congress to set standards for the time, place, and manner of elections of federal elections. now, of course we expect that states would in all likelihood adopt many of these democracy expanding measures because they're good, because they're good for our democracy, and they're healthy, and they invite a more inclusive electorate, and that is exactly what this federal legislation is pushing for and what we hope states will eventually come around to accepting and embracing. but federal -- it has no violation of state rights, and it is critically constitutional given the broad congressional authority that exists in the constitution to regulate federal elections. >> janai nelson, thank you both. that is all in on this thursday night. the rachel maddow show starts right now. >> good evening, chris, much appreciated, my friend, and thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. happy to have you here. now, by rules of the court, we're not allowed to record what

happens, let alone broadcast a recording of it on tv. federal courts don't allow cameras in the courtroom. now, reporters and members of the public are allowed to be there themselves in person to watch or cover for the press most court proceedings, but that's it. all right? you can sit in the courtroom and take notes and report on what you saw and what you heard while you were there, but no cameras. no still cameras. no video cameras. no tape recording of the court proceedings. and that's been true forever in federal courts. i mean, you have to allow reporters in and members of the public in because it's a key value in our constitutional system that the administration of justice is -- it's a public thing. it's open to the public. it's transparent. we can see what court proceedings are like. we can see what federal trials are like, so most proceedings let the public in, let reporters in to watch, but no cameras. and some state guards do let cameras in, and it's a controversial thing they don't

do it in the federal court. i think the basic idea is they don't want the sensationalism of having federal trials play out on live tv or play out on the news. they don't want people involved in federal court proceedings playing for a camera knowing it's going to be broadcast on tv later. all this to say, i cannot play you the tape. i cannot play you a recording of what happened, but many court proceedings are held by zoom these days just like everything else because of the pandemic, and so today a lot of reporters were listening in at this particular federal court proceeding over zoom, and no, i cannot play you the tape of the screaming and yelling at this court hearing, but i can tell you with confidence there was definitely screaming and yelling. now, we just got the transcript tonight because reporters were able to listen in while this thing happened live, we know the tone in which the words in the transcript were uttered.

"the washington post" and the "new york times" simply called it a, quote, tantrum. usa today described the defendant in this case as, quote, erupting. the daily beast described him as, quote, losing it in court. and i'm not a good actor, so i'm not sure how much emotion i can accurately convey here, but here it is. the judge. mr. barn et, are you with us? you may be muted mr. barnett. we may have lost mr. barnett who is obviously the reason we're all here this morning. pause. the courtroom deputy, mr. barnett, the defendant, mr. barnett, yes, the judge, thank you for joining us again, good morning, mr. barnett. this is judge cooper. can you hear me? the defendant. good morning, yes, i can hear you. the judge, okay, just like last time we would obviously usually do this in person, but due to the pandemic we are proceeding remotely. are you okay with proceeding via telephone this morning? the defendant, yes, that's fine. the judge, okay.

very well. if you could mute your phone now, unless we need to hear from you, that would be very helpful. the defendant, okay, i'll mute now. the judge, thank you, sir. then the judge turns to the prosecutors. he says all right ms. dor mand or ms. mcclain, one of the prosecutors says, yes, your honor. so at this time i believe there's going to be a change in counsel in this case, which means the defendant is actually changing his defense lawyers, and they're in the middle of that process happening. prosecutor says, i had sent over to the defense lawyer a proposed protective order for this case for discovery that he was going to share with his client and speak to his client about. we've provided some discovery informally in this case, specifically through the u.s. attorney's office in arkansas. the government is still undertaking this massive effort to gather discovery in this and all of the capitol riot cases. what the government is going to ask for today is for a continuance of 60 days to gather discovery, to discuss the protective order, and for the new attorneys in the case to get up to speed on what has been done.

the judge. and the last time we were here, no plea offer had been extended. is that still the case? the prosecutor, that is still the case, your honor, and that is still the case in all january 6th cases, meaning no january 6th arrestees have been offered a plea deal by the government. the judge says, okay, just out of curiosity, what is the government's estimates of the guidelines range for the dangerous weapons charge here. have you done that calculation? there's then some discussion about how much time in prison the defendant might ultimately be looking at if he's convicted on the dangerous weapons charge he is facing. that resolves like this. the prosecutor, for the 1512, it's going to be the highest offense level here. i believe it's going to be a base offense level of 14, the maximum sentence on the 1512 is a 20-year term of imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. the judge, okay, all right, just trying to figure out what we've got. then he turns to defense counsel. counsel, may 4th at 11:00 a.m., does that work for you?

