good evening, everyone. we begin "the reidout" tonight with a question of survival, mainly the urgent survival checks and relief that millions of americans are desperately waiting on as the pandemic continues to sink its teeth into our economy. and that president biden and the house democrats have a plan for in the form of a $1.9 trillion covid relief bill that finally passed the house this weekend. the bill includes a new round of $1,400 stimulus checks to bring the total federal relief to the $2,000 they promised and hundreds of billions of dollars for schools, vaccine distribution, and testing, relief for the people who have

fallen behind on their rent and for struggling small businesses as well as money for food relief and child care. for americans like these who are bearing the brunt of the crisis. >> there's a lot of people that do need help and need it bad. >> there's people in here that will come in, and they're paying with food stamps, and they're not even enough money on their food stamps to pay for their whole entire order. and it breaks my heart because you see them with little kids and you're just wondering, like, are they, you know, getting food at school because, you know, the covid is shutting down schools. >> i see a mask, you know, and it reminds me of, you know, my father dying. covid is the main thing, you know, i want a solution for right now is covid. covid is really ravishing and breaking the hearts of a lot of americans. >> the senate is expected to pass its own version of the bill with one important and not so great change. it won't include an increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. more on that in a minute. now, the faces that you just saw, the struggling american

families seem to be missing from one party, the republicans' calculations, as we all face this once in a century global pandemic. instead, they're showing an indifference to policy or even to democracy, focusing instead on further radicalizing their base over the weekend at cpac, the conservative political action conference that's devolved from kooky, fascist, com i con to something that looked more like jonestown. this week the cpac crowd unfurled an actual gold trump statue made in mexico where they still haven't paid for the wall, and which was wheeled around so that republican supplicants could kneel before it like the vanquished subjects. the once grand old party's only priority at this point in its stilted history is to inject maga cult ideology into every single facet of political life while maintaining its leader's election lies to enhance their

own political clout and to keep funneling money to the dear leader right up to 2024. though they showed a lack of interest in talking about biden's policies or even their own at cpac, republicans are plowing ahead on bills in nearly every state that will make it harder for americans to vote them out, searing a path for republicans to steal future elections. oh, the irony. joining me now is congresswoman pramila jayapal of washington. congresswoman, let's get right to the issue at hand. republicans didn't talk about it this weekend not surprisingly, but this is what most americans are talking about, the question of the minimum wage and why that is probably not going to make it through the senate in terms of their version of the bill. i want you to listen to south dakota senator john thune. this was his take on the minimum wage over the weekend. >> the minimum wage is something that is particularly troubling and harmful at a time when you're trying to get people back to work. i worked for less than a minimum

wage. i worked for the minimum wage. i started busing tables at a dollar an hour. i went up to $2.25 when they moved me up in the place. i finally made it to cook, which was big-time. that was 6 bucks an hour. what you're essentially telling those businesses in south dakota that i just mentioned, that you're going to increase the amount of money that they have to pay their workers by over 50%, 50% increase. >> you got to love the tim scott standing there to provide the patina of diversity over that round of words, that basket full of words. what do you make of john thune's argument because his $6 an hour would be $20 an hour now if you account for inflation, but your thoughts? >> well, he's just so out of touch with where regular people are and struggling at the bottom end of the wage scale. and, you know, there's 27 million people, joy, that would be lifted up in terms of their wages.

1.3 million that would be lifted out of poverty. 30% of black workers would get a raise. 26% of latinx workers would get a raise. so this is an issue that the senator is fondly remembering some time when it was just young people in their first job working a minimum wage. that is not the case today. adults with families stay in minimum wage jobs for years at a time. and so it is just a myth that, number one, it's not going to lift a lot of people up out of poverty, that it's not deeply essential after 12 years of not raising the wage. and, number two, joy, this is a policy that is popular with democrats, republicans, and independents. just let's not forget that florida went for donald trump in the last election and voted a $15 minimum wage through with a super majority of voters. >> you make a really good point because every time minimum wage goes on the ballot, almost every time, it passes. and it's actually a really popular bill across political

