from multiple people. even if you don't know the attackers attackers -- particulars of any allegation there is enough on the table to make you res sent to weigh in -- reticent to weigh in especially someone with as checkered history and president trump. >> thank you. that is all for this evening, "the rachel maddow show" starts right now. >> happy wednesday night. thanks for joining us this hour. do you know anything about acrobatic residentia iici iic r? it's a term of art. looks aerobically challenging as a sport. there are different subsets of acrobatic rock'n roll. this is a competition in the subset of acrobatic rock'n roll they call the boogie-woogie competition. i have never really seen this before. we got clips of it recently.

when the guardian added this tape to their story about acrobatic rock'n roll, i think they gave a helpful generic description of what this sport is if you've never seen it before. they call it a discipline for couples that involves a mixture of energetic dancing and virt s virtuosic acrobatic moves. got it. that seems like an accurate description for boogie-woogie competition. definitely. the reason the guardian came up with that description and sent that tape showing everybody what acrobatic rock'n roll looks like is because of this particular couple, because the female member of the couple you see dancing on the left side of your screen. the ones with the red top? the female in that couple, that is apparently vladamir putin's daughter. reuters reported in december that there's this weird

combination of events in the world, which is that vladamir putin's daughter does acrobatic rock'n roll as her sport and the russian government just found 0 $30 million in taxpayer money, 1.9 billion rubles in taxpayer money to build a state of art at the headquarters for the practice of vladamir putin's daughter's chosen sport. the rock'n roll center being nstructed in moscow. i just got ahold of the planning documents for construction. a $30 million facility. it includes a gym. you have to be in very good shape to do acrobatic rock'n roll. a trampoline hall. large swimming pool. seating for 2,000 people. walking and running pads, helicopter running pad and just in case somebody with access to a helicopter wants to drop in and see a competition maybe,

maybe one that features someone he knows. this is an interesting thing for russia to be spending billions of rublrubles, right? there are people who do this in russia. we have video proof in that. it's not like it's a national craze in russia. it's not a national craze anywhere. this is kind of an obscure thing. there are 200 ranked couples in the world who do this in total. when it comes to russia trying to decide what they're spending taxpayer money on, it's not like they're rolling in dough. and there was an article on putin's election and at home. before the sanctions and drop in oil prices per kcapita gdp in russia was 15,5$15,500 per year person, 2013. it has since declined to about 9

9,0$9,000 per person per year, y over the span of four years. russia's economy is in the tank and the tank is empty. their living standards are not great and getting worse. russia that a tiny economy for a country of that size. their tiny economyshrinking. you know what, with the government they've got not much hope things will turn around for them. when things are that corrupt and the criminal core is at the top it's hard to grow your country a diversified stable economy. crep top pasi is hard. but great for their kids and niche sports interests. his daughter the boogie-woogie dancer, she was apparently

married in 2013 to a guy whose dad was one of putin's friends. since the marriage, his daughter and new husband have mysterio mysteriously been able to acquire shares worth billions of dollars in companies all connected in some way to the state. the guy that married his daughter is one of the largest shareholders in a state. the husband and daughter are considered to be billionaires now in their own right. not like that's only special treatment for putin's only daughter. the report you might have heard about recently doing incredible international reporting on russian money laundering, they report on what has become of putin's ex-wife from whom he got divorced a couple years ago. i'm not great with russian na names, i find them hard to remember and hard to pronounce. putin's ex-wife has a first name that is particularly difficult for me. her first name is ludmilla.