defense lawyer, one moment your honor. yes, that works for me. yes. and then up pops the defendant. he unmutes himself. defendant, i'm sorry, i need a side bar with my counsel. that doesn't work for me. i need a side bar. a different defense lawyer stands up. richard, this is steven metcalf. the defendant, i need a side bar, i need a side bar. defense lawyer steven metcalf, richard, this that we're talking about now, this is a date wholly separate from any application for bail for you, so just hang tight. we're going to hash out everything we need to with the court right now. there are a couple of other issues with e need to address and we're going to speak to you when we give you a call back. did you hear me? the defendant. yes, i've been here for a long time. i've been here a month, and everybody else is getting out. defense lawyer, richard, the judge, okay. defense lawyer, i'm asking you

to just hang tight. we're going to address a couple of other matters. the defendant, i don't agree with this date. it's not fair. first defense lawyer, so mr. barnett, the judge, all right, counsel, let me cut this short, okay? the defendant, i'm on the phone. i can't have a side bar with my attorney. it's not fair. the judge, counsel, why don't we take five. the defendant, we need to start doing this in person. remember, the defendant just consented to doing this not in person when the judge asked him directly at the start of the hearing, but now he says we need to start doing this in person. the judge, mr. barnett, hold on, sir. we're going to take five. and one of you, meaning one of the defense lawyers, you can step into another room and contact mr. barnett. is that possible? the defendant. it is possible. we've done it before. the judge, hold on, sir, hold on. here's what we're going to do. the court will set a date for a further status hearing on may

4th at 11:00 a.m. the defendant, oh, no, sir. the judge, in the meantime, sir, if your counsel, the defendant, i have a phone number right here. he can call me. he's done this before. i've got a phone number right here he can call me on. the defense lawyer, judge, i'll take the number. >> all right, take the number, speak to your client and we'll reconvene in five minutes. the defendant, the government keeps dragging this out and letting everybody else out. defense lawyer, richard, richard, meaning the defendant, i'm advising you to just stop. the judge, counsel, step out and call your client. the court goes into recess. now, it is not reflected in the official transcript that we have obtained, but one reporter who is monitoring the hearing today for the daily beast swaers that at this point in the proceeding the defendant also screamed forgive me, quote, this has been a bunch of crap. the defendant in question here

is this fellow who you'll recognize from the immediate aftermath of the january 6th attack. this is the guy who mugged for the camera with his feet up on the desk in nancy pelosi's office who outside the capitol bragged to reporters about what he had stolen from pelosi's office. after the attack after which he walked free and went back home, local law enforcement in arkansas declined to go arrest him. they just got in touch with him and gave him time to come turn himself in on his own schedule. when fbi agents arrived at his home in arkansas with a search warrant, he told them that he had moved all of his guns out of the house and that they wouldn't find anything in his house to incriminate him because he told the officers, quote, i'm a smart man. you ain't going to find nothing out there, i assure you. i'm a smart man. among the things officers did find at his house was the empty packaging for the 950,000 volt cattle prod style stun gun that he allegedly wore into the capitol. oh, i guess that is something that they might find there.

the fbi affidavit in his case points out that in some of the photos of him reveling in nancy pelosi's office, you can actually see the top of that 950,000 volt stun gun there on his left hip tucked into his belt. i'm a smart man. you won't find nothing. his name is richard barnett. he has been in custody awaiting trial. he's been charged with seven different crimes in federal court. now he is in the process of getting himself new lawyers. he apparently didn't like the old ones. as i said he's been charged with seven different crimes including a weapons charge that we learned in court today could put him in federal prison for up to 20 years. we also learned in federal court today from his tantrum that he is absolutely convinced that he shouldn't be in jail anymore right now while he awaits trial. he says it is not fair. he thinks he should be let out. after the judge called this five-minute recess today, so he could try to get ahold of himself, his lawyers came back into the proceedings with the judge and calmly agreed to the

