the theme of the night in today's news is that it works, when you fight. it works, when you push back. not always, and almost never immediately. but when you are being pushed around, and you are mad about it. and, you know, somebody's messing stuff up that shouldn't be messed with, pushing back is a good idea. because not pushing back never works.

and pushing back sometimes does. for example, it seems to have worked tonight to stop the trump administration from stealing your mailbox. from, literally, snatching your local mailbox off that corner in your neighborhood where it has been forever. you may have seen some of these pictures this week. flatbed trucks with a whole bunch of our mailboxes piled up in the back, as workers unbolt them from the sidewalk, remove them, put them in a truck, and drive them away. they've been going around, unbolting these things and taking them. but apparently, as of tonight, they are going to stop doing that. at least, for now. at least, until after the election. because of the pushback they've had against it. and this is important, as a matter of principle and, i think, in terms of understanding where we're at, as americans. it's, also, like a substantively interesting and important part of this story we have been covering now for a few weeks. but let's -- in all of the coverage that we've done about the postal service and the president saying he's going to

sabotage it, in order to stop it from -- stop the postal service from being able to handle mailed-in ballots for the election. all the elements that we have covered around this story, for the past couple of weeks, i feel like the one thing that we haven't done is really talk about where this starts. and, it turns out, it's really gross. just a few weeks after trump was inaugurated, republican national committee, republican party, announcing effectively that the trump guys would be coming in, taking over. now, i have to tell you, they have since taken down that press release we just put up on the screen. because they're embarrassed about it now. but nothing ever, really, goes away on the internet. and we captured it so we still have it, even though they've deleted it. and even now, you know, three-plus years after they put this up, it is still amazing to

see. look. today, republican national committee finance chairman. describing these longtime friends of the party and the supporters of this administration, elliot broidy, michael cohen, and louis dejoy will serve as national deputy finance chairmen of the rnc. trump gets sworn in, in january. the republican party announced this, like, six or eight weeks later. but look at who they announce. the new deputy finance chairs of the rnc. number one is michael cohen. the same michael cohen, ultimately, convicted on multiple felonies. sentenced to years in federal prison. currently, out on home release because of coronavirus, and about to release a tell-all book in which he's supposed to describe multiple crimes he committed with the president.

second rnc finance co-chair announced in april 2017, by the republican party, is this guy. elliot broidy, who had previously pled guilty to bribing multiple new york state officials. was only spared prison time, after he flipped and turned state's evidence. that -- that was in his record, before they picked him. after they picked him, in the trump era, elliot broidy has been in the headlines for lots of things. for example, as the reported subject of multiple, federal grand jury investigations into various corruption schemes. also, you might remember when this guy from the campaign effort, george nader. was why george nader gave elliot broidy $2.5 million before i went off to prison. he did end up stepping down from

his role when it turned out he used all the same documents and tricks, just like the president did with michael cohen, as a campaign finance violation in 2016. so, yeah. so, here is the press release again, right? announcing the new money men for in the trump era. michael cohen. that did not work out well. number two, elliot broidy, that did not work out well. but also, steve wynn, of course, also, would soon have to go. resigning from the rnc as its finance chairman, amid sexual harassment allegations that led him to, not only give up the top-money job at the republican party, he also had to give up ownership of his own, gigantic company, and pay his company $20 million. so that was really -- i mean, this one document. i understand why the rnc has deleted it now, right?

this is one for the ages. just weeks into it, they'll be taking over money matters for the republican party. right? all the best people. but then, there's one other guy on the list. louis dejoy. he, alongside michael cohen and elliot broidy and steve wynn, was the guy announced in that press release. louis dejoy is, now, trump's appointee as postmaster general. the guy, who trump has installed to take over the post office, as the president embarrasses on an admitted overt campaign. to mess up the mail. to mess up the post office so it can't handle the ballots that are going to be mailed in for -- for the election. >> they need that money, in order to have the post officer work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots. if we don't make a deal, that means they don't get the money. that means they can't have universal mail-in voting. they just can't have it. >> the president appointed this