parties. i wonder if you think that because this is such a popular policy across the voters, you know, whether they're right, left, or center, are democrats in your view making a mistake by not either overruling the par la mentarian or coming up with some sort of workaround. i know bernie sanders has a workaround where they would use a tax penalty for people who don't go to $15 an hour. do you think the democrats are making a mistake by already saying they won't mess with the filibuster, which would be the easiest way to pass what is a very popular policy? >>le with, i've already said that i think that the parliamentarian should be overruled. that is not unprecedented as you know. hubert humphrey did it in 1967 and 1969. roosevelt did it in 1975. these are certainly unprecedented times where we could thank the parliamentarian for her opinion. it is an advisory opinion. and then we could still include it in the minimum wage bill.

i've spoken to the speaker about this. i've spoken to the white house about it. it's why the house left it in our bill even after the parliamentarian's ruling because we believe that it has to be included. and, look, joy, democrats are going to have to have a choice here. are we going to give mitch mcconnell veto power over all the things that we have promised to voters across the country and, you know, that are really popular? it's not just this. it's the voting rights act. it's immigration reform. it is so many -- it's getting money out of politics with hr-1. there are so many things that we have promised. voters gave us the house, the senate, and the white house, and we're either going to have to include things in reconciliation, or we're going to have to reform the filibuster. frankly we're probably going to have to do both because there's some things that can't be included in reconciliation. >> can you explain to just our viewers who are on the progressive side and young viewers -- i get asked this even by my own kids. why don't democrats do that? why do republicans -- democrats

always seem to -- it's almost sort of like they're sort of in an abusive relationship where they think if they just cook a better meal, they won't get licks. can you explain why democrats refuse to do the things that republicans would do if they were in y'all's position? >> well, i can just say that i think there is some, you know, sort of past notion of a senate where you can have good policy discussions and good people on both sides would come together. but let's not forget that the vast majority of these senators refused to vote to convict donald trump. the vast majority of them did not say anything in the months leading up to january 6th. the vast majority have not been willing to do things that are incredibly popular in their own districts. and so i don't think that there's suddenly going to be some, you know, kumbaya moment where they're going to drink

different coffee and suddenly decide they want to get on the same page about delivering for working people. and that's what i think is so essential because, joy, we've got to deliver. we can't go back to voters in two years and say, i'm sorry. you know, a parliamentarian, who is doing her job but she's unelected, not like the rest of us who are elected to these positions, deliver promises to voters -- we can't go back to voters and say, i'm sorry. we can't do it because the parliamentarian ruled we couldn't do it. that's not going to fly for 27 million people who are struggling to put food on the table and earn a decent wage. >> i think that is absolutely true. you maybe have a -- democrats need to have a confab about that. congresswoman pramila jayapal, thank you very much for being here. joining me now is tim miller, writer for the bulwark.

it's more complicated positions they find themselves in and feeling trapped. democrats are not trapped. democrats have power right now. they were given power quite definitively by the american people, who said, you know, y'all can have all three branches of government. can you explain just from having been on the other side the reluctance of democrats to just fully use their power in the way republicans do routinely without even a second thought? >> hey, joy. thanks for having me. look, i think that the democrats definitely should use reconciliation and jam through as much of this covid-19 bill as they want. it is what they ran on. it is what their mandate is. and, you know, there aren't ten republicans out there to work with them on a realistic covid bill. the one that the ten republicans came back to was $600 billion, a third of the bill. it was kind of a preposterous counter offer. here's the problem about these permanent changes, though, outside of reconciliation, is when you look at the senate, you know, i think a lot of democrats look at this and say, boy, we