next date that the judge had proposed in his case, the next status hearing in his case. the lawyers will file something, in the meantime to try to get him out of jail while he's awaiting trial. that's actually a separately adjudicated matter. as of now, he is very upset about his one month or so he's been in federal custody awaiting trial. he's potentially facing 20 years in prison. he's very, very upset, uncontrollably upset today that he's been in jail even this long. tonight cnn's evan perez reports that federal investigators are, quote, examining records of communications between members of congress and the pro-trump mob that attacked the u.s. capitol as the investigation moves closer to exploring whether lawmakers wittingly or unwittingly helped the insurrectionists. the data gathered so far includes indications of contact with lawmakers meaning contact between the rioters and lawmakers in the days around

january 6th. it seems like what investigators maybe have so far is metadata, meaning records that show calls and maybe texts between members of congress and the rioters. metadata showing that it happened at such and such a time on such and such a date, potentially even where the phones were located when those communications happened on or around january 6th. as to the con at the present time -- cob tents of those calls and texts, investigators aren't looking at the context of those yet. should investigators find proposal cause that law makes or their staff aided insurrectionists they could seek warrants. so far investigators haven't found evidence that members of congress knowingly aided or were involved in the insurrection but the fbi has seized devices belonging to alleged rioters and has found communications that investigators plan to further examine. that new reporting from cnn tonight. it hasn't been confirmed by nbc

news, but if federal prosecutors are looking at direct communications between members of congress and the rioters around january 6th, that dovetails a little bit with what we learned from ohio congressman tim ryan last week. congressman ryan has been really directly involved in the january 6th investigations in part because he heads-up the part of the house that oversees the capitol police so he has very close working relationship with the capitol police, and he told us here last week that federal investigators are also now reviewing footage, meaning videotape footage of capitol tours that were given by some members of congress or their staff the day before the capitol attack. some members of congress have come forward and say they believe their colleagues in the house, other members of congress may have invited into the capitol the day before the attack people who were part of the mob the following day on january 6th. congressman ryan told us that footage of those weird capitol tours has been handed over to the u.s. attorney's office in d.c. so federal prosecutors can review that footage to see if, in fact, those might have

essentially been reconnaissance missions facilitated by sympathetic members of congress to help the rioters basically case the joint and get their bearings inside the capitol before they attacked it and tried to ransack the place the following days. there are reportedly more than two dozen federal prosecutors now who have been assigned to the complex task of putting together potential prosecutions for planning and aiding and abetting the attack, including the question of, quote, whether political figures including lawmakers and staff aided the attackers. today because of warnings from the fbi and the department of homeland security and other law enforcement sources, warnings that pro-trump forces might, again, try some sort of follow on attack on the capitol, today the house was not in session out of an abundance of caution. on their schedule they had two bills they wanted to pass yesterday and today. the for the people democracy reform bill, which we'll talk a little bit more about later, and the george floyd justice in

policing police reform bill. they had planned to do those over two days, yesterday and today. they changed their schedule because of the threat. they ended up just staying late last night and passing them both so they didn't have to be at the capitol today just in case. and everything ended up being peaceful in washington today as far as anybody can tell. and so of course they're getting criticized for overreacting to the threat and these warnings from law enforcement and the fbi. but, you know, given what happened last time and given, you know, the stun gun guy throwing the tantrum over still being in custody today, you know, he was sort of right about one thing. of the 300 plus people arrested thus far for their part in the pro-trump violent mob attack on the capitol, most of those 300 plus people have been released on their own recognizance to await trial from home. most of those people are at liberty rite now, even some of the people accused of and charged with some of the most

violent and intimidating acts have been let out by judges who have decided they don't need to stay in custody until their trial date comes around. so, you know, maybe the house is still a little skittish given what they went through less than two months ago. when an operative pipe bomb was found outside an iowa voting site on tuesday this week, that was unnerving enough on its own. it was a community center at a small city in iowa just outside des moines, voting was going on at that site on tuesday on a local measure about a school board spending capital improvement funds like an incredibly noncontroversial very local measure, and somebody tried to bomb a voting site where that was what people were turning out to vote for? that was unnerving enough on its own in ankeny, iowa, this week on tuesday. but it was also a reminder that whoever placed the two real operable dangerous pipe bombs at d.c. at the headquarters of the