i wish i could say it better. i'm quite sure i am not saying it right not. now i have a device to remember. because i'm pretty sure it rh e rhymes with villa. the reporters from the organized crime and corruption say she has mysteriously acquired a 7$7.5 million villa in the south of france, from her time as russia's first lady, there was nothing in her income and asset declarations that indicated she had any means whatsoever let alone the ability to acquire a multi-million dollar villa. she and her younger husband who works at a non-profit and has no assets of their own they are living an astonishingly lovely

place in the south of france near their billionaire daughter when she's not busy being the sixth ranked boogie-woogie dancer in all of russia. by rights, russia ought to be kind of a rich country. if you want to know why they're not a rich country, how they can be physically the largest nation on earth with almost immeasurable natural resources but still have an economy considerably smaller than the economy of italy, because the leaders of that nation siphons money out not with a straw but a fire hose. they basically float away on a sea of stolen money inventing ever more elaborate ways to launder and use it while the rest of the country never gets a chance to compete. that is how they do it over there. at is how their country runs.

also, here's a picture of jared kushner in baghdad, the president's son-in-law was dispatched this week to iraq, where of course thousands of american service members have given their lives in recent years where tens of thousands of americans have been wounded, where fierce fighting continues today against isis now and where there are serious and very consequential uncertainties as to what is going to happen next in that country with governance, holding territories and demilitarization and rebuilding and everything once the fight against isis wins. you would expect somebody like the secretary of state or vice president to be deeply personally involved trying to work those things out with the iraqi government. in this administration the secretary of state has not even been there yet. instead he will be following the footsteps of jared if he ever gets there because he was sent there first. his qualifications for taking on

this national security role for the u.s. government consists of the fact he is married to the president's daughter and other than that his relevant experience is his company's real estate company in new york and new jersey. they didn't send jared alone. ken vogel was first to report the white house sent a man named keith schiller circled there in the photo, and ex new york city police officer donald trump's personal long term bodyguard. did trump's bodyguard go with iraq with jared to be jared's bodyguard? interesting question. totally possible. from the pictures, it doesn't appear that's the arrangement here. keith shuler, long time bodyguard appears to be an official part of this delegation to iraq for high level meetings. he doesn't appear to be playing bodyguard role here. he literally has a seat at the table with nameplate and

everything and our iraqi kurdish allies. you see mr. schiller sitting in the foreground of this picture and iraqi delegation dressed up and attentive for this high level meeting. mr. schiller appears to be wearing a sweatsuit or at least some sort of track suit jacket with a big noticeable adidas logo on the back. it was funny in a way when donald trump the presidential candidate and donald trump president-elect decided to keep his long term personal bodyguard on staff despite the fact he was getting secret service protection by then. after that not really funny ha-ha but more funny weird when trump became president and he named his long time bodyguard to be the director of oval office operations and emerged despite the job title his bodyguard could probably not qualify for high level security clearance because of all the times he's been sued by new york state and

the federal government for not paying his taxes. that's basically the number one reason people get turned down for security clearances. if you have money trouble you are considered to be at increased risk of blackmail or somebody that can induce you by promising you a lot of money because you need a lot of money. the whole thing about trump's bodyguard is a little strange, not typical from american government from the very beginning, just like it's not typical for a president's children to have high level diplomatic and national security ro roles. there's jared and the bodyguard. wearing the sweatsuit. this is a whole new level of concerns we didn't know to prepare ourselves for. do the kurds mind this is the delegation the u.s. sent to meet with them and how they presented

themselves? thousands of troops in iraq embedded with iraqi forces fighting a very hard lethal fight right now against isis against western mosul. they have already spit in the eye of the iraqis despite this precarious position they're in. they spit in their eye by b banning all iraqi citizens to enter the united states, part of their seven country muslim ban. later the administration changed their mind and said it's a six country muslim ban and iraqis, we guess you can come in now. even if they're over that. that change might have clawed back some of the unnecessary danger the u.s. troops might be in, even if that's tidied up from the muslim ban now how do the iraqis feel saying they don't get to crivisit with the secretary of state, they get the 36-year-old real estate kid married to the president's daughter and a free floating

bodyguard who wears a sweatsuit to negotiate with them whether or not the troops will stay in iraq afterwards. the rough transition, the nepotism, promotion of flagra flagrantly unqualified people to consequently political offices, the fact that there are 553 positions that need approval and they haven't nominated somebody for 512 of them. the careening incompetence of the new administration has been amazing to watch thus far. i'm desperate to come to work these days to see what will happen next. we are getting to one of these moments now we all knew would come when that clown car of incompetent catastrophe after catastrophe, when that clown car has pulled up to the scene of a real situation.