got the senate by the skin of our teeth this time thanks to a big screwup by donald trump between november and january to say the least. the senate is biased in favor of republicans is the way that the coalitions are now. like this is an institution that is going to benefit republicans. you know, if we wake up in 2024 and a more competent autocrat, a josh hawley or someone like that is president and the republicans have 50 seats, you know, are we going to want to let them do this with 50 votes? now, you might say, well, they'll do it anyway. whatever. they'll do it made. and, yeah, maybe that's true. i think that's kind of the push and pull, you know, between two bad choices. so i understand the chris coons of the world, the kind of institutionalists who have a little bit of reluctance on this. i think that's why. that makes more sense to me on permanent changes than it does on this covid bill, which i'm of the view they should just jam through. >> let me ask you this on the

republican side because, you know, i realize that the republican party ain't the one that you're used to, you know, that you were down there writing a sort of a plan for, for them to expand their demographic base back in the olden days of the mid-2000s, which is now i guess 300 years ago. how do republicans go back to their districts and say, i see that you got that check. i voted against it. i see that you got that help for your small business. i voted against it, right? like they're going to now have to defend their votes, right? >> look, i think this is a really good point, joy, and i think that -- i'll explain the why, and then i'll talk about the politics. the why is that the voters that they care about are the republican primary voters who have put them in. they are ideal ogs. what they care about is negative partisanship. they care about owning the libs. they care about being nice to donald trump. we all watched cpac this

weekend. i'll tell you, all they care about is being mean to democrats. so those voters, republicans don't have to worry about. that's a different base than, you know, kind of the democrats base. that's just kind of the inequity of our system right now. now, the question is these swing voters, right? particularly the obama/trump voters, which biden won back some of. you know, those voters actually believed donald trump's b.s. when it came to the fact he was going to be a different kind of republican, a populist. and i think that the republicans are in really danger of losing back some of those voters, and i think this is the big opportunity for biden. it's my one advice to this administration is just pound the message on the financial assistance that's going to these voters, what they're doing to make their lives better and easier with very simple messages, and force the republicans to make a choice. do you stick with your negative partisanship base voters that just want you to say no to

everything, or do you try to appeal to some of these voters that trump had brought in, who aren't as ideologically rigid that are struggling right now in the pandemic? and i think that's a good opportunity for the democrats to split the republican base. >> i totally agree with you. but the idol ators are still going to want to cash those checks when they get them. i bet you they're note going to send them back. tim miller, it was great talking with you. up next on "the reidout," the big lie is fueling republican efforts all across the effort to basically stop black and brown people from voting. and now the supreme court is set to shred what's left of the voting rights act because of course. no one's been a bigger champion of voting rights in recent years than stacey abrams, and she joins me next. plus republicans wrap up their weekend cult meeting in orlando. there was a lot of groveling at the feet -- well, the feet that are in flip-flops, their tarnished golden idol, including from an obsequious and maniacal

ted "cancun" cruz. >> in the immortal words of william wallace, freedom! >> is he okay? so many possible candidates for the absolute worst from that disinformation confab, is this the night that cancun cruz finally, finally becomes the worst? the big reveal is coming up. "the reidout" continues. ♪ hey now, you're an all-star, get your game on, go play ♪ ♪ hey now, you're a rock star, get the show on, get paid ♪ ♪ and all that glitters is gold ♪ get 5 boneless wings for $1 with any handcrafted burger. only at applebee's.

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yesterday at cpac, the disgraced, twice impeached former president once again promoted the big lie, an election he claims was stolen on the basis of specious claims of fraud in cities with lots of black and brown voters. the same lie that fueled the attack on the capitol and now the big lie is being weaponized by republican-controlled statehouses across the country to soothe not just orange julius

caesar's fragile ego but to do quite explicitly what the insurrectionists demanded by giving state-level republicans the power to exclude any voters who don't tend to vote their way, and even to undo election outcomes and hand the presidency or presumably any office to whoever they want. dozens of statehouses have already unleashed a tidal wave of voter suppression legislation. with arizona and georgia moving particularly aggressively after both turned blue in 2020 on massive turnout from black, brown, aapi, and young voters. today georgia's gop-controlled house passed a draconian bill restricting drop boxes, requiring more i.d. for mail ballots, and limiting weekend early voting. the brennan center reports state legislatures are considering more than 250 bills restricting access in 43 states. the republicans also have eek an equally insidious chance to hamper voting rights writ large through the courts.