guy, louis dejoy. republican fundraiser with no experience in postal anything, other than him being invested, heavily, in companies that compete against the post office. and so, he would, therefore, personally, financially, benefit if the post office fails under his leadership. president trump installed him in office in may. mr. dejoy immediately instituted changes to deliberately slow down mail delivery. admitting that would be a consequence of the policy changes that he was instituting. he was, soon, summoned to meet with top-congressional leaders to explain what he was doing to deliberately slow down mail delivery. although, the president recently told reporters he has never spoken to louis dejoy as postmaster general, "the washington post" now reports that, in fact, right before louis dejoy went to that meeting with congressional democrats, he met with the president in the oval office. why is the president lying about the fact that he has been talking to this guy since he has been postmaster general?

and why does the postmaster general need to meet with the president? well, he did have that meeting in the oval office with the president, which the president lied about. then, he went and had that meeting with congressional leaders. and that night, after he met with congressional leaders, louis dejoy, late on a friday night, removed nearly two dozen senior executives from the post office of their jobs. these are people who oversee mail delivery and logistics. he took them out of their jobs, late on a friday night. so as to concentrate the power in mail delivery, in himself. then, we started to learn it wasn't just these policy changes that deliberately slowed down the mail. ordering postal workers to work less, and to leave mail behind. we started to learn from postal workers, even though there had been no public announcement about it, that they were removing sorting equipment. removing the machines that sort the mail from post offices across the country. multiple news agencies have now

obtained internal documents that show that, yes, they are pulling more than 670 bulk sorting machines out of postal facilities all over the country. as "the washington post" puts it today, these machines are mostly being pulled from, quote, high-population areas. which translates in electoral terms, of course, to places where democrats live. after local press around the country started to discover that there had been notification letters from the postal service to individual states. warning them that the post office, under louis dejoy, doesn't plan to get ballots in, in time, to be kounltcounted une timeframes that states have set up for voters this fall. "the washington post" was first to report today that actually it's 46 states and d.c. that have received these from the postal service. effectively saying, we don't plan on getting ballots in, in time, to be counted. these plans that you have for vote by mail.

we don't think they're going to work. the slowdowns in the mail, already, are having a material effect on people's lives. just anecdotally, i will tell you. you know, we've set up this website www.sendittorachel.com. that means we get a lot of feed back from you guys, twitter messages, voicemails, all the different ways that you guys are able to get in touch with us. i have never asked for any viewer feedback on this subject. but anecdotally, here at the show, we have been sort of flooded with unsolicited accounts. people wanting us to know that their prescriptions are arriving late. their bills are getting to them late, and/or their payments of their bills are being delayed when they send them back in the mail. so people are getting late fees from paying their various bills. and, in some cases, that's messing with their credit ratings. small business owners, who have always relied on postal shipping, have been volunteering

to us, to me, and this cable news show. i think just because we have been covering the story like everybody else. business owners have been contacting us to tell us how much their businesses are getting screwed up now. by brand new shipping delays they never had before. and mail delays. and stuff just not working with the mail, the way it always has before. and there isn't some glitch in something that's going wrong at the postal service. this isn't, like, a covid thing. this is deliberate stuff. this is a deliberate sabotage of what the postal service does. they are messing it up, on purpose. and louis dejoy admits that the stuff that he has done, yeah, it seems to be slowing down deliveries. but, in the long run, it'll be all for the good. but that material effect on people's lives and the way we all depend on the mail. it has -- it has led to a couple of interesting things that we are now seeing in the wild. one, is that -- and this sort of, like, plucks all my heart strings, all at once, just as a civics dork. we, at least, are seeing in

public, on social media and in our own anecdotal communications with our viewers. we're seeing people ask what they can do, how they can help. people have been writing to us. people have been writing online to like the postal workers unions. literally, asking if they, as citizens can volunteer to help sort the mail. or make meals for postal workers. or can they raise funds for their local post office? what can we do? we pay for the postal service with stamps. we, also, pay for it with our taxes. we shouldn't have to do that. it's the u.s. postal service. but we are seeing organically, that people really don't want the freaking mail messed with. they want to help, they want to protect the postal service. and they, also, are mad at people who are messing with it. in little midland, michigan, which is not far from saginaw, michigan, this week, we saw in the local press there that local folks organized a support the post office protest in their town.