i don't think it's fair to say we're in a national security crisis right now. we're a hair's breath away from one breaking out on any number of fronts. that is happening in a moment within this new administration, national security stuff is going haywire right now. not like they're really screwing up on light rail and pesticide use. national security is going haywire right now. the administration has gone out of their way to insult and start pointless fights with almost all of our closest and most important allies from australia to uk to mexico to germany to nato. on the flip side, this past week has been presidential administration hugs a dictator week, with the new president fully embracing the general that pulled off that military coup in egypt celebrating president ail sissy in egypt appears to be

bewildering even to the egypt n egyptians. where did that come from? as the largely inert secretary of state, rex tillerson annou e announces a radical shift in the u.s. attitude towards the syrian dictator, bashar al assad, s saying the new american position is not that he has to go, kind of, whatever you want to do. >> i think the status and the longer term -- longer term status of president assad will be decided by the syrian people. >> not for us to decide. it's up to you guys, whatever you want to do is going to be fine with us. after that throw away low-key announcement from the secretary of state, essentially jettisoning a long standing u.s. policy towards syria what is essentially the russian position

on syria, after that the dictator decided to test whether or not we really mean it. that apparent chemical weapons attack yesterday in syria, that horrific attack is thought to have killed more than 70 people including dozens of children. nancy has a stunning report on that at buzzfeed.com. three pentagon officials say they believe bashar assad may have launched the attack to test president trump, especially after they indicated assad could stay in power, most notably, rex tillerson saying i think the long status of president assad will be decided by the syrian people, telling nancy they have no idea what they're supposed to be doing towards syria now at the pentagon, after the president criticized the apparent chemical weapons attack, nobody in the business of putting the president's money where his mouth is knows what he

actually wants them to do. quote, does he only want the assad regime to stop using chemical weapons? does he want regime change? is he seeking a negotiated settlement or were trump's comments simply rhetoric? they don't know. they are going to reporters to get answers that way. the president for his part today said his views have changed and are changing on president assad of syria. changed since when? in 2013, he said the united states should not attack syria and keep all troops out, not our problem or since last week his secretary of state said we don't care whether assad is there or not, do whatever you want. what are you doing? what do you mean? what are you sig nalling not just to our enemies and people who challenge us around the world, to our military? the people who work for you have no idea what you mean or what they should be doing.

in the midst of this quietly last night on the federal register noticed by a bloomberg reporter, jennifer jacobs, that announced what is the coordin e coordinating body for national security decision making in the white house, national security council has been a remarkable shinie ing catastrophe in this administration. mike flynn fired after 24 days on the job because of his undisclosed communications with foreign governments he apparently lied about. the first national deputy security advisor was basically unhired before she was properly on the job and news the second pick for the national security council is now being reassigned and may be being sent to singapore against her will because she doesn't want to leave washington but the job

they're offering is in singapore. and trump personnel have apparently been using the national security council as a political chop shop to come up with an alternative republican friendly conspiracy to try to make the investigations into the russia scandal themselves a scandal. now we learn from the federal register and jennifer jacobs reporting the national security council is being redone again. steve bannon will no longer be on the national security council principals committee. the chairman of the national intelligence and joint chiefs of staff will be restored to that committee. maybe that's awesome in terms of establishing national security normalcy and stability or maybe this is just a new round of churn and chaos in a part of the government where churn and chaos are not just amazing, they can be scary. today, in an related story the "new york times" reports on