democratic and republican parties, that bomber has still not been caught from january 6th, despite a six-figure reward from the fbi for information leading to the arrest of that person, despite pretty clear surveillance video of that person right around the time the person was planting the bombs. the bomber in conjunction with the january 6th attack is still at large. so we're not yet two months out from the attack. the house was closed today out of an abundance of caution after warnings about a potential follow-on attack from trump supporters, an attack that didn't in the end arise. the senate, though, stayed in session today, and, actually, it looks like they're maybe going to be there deep into the night and into the wee hours. this is a live shot of the senate floor right now. republicans in the senate have decided that not only are they opposed to the covid relief bill, they're going to do everything within their power to stretch it out as long as possible and delay covid relief as long as they can.

a republican senate objection today resulted in the senate clerks being forced to read out loud every word of the 600 plus page covid relief bill. republicans in the house tried a stunt like this after president obama was elected in 2009. you might remember that the democrats in the house back then responded by hiring a speed reader basically to troll the republicans right back. >> the rules require that the amendment be read, the clerk will read the bill. in lieu of the matter being proposed insert the following section one, shorten that list, act may be cite z at energy production and table of contents for the act is as follows, section 1 short title and table of contents. section 11 clean energy standard, title 2 mesh energy. >> you're going to make us read the bill out loud? well, we've just hired on a new staff speed reader and he'll be doing that reading for us.

that was 2009 in the house for a variety of reasons, the senate apparently cannot do that same thing tonight. they can't bring the speed reader back, and so for hours now we have been listening to the poor clerks of the senate who did not ask for this, and who are getting no thanks from the republicans requiring them to do this for hours now the clerks in the senate have been pointlessly reading out loud the 600 plus page text of the covid relief bill. all so it takes longer for the covid relief bill to pass. the text of the bill is not a secret. it has been available for a long time for anyone to read if they wanted to. this stunt tonight making all the clerks have to do this, it's not going to stop the bill from passing. it's just republicans making these clerks do all this all day so it takes longer and longer and longer and it's must exhausting for covid relief to ultimately pass making the clerks pay, making the senate staff pay, that will show them. it's hilarious, right? and i will say just as an aside here, what they're doing tonight

making these clerks read the bill for no reason, read the whole thing out loud, this is the big gun that the republicans have been threatening democrats with this year in the senate. so this whole question as to whether or not democrats will vote among themselves to get rid of the filibuster. the filibuster means it takes 50 votes to pass something instead of majority. as long as this fil filibuster exists which puts a 60 vote requirement on any legislation, nothing else is going to pass except for a few things that they can pass through arcane budget rules that really limit what they can do. so democrats have been debates amongst themselves whether they should vote to get rid of the filibuster so they can pass stuff in the senate and not let the minority republicans block all legislation. while democrats have been debating that amongst themselves, republicans have been pounding their chests and threatening that if the democrats vote to do that, the

republicans will go nuclear. they will make the democrats rue the day, what they have threatened specifically is that they will slow everything down in the senate so much that it will just be impossible to do anything. it will be totally exhausting. what they've been threatening to do is exactly what they're doing tonight. what they're threatening if democrats get rid of the filibuster is to do this, to force the bills to be read out loud in order to keep the senate in session overnight and on weekends, which is, in fact, really annoying and a big pointless waste of time, but you know what? republicans, if you're going to do this anyway, even while the democrats have kept the filibuster intact, then why should they be afraid of your threat to do this. you're already doing it. it's like breaking somebody's glasses and then saying, oh, you better do what i say or i'll break your glasses. dude, you already broke my glasses. why would i do what you want now. you can't threaten me with what

i've already done. you'll do more of this? i've already shown that i can deal with this. this is what you're threatening me with? i said a minute ago i'd say more about this big important bill that passed the house last night, h.r. 1. this is the for the people act. it's voting rights, it's election reforms. it's basically small d democracy reforms, passed the house last night. former first lady michelle obama released a really interesting statement, a strong statement on that bill tonight. she said i'm thrilled to see that the house of representatives has passed the for the people act. she said that on twitter, and then she attached this statement that says in part, quote, while we celebrate historic gains, unfortunately too many leaders are working to reverse that progress and make it harder for people with every right to vote to cast a ballot. our democracy remains under attack by the partisan and unpatriotic actions of those at the state level doing everything they can to curtail access to the ballot box. make no mistake, the idea that we cannot both hold secure elections and ensure that every eligible voter can make their