the ap and local paper "the midland daily news" got some great photos from this protest. likely, see lots of other places in america. stamp out the postmaster general. or this one. want to screw up the election? screw up the post office. or this one. how is slowing down the post office making america great again? >> the midland daily news sent a reporter to cover the protest as well. quote, many drivers honked in support. people aren't mad at their postal workers. they aren't mad at their letter carriers. they're not mad at their local post office. they want to defend it and support the people who work there, who have always done a good job by us, as americans. the post office is an earnest, beloved, all-american,

nonpartisan, practical part of our lives. you mess with it, and you are messing with a lot of americans. who, apparently, are in the mood to push back. and i will tell you. as this story has grown, right, the appointment of this un -- inexperienced, you know, rnc deputy finance chairman, trump donor, who comes in and immediately sles do immediately slows down the mail. that we find out later he's pulled the sorting machines. we've been finding out, piece by piece. outrage has already been growing. in the midst of all this, also, this sort of growing rage about what's happening here. we have really seen them start to steal our mailboxes. pictures from oregon, i think, were the first to raise worries all over the place. although, i think initially, seeing these images from oregon, nobody knew if it was some kind of local issue or local glitch

there. but then, look at this. a reporter at the local nbc affiliate in montana, today, spent all day chasing the story about this happening in montana, too. the story about, as she kept on covering it, piece by piece. updating her reporting on twitter all day today, until she broadcast on nbc'smo montana affiliate tonight, a long piece. but it was happening in montana, in a big way. a really large number of public mailboxes being taken away in montana. more than 40% of the mailboxes in missoula, they're going to take away. at least 50% of those in billings? internal documents from the post office in montana, documenting all the boxes that they were told to remove. and then, she and her colleagues went through, one by one, and

documented where those post boxes are. you can see the list. next to the ymca. outside a popular grocery store. in front of the missoula courthouse. downtown in front of a senior-living facility. why are these being taken away in democratic senator, john tester, from montana, was already on this last night. writing to postmaster louis dejoy to ask him why the trump administration is taking away all these mailboxes in montana. after this day's worth of reporting on this today, when the nbc affiliate contacted the state's republican senator, steve daines to get their comment on it as well, they both decided that they, too, better write to louis dejoy and show some outrage here because who is going to defend this? i mean, if the trump administration thinks that republican voters can, somehow, be talked into the idea that slowing down the mail and stealing all the mailboxes is

great for america. and, therefore, republican senators and members of congress will go along and cheer for it. i mean, that just might need more thought, given the way the post office works in all of our lives. more american than apple pie. and i mean that in a specific sense. apple pie does not have its own line in the constitution. the post office does. it is a necessity. it is uncontroversial. it is integrated into the fabric of our lives. it is how we get prescriptions, particularly if we are veterans or senior citizens or if we live in rural areas. it's how we all get packages, which we get more of, than ever, because of the covid crisis. it's how we get our bills. it's how we get our letters. it's how we get our ballots because of the covid crisis. it's the freaking fracking mail we need it. republican and democrat from red states and blue states have asked louis dejoy to meet with them. npr is first to report that he is ignoring them, and no such

meeting has been scheduled. i mean, them getting rid of the sorting machines at postal facilities. and then, the mailboxes from your local street corner. this is something they made no announcement about. they made no public announcement that they were going to do this. we had to have it told to us by postal workers and by people who observed the trucks going around, picking up the mailboxes. i guess they never thought they'd have to answer for this stuff? but this is a fight against a thing that americans, actually, and quite broadly love and respect and don't want to go away. this is the kind of fight that most americans have a side they want to be on, and it is not the side that is stealing the mailboxes and telling us, yeah, i don't think it's going to work out for you to get your ballot in on time. but the important thing, here, is that pushback works. after a day of all this reporting, today, on the situation in montana and the outrage that ensued and the complaints, first, from the democratic u.s. senator there.