the leader of an important iraqi sunni tribe who has been in washington the last ten days for meetings what will happen in iraq after the fight against the islamic state is over. he has been in washington for ten days to have those meetings but he has not been able to have them. he has not been able to meet with anyone in the trump administration. he has made the most of it instead meeting with leaders in congress and stuff, he said obviously it would be better to have meetings with the national security council. maybe during my next visit. who knows if he's comforted to know back home the iraqi kurds are meeting with the president's bodyguard and his 36-year-old son-in-law. that's apparently who's making the decisions about america's future in iraq. in terms of steve bannon being out of the national security council once again the white house is offering a public explanation for that dramatic move that makes no sense. their explanation is banning was only on the national security

principals committee to keep an eye on mike flynn because they knew something was a little l k linky about mike flynn. a, why did you name him national security advisor then. now that mike flynn is gone, it's safe for steve ban none to give up his position on the national security council. okay, mike flynn left as national security advisor 51 days ago, if it was safe for steve bannon to leave that gig as soon as flynn was gone, why is he only leaving today. north korea just had another missile launch. the new administration appears to be, on purpose or not, threatening a unilateral war against korea and maybe syria and the secretary of state this is online one in place. the -- is the only one in place. the national security council is filled with empty desks and empty offices. there's a presidential summit starting with china tomorrow.

jared is supposedly point man on that. he's been in iraq this week with the president's bodyguard, in the sweatsuit. whatever you think about the companies of this administration, the world is not waiting for them to get it together. quite to the contrary. the world is now issuing its first thing, all systems go right now. boogie-woogie. we're about to see whether they are up for it. ♪ ♪ use the chase mobile app to send money in just a tap, to friends at more banks then ever before. you got next? chase. helping you master what's now and what's next. doctors recommend taking claritin every day distracting you? of your allergy season for continuous relief. claritin provides powerful, non-drowsy, 24-hour relief.

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do this. are you anywhere near a computer

right now. do this. it will crash for a second. go to the website of the national security council right now. type into google. it comes up the second thing after the wikipedia entry, what you get to when you find that website is nothing. it says check back soon for more information. that's the website of the national security council right now. please do check back for more information. it's important. the national security council is an important thing. today, bloomberg news was first to report for a second time, somebody has turned on the blender at the national security council without putting the lid on first. this time it's steve bannon from the principal's committee. nobody could explain what the former publisher of the right wing website was doing there. they put him back there in

january. now that he's out, the white house unveiled a fantastic retro-explanation what he was o doing there in the first place. telling bloomberg news bannon was placed on the committee in part to monitor trump's first national security advisor, michael flynn. bannon is no longer needed there with mcmaster in charge now. >> that was the official white house explanation to say why bannon was taken off the national security council. he was only put there to keep an eye on mike flynn. mike flynn was thegone from the six weeks ago. why they think this will clear it up for everyone. jennifer jacobs from bloomberg news. thanks for being here. congratulations on this scoop. >> thanks, rachel. >> correct me if i am wrong, this order was posted in the federal registry yesterday, no press release, no announcement.

is that true? how did you find out about it if that's how it came out. >> some of my sources in the administration reached out to me about 11:15 this morning just to flag me, flag this situation to let me know what was going on. it is a big deal to have this happen. it is less of a struggle of power demotion than power shift. mcmaster has more authority over more national security. what they were saying is, you know, and other sources telling me this was very much planned. we were talking about what was the reason steve bannon was in this key high power position in the first place. this gave us a little more insight today. the reason was i think some in the inner circle, trump's inner circle thought mike flynn was a little bit shaky, maybe a little bit flaky during the transition,

before inauguration day. i was told this was chief of staff reince priebus' idea to have steve on the principal's committee and look over flynn's shoulder to see what he was doing. if anything it tells you they had their doubts about him and a little skeptical about him and wanted to keep an eye on him. >> such a worse story than s saying steve bannon wasn't working out. whether or not you believe them, their explanation is we had serious doubts about the national security advisor who we nonetheless installed as national security advisor. >> trump had faith in him but not sure the inner circle did. >> the explanation, bannon was there to watch flynn. whether or not we believe that or take that as white house