voices heard is a false choice. it's based on lies and it flies in the face of our history. it's sad, it's infuriating, and she says, quote, it is a genuine threat to our future that must be taken seriously. michelle obama says, quote, that's why i'm thrilled to see the house pass the for the people act. this bill will make it easier for ordinary americans to register and cast a ballot. it will ramp up election security and end partisan gerrymandering, and it will do much, much more to make sure that our system of government remains in the hands of the many and not the few. i urge the senate to follow suit and pass this bill as soon as possible because there is nothing more important to the health and future of our democracy than safeguarding the right to vote. statement tonight from former first lady michelle obama on the for the people act that passed the house last night. she is urging the senate to pass it as well. it will not pass the senate as long as the filibuster is intact. that bill will never get a single republican vote, that means there's no way for it to

pass into law even though the democrats have the majority in the house and the democrats have the majority in the senate, and the democrats have a democrat in the white house who wants to sign it. and, you know, even if the democrats allowed the filibuster to stay in place for everything else, allowed republicans to require a 60-vote margin to pass everything else, but they narrowed it just so you're couldn't use it against voting rights anymore, and the filibuster's been narrowed very recently. the republicans in 2017 narrowed the filibuster so you couldn't require 60 votes to confirm a supreme court justice. they just made that change in 2017. why couldn't the democrats say, you know what, you changed the filibuster in 2017 for supreme court justices. we're going to change the filibuster in 2021 not to get rid of it, but just so you can't use the filibuster -- you can't require a 60-vote margin to pass stuff that relates to our small d democracy, to pass voting rights legislation. they could limit the filibuster

just that way, and if they did that, that could pass h.r. 1. that could pass the for the people act. that could get the sweeping protections of voting rights enshrined into federal law. and the republicans, yes, they'd be very angry and they might retaliate by slowing the senate down as much as possible and forcing bills to be read out loud. imagine. honestly, they're doing that already. all the stuff they've been threatening the democrats with, they're already doing it. they're doing it tonight. they're doing it as we speak. so democrats, what are you afraid of? >> 2, adoption tax period identification number. for purposes of subparagraph 3 in the place of a defendant, the term valid identification number shall include the adoption taxpayer -- clude the adoption taxpayer - droplets swipe on in seconds.

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they say if you're not prepared to hear the answer, then maybe you shouldn't ask the

question. texas republican governor greg abbott apparently took that advice to heart this week when the governor ended the state's mask mandate and boasted that texas is now 100% no restrictions to protect people from the coronavirus. apparently when he made that change this week, he did not bother to ask his coronavirus advisers about it. maybe he didn't like what he thought they would say if he asked them. governor abbott had previously touted that he had these four nationally recognized medical advisers who would guide all of his decision-making on stopping the spread of covid-19 in texas, but when texas reporters called those advisers this week after the big policy change, three of the four said, nope, they'd never been consulted by governor abbott about this huge change he just made and the fourth told reporters that he, quote, couldn't say whether the move was a good idea. not much use having a bunch of top flight medical advisers for your covid response if you're just going to not ask them before you lift all coronavirus restrictions in the nation's

second largest state. but the repeal of the mask mandate in texas and all of the restrictions that are designed to protect texans from getting covid 19, for all the danger it could pose to the health of texans by creating another surge in cases there, it could also easily become a mask problem. texas has the second highest number of daily cases in the country. if a state that big with that many cases gets really cavalier in terms of transmission, that could be a real problem in terms of america's efforts to get our whole country vaccinated. one of the things dr. fauci has been warning for weeks and weeks is the more virus transmission there is, the more cases there are, the more likely we are to see more of these dangerous variants develop. viruses don't mutate unless they replicate. they replicate when they get into new hosts, when they get into new bodies. more transmission into new people, more cases means more replication, more replication means more opportunities for more mutations. and these mutations produce the

variants that in some cases are more resistant to our existing vaccines. so you see the problem, right? if states start lifting restrictions and start sparking a surge in new cases, that's going to lead to more new variants, which will make the vaccines less effective everywhere. all the states scrapping their mask mandates, mississippi, alabama, they're all worrying, but texas is the most worrying simply because its size means its actions will have bigger national consequences. then of course there's the practical concerns for how these decisions play out on the ground. now that the governor is gleefully declaring that texas is 100% open and no more masks, all the conflicts over mask wearing are going to move to the door steps of individual bids and facilities that will each have to make their own decisions about whether to require masks and how to enforce it if they're going to, given what the governor is saying and what the state rules are now. these conflicts have already led to violence across the country.

