama administration, when they knew that this was a question, john kerry raised among the principals of the national security council, maybe we should have a 9/11-type

independent commission. and the obama administration, president obama, finally felt that that would politicize the issue and they said no. and underneath all that reluctance was this confidence or overconfidence that hillary clinton was going to win. >> whatever was happening with disrupting the election would never be enough to -- david remnick, appreciate it. >> always. always. >> we'll be right back. stay with us. your insurance company won't replace

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i know, i know, republicans control everything in washington now. democrats are back on their heels in washington and in the states and, i know, i know, i know. it's true. it's all true. but little known fact, since november, since the presidential election, every special election in the country has gone blue. or at least has swung hard in that direction. it happened this month in iowa. when a democrat won an open seat in the iowa legislature. it then happened the following week in virginia. democrats held o to an open state house seat. theinneta house also had a seat up for grabs this month. that's a district that went for donald trump by almost 30 points. but in that special election, the republican did win, but she only won by six points. trump carried it by 30. she carried it by six. deep red district in minnesota. well now this sort of swing has happened again, this is an election that we've been covering, looking ahead to in

delawa delaware. heading into this weekend, the senate in delaware was split 50/50 between democrats and republicans and there's one empty seat because somebody vacated a seat in the senate to go become lieutenant governor. so it's heading sfwhinto this weekend, it was 50/50, it was even steven in the delaware senate with that open seat. that tie in the senate with that open seat made the election this weekend for that open seat basically a national race because democrats really wanted it hold on to that state senate. well, on saturday, the democrats won that seat. a democrat named stephanie hansen won that seat in the delaware state senate. she won by a lot. and that doesn't just mean that she gets the seat, that means democrats get to keep the delaware senate. counting delaware this weekend, democrats have gone 3 for 4 in special elections since the presidential race. and in that fourth one, they radically closed the gap in a deep, deep, deep red district. now the democrats have a chance

to keep that streak going. tomorrow, the great state of connecticut is going to be voting on two state senate races. right now like it was in delaware, right now, connecticut senate is tied. it's even. and there are two seats up for grabs. one of them is considered to be a safe republican siteat. the other considered to be a safe democratic seat. but if either party can pull off an upset, if one of those races can swing the other way, it will change which party controls the senate in the state of connecticut. oh, it's all very exciting. we'll keep you posted. watch this space. that does it for us tonight. see you again tomorrow. time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." good evening, lawrence. >> good evening, rachel. i'm happy to report the mystery has been solved. it was not warren beatty's fault. it wasn't. it's clear. i kept watching the reruns last night and the close-ups on the hdtvs you could see what it said on the envelope he had, it was for best actress and he didn't want to read what was on that and you could tell he was kind of showing it to