spin, there is this unexplained day with bannon not leaving until 50 days after mike flynn resigned. and this assertion from the white house they had concerns about mike flynn and they were under no obligation to appoint him and needed a babysitter particularly they didn't really vet him, particularly was he taking money from foreign governme governments? >> i talked to several people in the administration, no one said we had serious doubts about mike flynn, we wanted someone to keep an eye on him to look over his shoulder to make sure he's getting the job done. the timing on it, according to my sources they knew all along if flynn wasn't there ban none would step down and the loss of a pro forma position and not a lot will change because steve bannon is still welcome at

national security council meetings, he's just no longer on that top board panel of chief decision-mak decision-makers, your cabinet level people. that executive committee called the principals committee but still welcome at the national security council meetings, the larger one. he was at one of the national security council meetings today and i was told he wasn't going to thecommittee meetings all along even though he had the authority to be there so not sure a lot changes here. >> the story the white house is telling you about this is remarkable as a ship in a bottle. whether or not any of that is the truth it will take so many more layers to understand what happened and to get to it. but i appreciate you getting the

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nothing quite says i'm sorry for making you pull an all night like hand-delivered coffee and bagels the morning after. that is exact which what senator merkley of oregon bought the senate floor staff this morning after he completed his 15 1/2 hour all night holding the senate floor against the nomination of judge neil gorsuch to the supreme court. senator merkley started speaking at sick:45 p.m. last night and

didn't stop until after 10 a.m. this morning. he argued at length over a more than 15 hour period the senate shouldn't consider jung gorsuch's nomination until the trump campaign's possible ties with russia has been completed. back home, he was cheered on by his constituents. not the only one getting support or pressure from folks back home on this issue. democratic senator this week, mark warner, was one of a handful of democrats on the fence of supporting the nomination. he announced monday he would not support judge gorsuch, dozens of people showed up at his office in fairfax, virginia, not because they were angry with the position, they wanted to say thank you. that was in virginia yesterday. nevada today, constituents of republican senator, dean heller, urged him to not go nuclear. urged him to not support his party abolishing the filibuster

as a way of getting judge gorsuch through with less than 60 votes. pressure at home and washington and all the pressure building even before the news broke overnight, judge gorsuch appears to have plagiarized portions of a book and an domestic articeco. there's-che there's-academic article. there's concern where this will end up. senator merkley who held the floor all night and then brought bagels the next morning. he join us next. (man vo) it was may, when dad forgot how to brush his teeth.

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you could be a sten nothste in the united states senate. they take down every spoken word. they also do it while standing. they stand the entire time. see her there. they have their machines strapped around their necks while they stand there and write things down. it's hard enough on a normal day. it's especially difficult when a senator talks for 15 hours straight without taking a break like senator jeff merkley did last night to oppose the nomination to the supreme court. check it out. look how many he cycled through. this one in the grey jacket, this one in the paisley shirt, a new one in the tan suit, a new one in the pink sweater and new one in the black blazer and a new one. then they got a man. one man. it took a relay team of six sten

nothing fer where stenographers to write down his speech last night. if we thought he was going to run out of gas in those 15 hours, out of material, at quarter past mid night in hour six he got some new material. you can see it happen. that starve there spot shadowed. he reaches under the desk, i think he's grabbing paper out of the print are the and passes it off to senator merkley. he takes a beat to absorb it. recognize what that is and he shares it with the class. >> breaking news. a political report has just come out that says that judge gorsuch committed plagiarism. well, that's news i had not heard. i'll read the article. we can all learn about it at the