a security guard in michigan shot and killed at a family dollar store after refusing to allow somebody in without a mask. another man shot and killed a police officer in louisiana after the cop escorted him out of a high school basketball game for not wearing a mask. and in houston, texas, the ap reports that police chief art acevedo is worried about, quote, more aggressive encounters like one in december when a customer confronted over a mask at a houston bar smashed a glass over an employee's head. houston police officers for their part will continue wearing masks despite what the governor is doing at the state level. chief acevedo says, quote, we can see conflict coming, sadly, and i think a lot of this is going to be self-inflicted. joining us now i'm pleased to say is houston's police chief art acevedo. it's really kind of you to make time to be with us tonight. thank you. >> thank you, thanks for having me in, honored to be on. >> what are your concerns about the governor's decision to rescind the statewide mask

order? what kind of impact do you think that's going to have on the houston pd? >> i think first and foremost my concern is for my fellow texans. we all know what the science says. we're supposed to be wearing these masks when we're in close proximity to each other, and it runs contrary to everything we've been told, and quite frankly last time we opened the state back in may of 2020, we had done really well as a police department keeping the virus down. as of two days ago, we had 60 officers that are off because of this virus. i promise you, you come back in six weeks, i hope i'm wrong, but we're going to see that many more of our first responders are going to be impacted by the virus, not to mention our fellow texans. on top of that, now we're going to have more conflict in our community because in texas we have property rights, business owners have property rights, and they have every right to require these masks, and the folks are going to be called out to deal with the violence that may come from this is sadly our men and women in blue. >> so property rights in texas, a business owner, for example, can still insist that a mask has to be worn by any customer

coming to that business or anybody coming to that business for any reason, do you anticipate despite that right by the business owner that there will be conflict that first responders, police officers in particular are going to have to deal with because those people who don't want to wear a mask is going to say the governor told me i don't have to wear a mask despite what you're telling me. >> that's exactly right. we have a governor that has gone against the science, gone against what's in the best interests of the health and collective safety of the men and women and children in this state, and now what we're going to see is people are going to say the heck with you, a police officer or business owner. i'm going to do what i want to do. if it was happening with a governor's order, you can imagine what's going to happen now that the governor says you don't have to wear them. i think it's bad policy. it's shortsighted and sadly, when you look at the fact that we may have enough vaccine for the entire nation by may according to the biden administration, we're so close to getting this done that this

is a step in the wrong direction. it's going to have a very negative and deadly impact for the american people, and here are the people in texas. it's something we should all be concerned about. >> chief, do you feel like you have any lessons learned or any wisdom you can impart to people watching tonight about sort of deescalation when it comes to conflicts like that. i think in a lot of states, this a lot of different circumstances where there's all sorts of different types of mask rules, we have -- a lot of us have seen and we've all heard about scary confrontations where people who work at specific workplaces feel threatened and feel at risk by people coming into those workplaces and not wearing a mask. we've seen confrontations on street corners. we've seen confrontations among passers by. have we learned anything about how to deescalate those situations so they don't end up in violence? >> sadly when you look at the issues of violence, up and generally across the country, police chiefs think that covid and the psychological impact it's had on the american people

is impacting violence. what we hope people will do is listen. you don't get paid enough to have to deal with an angry person that, quite frankly, is so self-centered that they're more interested in their so-called freedom than in simply wearing something that can save their lives or fellow human being. don't get in a physical confrontation. just let them go on the way. if they're not leaving, call the police. that's what we're there. we've seen police officers murdered. we saw in houston a young man, an employee in a bar with a glass broken over his head simply because we want people to be decent enough, decent enough, forget what the governor says. forget what the law says. what does our own humanity call upon us to do? and that's to be cognizant that this is one of the best things we can do is wear masks to keep each other safe, and i'm hopeful that texans are by and large good people, god fearing people,

people who care about their neighbor. this will be a good opportunity to see who cares about their neighbor and who cares about themselves. i think it's going to be very telling about the characters of the people we live and work with. >> houston police chief art acevedo. chief, it's kind of you to take this time to be with us here tonight. good luck in the days ahead. i know this is a new challenge for your force. >> yeah, thank you very much. be safe. >> all right, much more ahead tonight, stay with us. ore ahead tonight, stay with us.