and then, thereafter, from the republican senator, republican member of congress, and her colleagues at nbc montana were first to report that they had confirmed with the postal service that, yeah, they were backing down. that the postal service in montana would stop what they were doing in montana. plans to take away 40 and 50% of the mailboxes in montana's biggest towns. they would stop that. they would put that on hold. and then, just before we got on the air tonight, the postal service confirmed it, nationally, because they were working on doing this nationally. but, now, with the pushback, they're going to put that on hold. they are going to stop taking the mailboxes away. postal service confirming, tonight, quote, we are not going to be removing any boxes. after the election, we're going to take a look at operations and see what we need and don't need. they were planning on doing this, everywhere. and then, people got really mad when they noticed them doing it

and they screamed and yelled and that stopped them. in this era, especially as we are getting closer and closer to the election and this stuff is getting more and more blatant and overt, hoping for the best doesn't work. right? shame doesn't work. we've seen the president, flat out, admit that he is doing this stuff for the reasons we know that he is doing it. but noise does, it turns out. not always but it's sort of the only thing that's working now. locally focused and complaint and hard questions and we're not going to take it, sometimes, works. at least, it did today, in montana. and then, very soon thereafter, nationwide. you can thank montana, i believe, for having saved your state from going through this same thing, maybe before the rest of us even knew it was starting to happen. we have been watching the story

evolve, all day in montana with the nbc affiliate in montana doing such brilliant work on this. when we found out that the pressure had worked, and that the montana postal service was changing its plans. and then, nationally, they were putting these plans on hold. we contacted senator john tester's office to talk about it. they initially told us he could not join us tonight because he is harvesting winter wheat right now on his farm. we fact checked them. we can confirm that is, in fact, what he has been doing. but after allowing us to badger his staff all day, senator tester did graciously agree leave his tractor and join us for a second. joining us now, fresh from harvesting the winter wheat, senator john tester. thanks so much for joining us this evening. i know the opportunity costs of what you are not able to do right now because you're here. >> well, look, i wish i was with you via video. obviously, i am on the wrong side of the digital divide. but i just want to thank you, rachel, for this. the postal service is so

critically important to all of america but, particularly to rural america. i don't know what the postal service is doing. though, their actions raise more questions than they answer. but i am happy that they put a pause in the removal of the collection boxes across montana and across the country. but this is just ridiculous. as you already pointed out, the postal service is in our constitution. the postal service is really important. it's -- it's not only important for -- for voting and ballots. it's important for prescription drugs and social security checks. and making sure people get parts for their equipment. or -- or for their home. and the fact is what -- what this postmaster general is doing who, by the way, has no business being postmaster general, is ridiculous. just ridiculous. trying to destroy part of the lifeblood of this great country. >> we saw the announcement today, that the postal service's inspector general is reviewing a number of things related to postmaster dejoy.

including, his own, financial conflicts of interest, that seem to be unresolved while he takes the helm of this agency. and while i think that's good news, in terms of accountability with some of the things he is clearly trying to do with this agency and some questions about him being at the helm. i am very conscious of the time here, and how close we are getting to the election. especially, not just for election day but, for the kinds of deadlines or pseudodeadlines th that we all have in mind to have them count in november. it really does seem like you complaining, alongside the republican members of your congressional delegation in montana, seems like you guys complaining stopped this in montana. and then, that helped stop this, nationwide. do you think that same kind of pressure, particularly in a bipartisan way, might also help get the sorting machines back? might, also, help reverse the personnel policy changes that have slowed down the mail already? might fix some of the rest of this? >> absolutely. i think the challenge that i