tomorrow the supreme court hears arguments involving two arizona laws centering on a critical remaining provision of the voting rights act, section 2, broadly pro-hinting discrimination against racial minorities in voting. the court declared unconstitutional a portion deciding which states with a history of racial discrimination need federal approval to change their laws. but the u.s. congress has a very real chance to protect our democracy from the assault with the for the people act. a sweeping overhaul of election and ethics laws and its companion legislation, the john lewis voting rights restoration act. the for the people act is so important to the democrats' agenda, it's dubbed hr-1 and sr-1 in the senate. the house is expected to vote on the legislation this week. i'm joined now by stacey abrams, the founder of fair fight and producer of all in, the fight for democracy, a documentary examining the issue of voter suppression in the united states, which can be seen right

now on amazon prime. and it's always great to see you, stacey, to see you on the tv. congratulations on the documentary. let's dig right into this. shelby v. holder, the decision that john roberts and cruz used to cut the voting rights act came as a result of -- i mean after it was gutted, almost immediately thereafter, i think the very next day, states started passing all of these restrictions on voting and making it harder and harder to vote. you then ran an election that was in that post-voting rights -- full voting rights act era. in your view, what are the current slate of laws, including in your home state of georgia? how much worse can this get? >> joy, thank you for having me here. we know that the current slate of laws that are being prescribed across this country actually take us to what looks like post-reconstruction jim crow era laws, and that's not hyperbolic. essentially what these laws would do is limit access to registration, access to casting a ballot, and access to having

that ballot counted, essentially pushing people -- millions of people across the country, mainly black and brown people, out of the voting process. saying that you can ban automatic voter registration means for millions of americans, they will no longer be allowed to vote -- to register unless someone comes to find them. if you increase the photo i.d. requirements, there are millions of americans who simply cannot meet those requirements because the underlying paperwork that they have to have either doesn't exist, is too expensive, or is too complicated to access. we know that again and again these laws are designed for one specific purpose, and that is to discourage or prevent people from voting. and we know it's not just happening in the nine states and 55 jurisdictions that were what's covered by section 5. it's happening across the country. and therefore we are watching a nationwide sweep of voter suppression that is not only abysmal, it is counter to who we say we are as americans. and in the wake of january 6th and that insurrection, our

clinging to democracy should be forthright, and we should be demanding that we have equal access to democracy instead of cowering and letting anti-democratic forces steal the right to vote away from millions of americans. >> yeah. i think of places like texas where they just had this huge storm and god knows how many people had flood damage and maybe their papers have been washed away. georgia, your state, they passed this bill where they tried to get rid of souls to the polls sunday. they now left one sunday in. you've got in addition to doing that, you've got arizona. they've got a bill to literally let the legislature throw out election results and put in their own slate of electors. you've got of course ron desantis, who is one of the kings of voter suppression. he wants to limit drop boxes, require registration for mail-in ballots. this is one of the states that is the best at doing mail-in voting. he wants to kill that and gut it. you just go on and on and on. what do you make of the -- it's so obvious to me, stacey, that they saw -- except for georgia,

they saw arizona and georgia flip, and their response to that was to say, we can't let that happen again. i say that to you particularly given the praise that your state's republican state elections officials got after they just refused to outright commit crimes to let donald trump have the victory. >> well, let's be clear. we didn't -- we were successful in georgia in extraordinary ways. we were successful in arizona. but we also mitigated voter suppression in wisconsin, in pennsylvania, across the country where in the wake of not only the voting rights act evisceration, but also in the wake of the obama election in 2008. we saw a bevy of attempts to restrict access to the right to vote. georgia got more attention because it was the most egregious, and it was actually committed in broad daylight by the secretary of state, now the governor of georgia. and in arizona and florida, we have seen it again and again. but what we know is happening is that the republican party -- and it's not the entire party i don't believe yet. but they have to stand up and