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in general chapter 77 of such code is amended by searching after section 7527, the following new section, section advanced payment of child tax credit, in general -- >> so this is a live picture, and that's live sound from the senate floor. this is what republicans think is a hilarious stunt. will you bring the sound down a little bit there? i think we get the point, yes,

thank you. this is what republicans think is a hilarious stunt to force senate clerks to read out loud every single word of the covid relief bill, not because it's not otherwise available for people to read it if they want to. it is. and not because their own constituents don't want this bill. this is actually some of the most popular major legislation in decades. republicans just want to make as much of a mess of it as they can, and so the poor senate staff is going to have to go all night. wisconsin republican senator ron johnson is the senator who forced this tonight. democratic senator chris murphy of connecticut today used his time today in the senate to blow up one by one the republicans' supposed objections to the covid relief bill. >> it's a little hard to listen to my republican colleagues claim that this bill is too expensive when they were willing to spend the exact same amount of money in 2017 on tax cuts for their wealthy corporate and millionaire friends.

so in many ways, the crisis today is exponentially worse than it was a year ago when republicans to a person were willing to spend $2 trillion on the crisis. now all of a sudden when democrats are in charge of the white house, when a democratic majority leader sits here in the united states senate, $1.9 trillion is too much money to spend on a crisis that is taking on a daily basis three to four times as many lives as it did when we spent this money a year ago. here's the second critique that is made over and over about this bill. it's a partisan bill republicans say. well, that is a complaint of republicans own making because it is only a partisan bill in

the united states senate. three out of four voters support the american rescue plan. all of a sudden since democrats took control of the white house and took control of the senate, all of these things, which were categorized as covid relief by republicans in march are no longer covid relief. you're just supposed to think of these as extras, as democratic priorities. 90%, 95% of what's in the package we're voting on today is simply an extension of the same set of funding streams that we authorized in a bipartisan way a year ago. and so this idea that this is some democratic wish list, when we are essentially just extending or increasing the same funding streams that were in the c.a.r.e.s. act is nonsense. >> nonsense.

democratic senator chris murphy just picking apart one by one the arguments that republicans have used to justify voting against the very, very popular covid relief bill. all republicans are apparently going to vote against it. it's very popular. he's, you know, calling their bluff and pointing out that even the republicans have voted for stuff like this with this kind of a price tag before, quote, all of a sudden since democrats took control of the white house and the senate, republicans are now clutching their proverbial pearls and saying how horrible it is. it is still a live ongoing process in the senate as the republicans have forced the out loud pointless reading of the bill. senator chris murphy joins us next. stay with us. s murphy joins us next stay with us so you only pay for what you need? i mean it... oh, sorry... [ laughter ] woops! [ laughter ] good evening! meow! nope. oh... what? i'm an emu! ah ha ha. no, buddy! buddy, it's a filter! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪

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of the covid relief bill by forcing senate staffers to stay up all night reading every word of the bill for no reason. they are going to keep doing things like this to hold up the bill for days more, if not weeks more because, yeah, what the country needs is for us to wait as long as pointlessly possible to pass the funding for vaccine distribution and the money to reopen schools. it's definitely going to pass. we just need to make sure we waste as much time as possible before we pass it. because that's how you own the libs. joining us is senator chris murphy of connecticut. senator, i really appreciate you making time to be here tonight. thank you. >> thanks. >> what should we think about what's happening in the senate right now? the country wants the covid relief bill. it is broadly popular among democratic voters, independent voters, republican voters, the republicans are deciding they are making it as painful and exhausting as possible and take

as long as possible, own though it's going to pass. what do you think the country should take away from that? >> well, you know, this is nothing new, right? both sides have used delaying tactics. i think it's the first time i have ever watched either party force these clerks to sit there and read every word of a, you know, multihundred page bill. when democrats have used delaying tactics in the past, we knew the public was on our side. i gave a 15-hour speech in favor of a background checks bill supported by 90% of americans. we used all sort of tactics to extend the debate on the repeal of the affordable care act because 70 to 80% of americans supported our side. this is a wildly popular bill. it's a bill that people want. as i said on the floor today, 60% of republicans really want the stuff that's in here. so to the extent that they are reading the biel aloud, to the extent anybody is listening, what they will hear is a whole