have right now is that i'm in the minority in the united states senate. mitch mcconnell has been walking hand in hand with donald trump. and make no mistake about it. the postmaster general is taking his orders from the president of the united states. he doesn't want the postal service to be what it's been, throughout this country's history. and -- and because of the election. he doesn't want everybody to ever their votes counted. i think it's pretty obvious by his statements. so, yes, it would help, greatly, if folks on the other side of the aisle would say this is crazy. this president is on the wrong path. he is taking the country down the wrong path. we need to make sure we save our post office and a lot of other things in this country, that are being blown up by -- by the president. >> montana senator jon tester. sir, again, thank you for cutting into your schedule. i know how harvest time is superbusy for you and that's no joke. thanks for timing time to helping us with this today.

>> absolutely, rachel. this is a real important issue for america. i will just tell you that. >> i know that, for sure. thank you, sir. all right. we have got much more to come tonight. including, we're going to be talking with the -- the person inside the system, who, i believe, was the first person in the country to alert the nation that something weird and very hard to reverse was going on, in terms of the way the trump administration is trying to break the postal service. this person, who let the country know about one of the first and worst things they've been doing is going to join us, live, next. stay with us. feeling stressed?

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you know how sometimes you get a piece of mail, and it has a little barcode printed on it? or printed on a little sticker that's been stuck to it, a little barcode? look. here's what i learned today. this is a delivery barcode sorter. when it is running at peak performance, it can process 36,000 pieces of mail, per hour. one machine. mail gets -- look at that. mail gets fed into the machine. the machine, then, reads the barcode printed on the envelope or postcard. that information is then used to sort the mail into hundreds of different slots. each, headed to a different delivery area. tens of thousands of pieces of mail run through these machines every hour, so they can be correctly sorted for delivery.

and now, without any announcement about it, and without any explanation, we have learned from postal workers that hundreds of those. hundreds of delivery barcode sorters, as well as other key pieces of sorting equipment, are being removed out of postal facilities all over the country. they're not just being turned off or postal workers are being told not to use them. they're actually being taken away. vice news, their tech division motherboard was first to report yesterday that these machines were being removed, without any official explanation or reason given. as reporter aaron gordon pointed out, quote, in many cases, these are the machines that would be tasked with sorting ballots. now, that's certainly jarring news. but when vice first reported that, we didn't have a sense just how big this postal service plan might be. until today. the postal service is taking more than 500 delivery barcode

out of service. they're just being decommissioned. taken offline. ge again, not just turned off or unplugged but taken away. even though the postal service had previously said it's moving equipment around its network to optimize processing. they're not moving it to other places to use somewhere else. they are just getting rid of it. multiple sources told vice news that they have personally witnessed the machines, which cost millions of dollars, being destroyed or thrown in the dumpster. postal workers have unions. union officials have said the result of these plans was clear. quote, this will slow mail processing. the story is now getting bigger, by the hour. but i have to tell you, this part of the story about what the trump administration is doing to the post office, on purpose, in against of the election when we're all about to start voting by mail. this whole part of the story,

all, started with one person. the first person who alerted the whole country that this kind of thing was happening is a woman named kimberly carol. she is president of the iowa postal workers union. she is a longtime postal clerk from the great city of waterloo, iowa. and she did an interview with npr this week, in which she surprised her interview by saying something that had not been reported anywhere else. quote, mail is beginning to pile up in our offices, and we are seeing equipment being removed. the news was such a surprise that the npr interviewer was caught off guard. asked her to explain. she explained that sorting machines were being removed at her own facility, in waterloo, and at postal facilities across iowa. and she made it clear that this was not about trying to save money. this was not going to save money. quote, i don't see this as a co cost-saving measure. i see this as a way to undermine public confidence in the mail service. joining us now, kimberly carol.