declare they are not part of this anti-democratic force. we know the business leaders have to stand up and call a spade a spade and say that this is wrong. when you can win elections not by having the best ideas but by stealing the right to vote, then you do not deserve to win, and you don't deserve to participate. so what we need is a call to action that not only stops these bills in the state legislatures, but we've got to also fight hard to make certain that hr-1 and sr-1 and hr-4 become the law of the land in the united states. >> do you believe that democrats should get rid of the filibuster in order to pass hr-1 -- i mean to pass sr-1? >> i believe absolutely sr-1 should be subject to at least a carve-out. the fundamental right to democracy is the ability to vote. and if there is nothing else that we would be willing to require a simple majority to protect, it should be the right to vote. this is not an exception that is without precedent. we've already seen them eliminate the filibuster for

judicial appointments. we've seen them do the same thing for budget reconciliation. this is about our democracy, and we know how fragile it is because we watched it happen less than two months ago. in addition to our time -- in addition to the fight for democracy, i wrote a book called "our time is now," where i lay out how egregious and how ded uktive voter suppression is. we cannot allow our sefltz selves to be seduced by the big lie. we're not out of the woods until we create a foundation for democracy, and that is hr-1. at a certain point, corporations decided to punish states that continued to fly the confederate flag or had policies that they found effective to people who worked for them and who are their customers. do you think that's one way businesses should get involved? for instance, should consumer boycott states that fundamentally restrict the right to vote? should corporations withdraw from supporting politicians who support destroying the right to

vote? >> i believe that absolutely business has a role to play. we have seen them stand up when they saw wrong happening. we saw them do so in the wake of the insurrection. and now they need to look at state legislatures and look at the people who are presenting these bills, who are letting them fly through. those who are pretending that there was voter fraud when democrats, republicans, and the conservative u.s. supreme court have all said it did not happen. what is happening now is not just a regression to the mean. this is a regression to the meanest way possible to run elections. and the reality is when you break democracy for anyone, you break it for everyone. in georgia, mail-in voting is primarily -- has been primarily used by republican voters for years. 2020 was the first time democrats won both early voting and mail-in voting. and to break that simply because too many democrats voted, because too many black and brown people voted, is to cut off your nose to spite your face. and the people who are in charge should be listened to, and we

should hear loud and clear that they are willing to destroy democracy to win elections. and the business community should say that is wrong and should push back hard. >> last question. do you trust the supreme court on this given that john roberts has pretty much spent his entire adult career fighting to destroy if not get rid of the voting rights act? >> i do not. i think that this has to be done by the body that in the constitution of the united states is given the power to address this. congress has the power to set the manner, time, and place of elections, and they should use that power by passing hr-1 and hr-4. we know that right now what's going to happen tomorrow when the supreme court considers the arizona cases, they're going to try to eviscerate section 2 of the voting rights act, which as you rightly explained, prohibits these type of practices when it targets people of color. if they can knock out pillar 5 and pillar 4, we no longer have protections for our democracy, and that means congress has to step up and act now.

>> indeed. john lewis' spirit is watching. stacey abrams, thank you. it's always great to talk with you. congratulations on the documentary. still ahead, the new york state attorney general launched an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment against governor andrew cuomo. meanwhile, republican congresswoman madison cawthorn gets a pass from his party on allegations he sexually harassed women in college just a few short years ago. we're back after this. i'm a performer. always have been. and always will be. never letting anything get in my way. not the doubts, distractions, or voice in my head. and certainly not arthritis. voltaren provides powerful arthritis pain relief to help me keep moving. and it can help you too.