bunch of provisions, extension ever unemployment benefits, $1,400 checks, money to produce more vaccines, money to reopen schools, all of that is stuff that people really, really want. so if they want to extend this debate, i think it, frankly, hurts them politically. i think it also hurts the american public because we are running up against some deadlines here, unemployment benefits expire in about a week. we really need to get this done. we will stay through the weekend to make sure the delay tactics don't ultimately stop the bill from being passed. >> it strikes me, and i said something about this earlier in the show tonight, that what the -- what's happening on the floor of the senate, this forced pointless exhausting delay and waste of time and waste of effort is the sort of thing that republicans threaten to do if democrats reform the filibuster, if democrats either got rid of or their owed the rule that allows republicans to require 60

votes to pass legislation, to pass with 50 instead. this the proverbial gun they threatened to use. they are doing it without any reform of the filibuster. i wonder if that might change the internal negotiations and discussions among democrats about whether it's worth it to narrow the filibuster so some important legislation can pass. >> well, as you know, i think the filibuster is fundamentally anti-democratic. i thought that for a long time. the american public made a choice in 2020. they wanted not only for joe biden to be president, but they wanted his party to control congress so that his agenda could pass. the fact of the matter is, that's difficult when 40 members of the senate can hold everything up. what you are seeing tonight is how the filibuster used to be use the. it used to be if you wanted to filibuster something, you actually had to stay on the senate floor. you had to actually make your case day after day.

if your case was really unpopular, the longer you stayed on the floor, the worse you did. so people didn't use the filibuster to stop things that the american public wanted. now that's not what the filibuster is. it's sort of an automatic right of the minority to require 60 votes to get anything passed. one of the reforms we are thinking about when it comes to filibuster is going back to the old days and saying, if you want to stop something from passing, you actually have to give speech after speech because i think the republicans or democrats, if they are in the minority, would be much less willing to use it if they had to do this, if they had to put on a hoe in opposition to something that the american public really wanted. >> the reason there hasn't been a change in the filibuster rules already is as far as we can tell from the outside a couple of your more moderate colleagues, kyrsten sinema and joe manchin don't want a change in the

filibuster bill. can you tell us if anybody is talking to them about these things, reforming it or tweaking it to make it more meaningful. are those things happening? they are the ones that have to be moved here. >> i understand folks impatience. we are, of course, only about 30 days into the new president's term, only two months into this new session. and so we are having conversations inside the caucus about how we can reform the rules. but i don't know that we should expect that they are going to bear fruit immediately. listen, i do think that there is a peleave amongst some in congress that the filibuster promotes bipartisanship by requiring members of the minority party to sign off on something before it becomes law, you are incentivizing the two parties to come together. there is really no evidence that that's how it works. in fact, because it gives the minority party veto power, it

just allows them to sit on the sidelines and do nothing. it really has been a very long time since the senate has done anything meaningfully and bipartisan. immigration reform back in 2013 was probably the last time. if you want to get the two parties to come together, then give the majority party the ability to move things with a majority vote. that will quickly incentivize the minority party to come to the table and get something closer to their priority list. i think that conversation is going to continue to happen and mature inside the caucus. my hope is that we will be able to come together around some rules of reform. probably doesn't happen until a little bit later in the term. >> senator chris murphy, appreciate you being here tonight. thank you so much. >> thank you. all right. we'll be right back. stay with us. we'll be right back. ay with us

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and males measuring more than 40 inches may have insulin resistance. to learn how to reverse insulin resistance and lose weight effectively, go online to golo.com. once again, that's golo.com. us. thank you for being here on this fine friday eve. i will see you again tomorrow. now time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell". >> good evening. i am going to be joined later in the hour tonight, making his debut on the show, by sacha baron cohen. do i have to explain who that is, rachel? he is kind of a movie thing. it's not a news -- >> i know. >> and he is going to be joined, actually, by aaron sorkin, who might have, you know, written some words for sasha to say