same time. supreme court nominee, neil gorsuch copied the structure and language used by several authors and failed to cite source material in his book in an economic article according to documents provided to "politico." >> senator jeff merkley last night reacting in realtime to that midnight "politico" report accusing judge gorsuch of plagiarism on more than one occasions. one of many surprises. senator jeff merkley from oregon, i have to ask you, how are you feeling? >> i got a little 90 minute nap earlier and some food and i'm feeling better. >> you spoke for 15 1/2 hours last night and you've had 90 minutes sleep since then? >> that's correct. that's right. >> if you start swearing or speaki ining nonsense we'll cutr mike, sir. >> thank you. my mind's a little clouded right now. >> let me ask you about that clip that we just played which was you responding in realtime

to the sort of last minute revelation about judge gorsuch that he's been seriously accused and substantively accused of some plagiarism in his public work. obviously, you had to react to that in realtime with a little bit of time to reflect on that. do you think that is a major issue on his confirmation? >> i don't think it is going to be because the republican majority has their hands over their ears and they're not interested in hearing anything about him that would cause them to shake up their momentum. that's really the way it has been all through this. the fact that we have a stolen sate and that they're participating in that theft and they're going to do great damage not just to the senate but to the supreme court, it's all just pretty much, hey, let me cover my eyes and cover my ears and just follow the majority leader

forward. this is really a very dark moment for the u.s. senate with grave consequences for the nation. >> we know some of your democratic senate colleagues tonight are planning to speak well into the night tonight continuing your effort last night to spotlight attention and try to bring national attention to it, if not slow it down. can you tell us, it looks like the republicans are perfectly comfortable getting rid of the filibuster so-called nuclear option. that means the judge can be confirmed with 51 votes instead of 60 vote threshold. do democrats have any other tricks up your sleeve to stop this thing procedurally? >> there is very little we can do procedurally. once we take a vote tomorrow, in which we will have the 41 senators to block closing debate, at that point, what will happen is the majority leader

can ask the chair whether the super majority rule applies to confirmation of supreme court justices and be yes, it does. he'll challenge the ruling. if he has 51 senators willing to overturn the ruling of the chair, immediately becomes the simple majority. other than voting against the motion to overturn the ruling of the chair, we don't have good tools to be able to block it. i really hope -- the reason i wanted to dramatize this issue was to say, let's stop. this is like a train going over a cliff, not just taking the senate with it, the supreme court, apply the brakes and ponder the fact this has never been done in u.s. history and never before has a seat been stolen and forwarded to the next administration in hopes of packing the court. if this succeed s for ever more the majority will use it as a

tool they can choose that turns the court perpetual warfare who can pack the court the most and loses its legitimacy in the united states as a team of fair jurists that call the balls and strikes. it's already lost a lot of its luster but this will put it in a whole new category. >> if this goes as people expect it to go this week and what you're describing comes to pass, in a hypothetical situation where the democrats take the senate majority in midterm elections. i realize structurally that would be very difficult to do in the next elections next november. if they did take the majority in the senate, would you expect they would then refuse to confirm any trump nominees for the remainder of this first term of the presidency simply because that would equalize what they did with merrick garland and neil gorsuch and democrats wouldn't want to roll over if that's the way the republicans

play this game now? >> i think we would really press for a nominee to be someone who is down the middle, like merrick garland. i don't think we would necessarily just say, no, you can't nominate anyone and we won't hold a hearing. to do that, that is unacce unacceptable. we have a constitutional responsibility of advice and consent and we need to hold a vote and put it on the floor. we would really push hard for the president to start from the point of putting someone forward who is not from the far right, the way merrick garland is. >> senator jeff merkley of oregon, who's now dangerously without sleep, sir. i'm not allowed to order you as senator to do anything. as a fellow human being, get somebody to drive you home and go to sleep. >> thank you so much. >> thank you, sir. senator jeff merkley, democrat of oregon. we have a little bit of breaking news tonight. not out of washington but it is politics news.

a high ranking republican who's apparently now on the verge of being impeached, looks like he will be criminally charged if he is impeached and looks like he may be. it will be by his fellow republicans. that story has been breaking since we've been on the air tonight and we'll have that story for you next. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on all of my purchasing. and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... which adds fuel to my bottom line. what's in your wallet?