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watch me! feel real relief. ask your rheumatologist about cosentyx. new york governor andrew cuomo is apologizing for what he calls insensitive interactions with members of his staff. this comes after a second former aide came forward this weekend accusing cuomo of verbally harassing her, including questioning her about her sex life. 25-year-old charlotte bennett tells "the new york times" cuomo asked, quote, if i believed if age made a difference in relationships, and, quote f i had ever been with an older man. she also said the now 63-year-old governor told her that he felt that he's fine with anyone above the age of 22. last week another former staffer, lindsey boylan, claimed cuomo kissed her on the lips without consent. cuomo insists he never inappropriately touched or propositioned anybody and has denied the claims of both women.

in a statement, cuomo said in part, i acknowledge some of the things i have said have been misinterpreted as an unwanted flirtation. to the extent anyone felt that way, i am truly sorry about that. after first appointing a former federal judge to review the allegations, which raised questions about impartiality, cuomo turned the inquiry over to new york attorney general letitia james, who will appoint an independent investigator. at the end of the review, the findings will be released in a public report. joining me now is michelle goldberg, columnist for "the new york times." michelle, that last bit is something that is sort of different basically to what we've seen over the last four years where the u.s. chief executive basically called the women accusing him names and said they weren't his type and such. and there was never any real investigation. how much jeopardy politically is cuomo in here, and what do you think the impact of that investigation will be? >> so i can't imagine how the

investigation could exonerate cuomo of all of these charges given that, you know, he denies lindsey boylan's charges, but i think he just says that he was misinterpreted when it comes to charlotte bennett's. so i don't think that there is any dispute that he said something extremely inappropriate to charlotte bennett, that he made charlotte bennett feel like he wanted to sleep with her. and there's no dispute that she changed jobs because of it, right? she saved text messages. she saved messages with her superiors in government. this is like an extremely well documented case. i think that if it was a couple of years ago when "me too" was at its height, andrew cuomo would be in a lot more trouble than he is now. i still think he's weakened because this comes on the heels of this very serious scandal about him misstating the number of covid deaths in nursing homes. but at the same time, i think

among some democrats, at least i get a sense that they are sort of tired of single-handedly upholding a set of standards that republicans refuse to hold themselves to. so i just see just online, you'll see people saying, you know, don't franken cuomo, right? >> right. >> or why should cuomo resign when cawthorn doesn't resign? >> yeah. you know what's interesting is that, right, i think you think about kirsten gillibrand's presidential career was probably in many ways ended by the anger that a lot of base democrats had because she was so insistent, you know, in terms of the al franken situation. he was very, very popular. these are much less serious allegations, we need to make clear, that we're talking about with cuomo. but, you know, what do you make of that? you do have the former president having something like 24 allegations. we talked a little about madison cawthorn. this was when he was in college, but he was literally just in college like three or four years

ago, supposedly pulling women into his car, not letting them out, being really creepy and weird. and there doesn't seem to be any blowback at all. he's back on fox news talking about morality and stuff. what do you make of that because democrats do seem to uphold a quite different standard of ethics for their politicians? >> yeah, i think that those democrats are the party that doesn't tolerate sexual harassment or that think sexual harassment is wrong and should be punished, and republicans aren't that party, right? i mean with madison cawthorn, as you said, he was in college just a few years ago, so you can't say back in college. it's also worth noting this was a very conservative christian college that caters to homeschoolers, right? these weren't kind of feminist students with probably overdeveloped or highly developed senses about affirmative consent. and so if these women are saying madison cawthorn is a predator, madison cawthorn doesn't respect boundaries, i think that his behavior was probably truly

egregious. >> you know, we reached out to kevin mccarthy, leader mccarthy's office, and got nothing back. there's no comment. it seems like that is the pattern where people just go, i didn't see the tweets. i didn't hear when he called that woman ugly or said i couldn't have raped her because that wasn't my type. it is just very different. what do you make of the cultural issue here? it feels like cuomo's attempts to run for president, which was what we all felt was coming, that's kind of done, right, on his side. but, you know, two out of the six republican conservatives on the supreme court have these kind of allegations. that didn't stop them. it seems like cawthorn could have a clear path to that or whatever else he wanted. it doesn't seem like his political future is impinged at all. >> well, again, i understand that's really frustrating for democrats, but i don't think that they should -- that democrats should see sort of policing their own as like a