ms. carol, thanks for your work at the postal service, your work in the union, and thanks for helping alert the country that this was going on. we didn't know, before you said it. >> well, i appreciate that you have taken up the story, and made the public aware of what's happening. so, thank you. >> well, you know, the -- it would be a lot easier for us to report on the sort of major and consequential changes of the post office, if they were announcing that they were doing these things. major policy changes at the post office. particularly, ones that are going to affect when and whether people get their mail. seem like the sort of thing that we would previously have the post office kind of put out for public debate, put them up for public comment. but some of the other things they have done in terms of overtime rules and giving postal workers different directions about how to handle mail and when not to bother to deliver it. this has all just been stuff we've found out from you guys. they haven't been making public announcements act the

announcemen announcements about these things. at least that's the way it seems to the outsider. or is there a public-facing part of this that we have just been missing? >> no, i think it was a deliberate act to avoid public comment because, in the past, they have tried similar types of changes. where they were closing post offices or closing plants. that happened not too very long ago. and the public rallied behind the postal service, and stopped that. got a halt to closing plants and post offices in order to protect the service standards. and what we do for the public. so, i think it was deliberate to make sure that the public didn't have an opportunity to comment. and get them to stop what they were doing. >> now that we do know what they're doing, and people are starting to feel the pain in terms of slowed and more erratic service. what sort of public feedback do you think would make a

difference? we covered a story, at the top of the hour, about people being very mad about curbside mailboxes. about postal collection boxes being taken off the streets in montana. that seems to have led to a halt on that practice, around the country, after some outrage was expressed about it today. what do you think they will respond to, in terms of these things they are doing to slow down the mail? >> well, i think public -- the public needs to be communicating directly with the post office. and also, they need to be getting their senators to be taking action to take away the justification for all of this. because, let's face it, the reason that they are forgiving for all of this is a cost-saving measure because of the financial situation the postal service finds itself in. it's important that the public understands that if we were to get the covid finance, the covid relief that, that would take

away the justification that dejoy and the postal service has for taking these drastic actions so, so immediately. so, it would be critical for the public to be putting pressure on the senate to provide us with relief. and then, make sure that the president doesn't veto that. unfortunately, we have been a part of the relief conversation because we have continued to provide services to the public. but, in each and every time that has come up for ratification, we have been, essentially, line item vetoed before it actually got to the president. so it's important that we continue to put that kind of pressure. and what happened in montana is very encouraging to me because that is showing that the pressure does work. so, i -- i'm -- i'm energized by

all of that. >> me, too. that is -- it's the first encouraging -- i -- i feel like i've been kind of despondent seeing a lot of small d democracy stuff being undermined and felt like there wasn't much anybody could do to stop it. i think you're right. that it is encouraging to see what happened today in montana. i will, also, tell you that it makes a huge difference that you, as a postal clerk, were able to tell us about them taking that postal machine out of your office in iowa. that is what broke open this story so that we anyway some of these unannounced changes were happening, at a very serious level, all over the country. and we wouldn't have known that without you. kimberly karol, thanks for your service. thanks for helping us understand what's happening here. >> thank you for -- for bringing the story to everyone's attention. thank you. >> we've got much more to get to here tonight. lots more to this story. stay with us. tonight

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january 2017, president obama said he would save speaking out for, only, really important things. that he wanted to leave his successor time to be president, on his own terms. but he said he would speak out, if something really fundamental was at stake and at risk in our country. and today, president obama, apparently, decided it was one of those times. >> the republican party, for quite some time, has actively tried to discourage people's votes from counting, in all kinds of ways. whether it's voter i.d. laws or, you know, blatant gerrymandering, making it difficult for people in certain precincts to find their polling places. right? you know, all that stuff is contrary to american democracy. but, i think the republicans'

view has been it's all fair game, as long as it helps us gain power. what we've never seen before is a president say, i'm going to try to actively kneecap the postal service to encourage voting, and i will be explicit in the reason that i'm doing it. that's sort of unheard of. >> president obama today. that's sort of unheard of. in practical terms, in terms of dealing with this problem for what the republican party and the president are now doing. president obama said, today, that people should definitely try to get their ballots in, as early as possible. that's, of course, advice that we are hearing from all sorts of places now. that makes very good sense. but i was superinterested to hear him also offer another very specific piece of advice to a very specific group of americans. a way to help, that he is asking people to consider. again, this was very specific and quite unique piece of advice. >> understandably, i think a lot