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so we have breaking news tonight from the great state of alabama where we appear to be this close to the downfall of a republican governor at the hands of his fellow republicans.

alabama governor robert bentley has been under three separate investigations since last year stemming from an alleged affair with a top staffer. part of the reason we know of this alleged affair with a top staffer is because of the tapes that were published in alabama of him talking to his top staffer about it. ready? deep breath. okay. >> you'd kiss me. i love that. you know, i do love that. that -- when you know, when i stand behind you and i put my arms around you and i put my hands on your breasts, and i put my hands on you and pull you in real close, i love that too. baby, let me tell you what we're going to do when i start locking the door. we're going to do -- if we're

going to do what we did the other day, we're going to have to start locking the door. >> i know. that whatever it is has not just been gossip in alabama. it's been big political news because the question whether or not it was actually a crime, whether the governor used state or campaign funds in carrying out or covering up that alleged extracurricular activity. now the governor has been under investigation by the state attorney general, by the state ethics office and by a state house impeachment committee. the state ethics commission tonight has found probable cause that governor bentley in fact broke the law. al.com determining that the governor violated one count of state ethics laws and three counts of campaign finance laws. now the ethics board is referring the case for prosecution, referring the case to the local district attorney. if convicted, governor bentley would face between two years and 20 years in prison on each

count. an attorney for the governor says he'll defend himself against these charges, but this is not shaping up to be a good day or good week for robert bentley. on friday the house impeachment committee will be presenting his report and then they'll start impeachment hearings for the alabama governor on monday. if the national news gets to be too much to take, alabama is happy to distract you this week. [ ominous music ]

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update on an exclusive story we reported here last night. last night we got a glimpse behind the scenes of the environmental protection agency in the trump era. somebody leaked to us these apparent internal epa memos. we've now made them public. we believe these are real, even though the epa hasn't answered any of our questions about them. one of the memos tells epa staffers they need to start reporting any action everywhere in the country to headquarters in d.c., everything everywhere effective immediately. new centralized system. second memo leaked to us calls for a broad and very fast-moving overhaul of all epa regulations. quote, by may 15th the offices of air and radiation, land and emergency management, chemical and safety, water, environmental information, congressional and intergovernmental relations and small disadvantaged business utilization should provide the task force with recommendations regarding specific rules that should be regarded for repeal, replacement or modification.

step one due by may 15th, six weeks from now. which regulations are we getting rid of? go! we posted those memos last night. after we did that, three u.s. senators today sent the head of the epa, scott pruitt, a letter demanding that he explain what these memos are about, that he clarify what this process is that has not been publicly announced but is the subject of these internal memos? the senators say the memos would overturn well established epa procedures and undermine epa's mission to protect the health of the american people and the environment. quote, administrator prosecute inexplicably ignores the input from two vital sources, scientists and the american people and tells people his plans will make unscientific decisions more common in the future. signed sincerely senators brian schatz, ed markey and sheldon whitehou whitehouse. the epa will not answer our questions about what these memos

mean and what this new process is that they're not talking about publicly, but they are directing their employees about internally to the point where somebody who had access to those memos decided to feed them out to news the outside world to try to get an explanation of what's going on. epa won't answer our questions about those memos at all. we only believe they're authentic. we can't prove it because they won't authenticate them. the question now that the senators are asking, will the epa own up to this process that they didn't want to discuss publicly? will they tell these senators what they are doing? even though they keep giving us the runaround. watch this space. that does it for us tonight. well will see you again tomorrow. now it's time for the last word with lawrence o'donnell. good evening. >> good evening, rachel. the latest breaking news is that steve bannon had to be pushed out. that he resisted the move, and at one point threatened to quit if the move went forward. we came this close, rachel. we came this close. to the quitting story. >> threaten