sacrifice that they're making, or they get to have all of these sexual harassers, so why can't we have a couple? you know, i think that people should evaluate the cuomo case on its own and these allegations are really, really serious. >> i totally agree, yeah. it's right. listen, being the party that has standards ain't such a bad thing. you know, that's a good ing this. michelle goldberg, i know you have a column coming out about this about the cuomo situation, so everybody should read that. always great having you on. thank you. up next, all hail the golden trump. no, no, no, no. we're not talking about his spray tan. behold conservatives still enthralled by the twice-impeached former president could easily be a choice for today's absolute worst, easily. but we've got someone even more deserving, meaning even more terrible. can you guess who i'm talking about? you have an entire commercial break to figure it out. come right back. we'll tell you.

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i don't know if you agree with me, but dr. fauci is wrong a lot. [ cheers and applause ] >> bizarre political tirades, vague attacks on science, and demagoguery of the highest order. that could only mean one thing. it's cpac time again. this weekend's confab of florida man worship offered so many choices for the absolute worst. it's hard to know where to begin. and sorry, south dakota governor kristi noem, you're totally unironic attack on dr. anthony fauci, even though your state has reported more infections per resident than any other state other than north dakota, was indeed terrible. but this is cpac, and you've got so much competition. better luck next year. take, for example, the ceo of

goya foods, who was reportedly censured by the company's board of directors in january for spreading false claims of election fraud and ordered to stop talking to the media. apparently that reprimand wasn't enough because he's still out there pushing the mass delusion that trump won the election. >> my biggest honor today is going to be that i think we're going to be on the same stage as, in my opinion, the real, the legitimate, and the still actual president of the united states, donald j. trump. >> terrible. congressman paul go ar also appeared at cpac where he delivered a speech less than 24 hours after addressing another even more extreme convention one night earlier. he was the key note speaker at the america first political action conference, basically the convention for cpac rejects if you need a reference point.

it's organized by right wing activist, former youtuber nick fuentes. here's just a small excerpt from the white power speech fuentes gave right after gosar spoke. >> this country wouldn't exist without white people. [ cheers and applause ] and white people are done being bullied. >> charming. so charming. gosar and certainly a strong candidate for the absolute worst. but wait, wait, there's more. take a look at the mind numbing hypocrisy of fox news personality pete hegseth, who attacked the so-called elites of ivy league universities. according to hegseth, here's what average americans talk about over breakfast at the diners that he visits across the country. >> they're not talking about esoteric things that the ivy league talks about or msnbc

talks about. they're talking about the bible and faith and prayer and their family, hard work, supporting the police, standing for the anthem, the first amendment, the second amendment, the tenth amendment. >> yes, yes, yes. so according to hegseth, in between bites of bagel, average americans talk more about the tenth amendment at that old diner breakfast table than esoteric things like, say, the minimum wage and having to get to work on time because they're in a diner. of course, hegseth himself is the product of not one but two ivy league institutions. he was the publisher of that voice of the popular man, the princeton tory. e gads. so, yes, the competition for absolute worst is fierce, but today that prize finally, finally, finally goes to none other than missing texas senator ted cruz. yes, old cancun cruz has been carrying a torch for that title in his giant overnight bag for

weeks now. it was bad enough that he flew south of the border for a vacation at the ritz-carlton while millions of his home state of texas residents were freezing without power, and he was lucky that texas didn't build a wall to keep him from coming back. worse yet, when it came time to apologize, he blamed his daughters for his own bad decision. and now while hundreds of thousands of texans are still dealing with a water crisis, cruz is joking about how he abandoned them. lol. >> i got to say orlando is awesome! it's not as nice as cancun. [ laughter ] but it's nice. >> so, yes, yes, ted freedom screamer cancun cruz is the absolute worst. but wasn't he always really deep