of older poll workers are going to be a little more hesitant about exposing themselves to the pandemic. and so, one thing that those of us who are interested in helping democracy, not just the campaign, can do if we're relatively young and healthy, and less at risk of serious damage if we contract the disease, is to volunteer as a poll worker. that can be hugely important. >> hugely important. and within reach, for those of us who are interested in helping democracy, not just the campaign. this is -- this is not your run-of-the-mill advice from government types, right? president obama going out of his way and discussing what's going on around this election to say that, specifically, if you are young and healthy and you are interested in helping democracy. if you are young and healthy, young and healthy people, this year, should help protect democracy.

should help protect our election this year. specifically, by volunteering to be a poll worker because, we all know from going in and voting, wherever you vote, poll workers are always adorable, awesome, earnest, old people. it's always senior citizens. in the pandemic, we cannot count on them to do that. it's putting them at too much risk. so, young humans, young people, who are not particularly at risk from getting seriously -- from being seriously -- what did the president put it? people who are at less risk of serious damage, in terms of covid. bless you all. if you want to do that, you'd start with a simple google search of your state, wherever you live. iowa or missouri or massachusetts. wherever. and become a poll worker. put in your state. put in become a poll worker. just a cursory search using your state's name and become a poll worker will generate state websites that outline how you can become a poll worker. and again, this is not something you do for any one campaign.

this is something you do, on a no-partisan basis, just to make sure the elections go off smoothly. just to do your part. i will tell you, if you put in montana and become a poll worker, it doesn't come up with -- with -- with poll worker options. it gives you options for how you can serve as an election judge. which is actually the same as a poll worker everywhere else. it just has an awesome name. every state in the country wants and needs poll workers. they're eager for you to help. they will train you. if you are young and healthy, and you are going to answer president obama's call on this and that's something you can do, the one piece of advice that i would give you is, do not delay. time is shortme. you want to get in, in time for the training. if you want to get involved, now is your chance to do so. do your part. d, now is your chance to do so. do your part second chances. but a subaru can. (dad) you guys ok? (vo) eyesight with pre-collision braking.

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but no matter how healthy you feel, your immune system declines as you age, increasing your risk for getting shingles. so what can protect you? shingrix protects. for the first time ever, you can protect yourself from shingles with a vaccine proven to be over 90% effective. shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. the most common side effects are pain, redness, and swelling at the injection site, muscle pain, tiredness, headache, shivering, fever, and upset stomach. talk to your doctor or pharmacist about protecting yourself with shingrix. shingles doesn't care. shingrix protects. so as we've been talking about tonight, the theme in tonight's news seems like pressure works sometimes. sometimes it works when you push back.

today after citizens in montana, for example, raised a huge ruckus over the postal service taking mailboxes off american streets 80 days out from an election that will need to be conducted mostly by mail because of the pandemic, in montana elected officials, democrats and republicans, were roused to action and roused to complain. lo and behold, the postal service responded by saying, okay, we'll stop taking away the mailboxes. we won't do anything more like that until after the election. first they said it for montana. then they said it for the whole country. pressure sometimes works. that idea is kind of the calling card of a group we've been sort of checking in with periodically over the last 3 1/2 years, a group called indivisible. you may remember them as the folks who started out just as a google doc written shortly after the 2016 election. it was written by former democratic congressional staffers who knew what kinds of constituent pressure members of congress react to and what kinds they ignore. they basically wrote this really specific instruction manual on how to advocate effectively for your priorities when you don't

hold any power. it was very granular, very unsexy stuff that was nevertheless really helpful. you know, don't know what to say when you call your member of congress? here, use a script like this one. don't know which member of congress to call? call your own and only your own, and here's why. even if they're good on this issue, call them anyway. don't know what to do when you go to the town hall meeting for your senator or congress member? here, use these step-by-step instructions for what's the best way to conduct yourself at a town hall. indivisible grew to thousands of chapters across the country. not thousands of people, thousands of chapters. and it got me wondering what people who think about this stuff full-time, what they think about this time we're in now, 80 days out from the next presidential election, a presidential election which really does seem like it needs protecting. there's no instruction manual for this, but pressure did work today. pressure today did save the mailboxes. what next? joining us now is ezra levin, co-founder and co-executive director of indivisible.

ezra, it's great to see you. thanks for making time tonight. >> great to see you, rachel. thanks. >> so this sort of feels like a job for regular citizens but also a job for people who think strategically about these things in terms of what works and what doesn't. how are you thinking about the right kind of pressure, the most effective types of public feedback to try to protect the election? >> well, i love that the theme at the top of the hour was pressure works. i think we could have named the indivisible guide "pressure works" instead because that was the basic idea. at the heart of it is this idea that regardless of who your representative, who your senator is. that representative, that senator, they're going to wake up every single morning thinking, how am i going to get re-elected? and the answer is they've got to convince their constituents that they're one of the good people in congress. they're the ones who are actually fighting for them. and you know a good way to convince your constituents that you're not one of the good

people in congress? it's to attack the united states postal service. as you covered, the united states postal service is incredibly popular, not just among democrats, among independents, among republicans, among folks in rural areas, suburban areas, exurban areas. everybody in the united states practically likes the united states postal service other than apparently mitch mcconnell and donald trump. and they don't like it for a particular reason. they don't like it because it is a threat to their power. so we think that the tool that everybody watching this right now has in their tool belt is constituent power. their individual representatives and senators have the power to affect what the usps does. so if they make their voice heard in this moment, we can change things. they've already done it, right? we've already seen it earlier. we've been able to roll back some of the sabotage, but we need to now think about how we can roll back all of the sabotage. >> are you heartened at all by this news that the inspector general at the postal service is apparently looking into louis

dejoy? are you heartened at all by the calls that there ought to be big spotlit hearings in the house if not in the senate to get dejoy there and other administration members there to defend what they're doing? do you think that kind of thing would make a difference, or is time too short? >> look, time is short, so i think it's great that the inspector general is launching an investigation, but we don't have enough time. currently the hearings that are scheduled in the house of representatives, which i remind you is controlled by the democrats, they're not scheduled for another month until september. now, there are representatives like ayanna pressley, who have called for the house to come back from vacation to start hearings immediately. i think that's a good idea. i think they should do that. i think as soon as next week, we could see emergency hearings and haul dejoy in front of committee members, haul him in front and have him answer for what he's done. and if he's unwilling to come, then haul his bosses in. there are six members of the board of governors of the postal service. they should also come in and answer for what dejoy is doing. that is power the house democrats have, and i think they should use it.

so really right now it doesn't matter if you've got a republican, an independent, or a democratic house member or senator. you should be telling them, hey, we want hearings right now. as long as the house and the senate are in recess, no member of congress ought to be able to appear in any kind of public venue, be able to have any kind of virtual town hall without being asked, what are you doing to protect the usps? >> ezra levin, co-executive director of indefensive itsible. we've always put safety first. ♪ ♪ and we always will. ♪ ♪ for people. ♪ ♪ for the future. ♪ ♪ and there has never been a summer when it's mattered more. wherever you go, summer safely. get 0% apr financing

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all right. that's going to do it for me tonight but i want to tell you i'll be back on monday night, but things will look really different because on monday night we're going to be covering the democratic national convention. i'm super nervous. i will see you then. now it's time for "the last word" where ali velshi is in for lawrence tonight. good evening, ali. >> i can't imagine what makes rachel maddow nervous. you are going to be fantastic as you always are. we look forward to seeing it, rachel. rest up. i mean i know that to be true to some degree, and that's what makes you as wonderful as you are, because you care so much that you're actually nervous about it, rachel. thank you, my friend. have yourself a great weekend. >> thank you, ali. all right. donald trump knows that he is

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