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his likeness, trump made clear his first order of business is to purge disloyal republicans from the ranks. party. he rattled off a hit list of republican lawmakers who dared impeach him or vote them out. this is no longer about ideology. it's about vendetta politics. executive director of the republican accountability project, sarah, a purge. party might that be good news for people who want to have a normal republican party? is it time let the trumpers go and farm t-pack? >> it's too big a part of the republican party. here is the thing. donald trump losing the election was supposed to make him weaker. inciting an insurrection should have made him weaker. the party should be running from him. if cpac demonstrated anything, it's that donald trump is actually stronger and it's not because he destroyed [ inaudible

] you can see it in people like nikki haley, who tweeted last night about what a strong speech he gave. it's about mitch mcconnell who said he was morally and practically responsible for the insurrection saying he would endorse him if he was the party's nominee. what cpac showed us is the respect party, trump is not the republican's party past, he is their future. >> you know, it is interesting. i have a nikki haley timeline here. february 12th she criticized him in this interview. by february 18th she is trying to see him in texas, in florida and he is, like, stay away from me, you can't come down here. and then she praises him last night. to me can you explain this? because if nikki haley tries to run for president in 2024, a lot of people think she wants to. and donald trump runs for president, she will get 1 to 2%, if that.

none of these people beat him in a primary, none of these people can win. what is the calculation, in your view? >> well, let me explain the retreat of these people. leadership doesn't poll well. i am certain that they saw and they had their pollsters running them saying, oh my god, you guys are in meltdown, you have to fix this. in the last 24 hours, in the world of the republican party, according to what we saw in cpac, donald trump is still the president. the pandemic is over. and the insurrection that donald trump incited never happened. so the only person that is going to stop donald trump from being the republican nominee in 2024 is a state or federal prosecutor. it's not going to be anybody in the republican party because no one can withstand the heart of the trump base and whatever the discretions of what trump says are. anybody that tries to start to get pole position for this 2024 nomination, and rises their head

up a little bit above water, they are going to get whack-a-moled by donald trump and his minions, and that is why we are not going to see anyone dare defy the gold calf idol of the republican party which is still donald trump, maybe stronger now than ever before. >> even his son polls at 6%. sarah, you have people defying -- mocking mask-wearing, including the absolute worst ted cruz and others at cpac. in florida, which is in the middle still of a pandemic, and lifting up people like christy nome and florida government ron desantis who have said i don't care how many people die in my state, i am going to keep everything openism guess that is part of it, right, let them all die? >> i don't know about that. what it is, the pandemic has been politicized. donald trump set the tone a long time ago that he was going to make the pandemic a part of the culture. and he [ inaudible ] now a party

of culture war, things like masks and being responsible about the pandemic have become, like, soft liberal signaling somehow. and that's what they are doing. going in there, not wearing masks, that's what being a republican is about now despite the fact that over 500,000 people have now died. >> you know, it is striking to me that you had, you know, hyatt and the leadership of the republican party have to respond to inquiries as to whether the stage looked like a nazi rune. they had to respond to that in the 21st century. the governor of florida, people call him death santis, yet he polled second to trump. he was the second most popular guy there. that's the future, i guess, desantis. >> well, i am not sure. it's not the future unless trump says it's the future. again, desantis was put in office by trump. he is the figure most

responsible for florida governor ron desantis. it's a function of whether or not says he can run for president or not. if he says no, ron desantis will not run for president. simple as that. by the way, that was a nazi rune on the stage. let's call it for it was. a nazi rune by a party that embraces white supremacy and crypto nazism. >> thank you both. that is tonight's reed out. "all in with chris hayes" starts right now. tonight on "all in" -- [ applause ] >> as a third covid vaccine is released into american and daily vaccinations surge tonight, how the case for optimism about the near future just got a shot in the arm. then, cult 45. disgraced twice impeached

ex-president with a new