won't get the vaccine at all. it's an interesting point on a story that affects all of us and we wanted to share how one leader is reaching out to people, even all across the spectrum. that does it for us. i'll be back tomorrow at 6:00 eastern. you can always find me online @ari melber on social media. "the reidout" with joy reid starts now. good evening, everyone. we begin "the reidout" with a wellness check on the republican party. they're exiling one of their leaders because she refuses to go along with a deranged lie about the election being stolen from donald trump. while applauding the woman likely to replace her for perpetuating the big lie. and the state party in arizona is openly mocking the democratic process by attempting to prove that lie in the most bizarre and dangerous way possible. and let's be clear. this is not a battle for the soul of the republican party. that's over. what we're seeing now is what total surrender to trump looks

like. and even though he's twice impeached and gone, retired, disgraced, facing legal and financial trouble, blocked from social media and playing professional wedding crasher at mar-a-lago, the great purge is on. congresswoman liz cheney is on the verge of being booted from her house leadership position and the gop's heir apparent is openly campaigning to replace her. that's elise stefanik whose embrace of trump has propelled her to the front of the line. her only apparent qualification is her willingness to repeat the big lie over and over and over again, even after the capitol siege on january 6th. naturally she was among the 139 house republicans who tried to invalidate the results of a democratic election. now stefanik says she supports the odd it in arizona which is being conducted by a firm

literally called the cyber ninjas with the help of a january 6th insurrectionist to boot. she is also checking another maga world box, seeking the blessing of trump pardon recipient steve bannon, formerly of breitbart.com who was accused literally of scamming trump supporters. >> what are your thoughts about what's going on in arizona? >> i fully support the audit in arizona. we want transparency and answers for the american people. what are the democrats so afraid of? we need to fix these election security issues going into the future. this is also about being one team. and i'm committed to being a voice and being a clear -- sending a clear message that we are one team, and that means working with the president and working with all of our excellent republican members of congress. >> you got it? the goal in republican politics right now is not to express your principles no matter how far right or left or whatever your

principles may swing. even if you voted along with just every rotten thing trump did during his term, which liz cheney did, that doesn't matter now. all that matters is that you be a, quote, team player on the team of someone who isn't even president anymore. just shut up, tuck your dignity away and say what he wants to say, make him happy. congressman jim jordan put it this way last night. >> yes, she definitely needs to go and the speaker is right. we are a pro america populist party rooted in conservative principle with donald trump as our leader. you can't be the conference chair when you consistently speak out against the leader of our party. she continues to speak for herself and not for the conference, not for the republican party. >> speaking for herself. got it. imagine. jordan also said house republicans already have enough votes to oust cheney, which could happen as early as next week. and seen. while stefanik has received

trump's blessing who she is or was is instructive. she was considered a moderate, norm corrine who only reluctantly supported trump after initially backing john kasich in 2016. kasich of course went on to support joe biden four years later. she only emerged as a rising gop star thanks to her outspoken defense of the dear leader during his first impeachment, even getting special recognition during trump's post acquittal victory lap. in other words, she played the game. when it comes to actual policy, though, she's actually been more out of sync with trump and cheney. and on the right wing heritage foundation scorecard, which ranks lawmakers according to how conservative they are, she ranks way below cheney. it doesn't matter to these beltway republicans who are puckering up and kissing the king on trump's tiny its hands for one reason and one reason only, to take back power. joining me is eugene robinson

and michael steele. michael, this is a dance we've seen other people do. a little bit about ms. stefanik. she claimed 140,000 unauthorized voters voted in georgia. that's just bull -- she made it up. claimed the georgia's secretary of state gutted signature matching. 126 house republicans voted to throw out pennsylvania's election and vaguely suggested there was irregularities related to dominion. endorsed baseless concerns about voting irregularities. before she was this what we see on the screen, stefanik was paul ryan's 2012 vice presidential campaign chair. she was a staffer for george w. bush's chief of staff. she endorsed john kasich as i mentioned earlier. just a little earlier tim miller was on nicolle's show and it blew my mind saying she helped him with the autopsy in 2012. she was on the team that did

that. she says obviously very, very ambitious. but roll call wrote this about her. she's more of a liberal than 98% of her party. while cheney ranks right in the middle. 538's biden voting score shows her voting with the democratic president, voting with joe biden 18.8% of the time. only 20 other republicans are more biden-y than stefanik. so she is -- she is add much defrauding republican trumpy voters as bannon was accused of, right? >> right. so the question is -- the question is was she full of crap then when she was hanging out in bush world and romney world? or is she full of crap now? i don't know. so either way, crap is crap.

and it is the best reflection of where the gop is right now, as they are about to knock out a principled woman for crap. and i think we need to be honest about what it is. donald trump brought the gold toilet into the rnc, into the party, and everyone thinks it's a pool. and they're just diving in. they're just diving in. >> but i mean, eugene, they're diving in, and the poop toilet is full. it's not like it's empty. it's full. >> and there ain't a plunger around. >> no plunger. >> so i'm going to switch metaphors, okay? >> please do. save us from ourselves. >> i don't know where we go if we take it any further. i will say that the one bedrock principle of the republican party today is the big lie. it's the big lie about the election. it's the only thing republicans agree on, because they must

agree on it in order to remain in the republican party or remain, you know, viable and relevant in the republican party. this party has gone off the rails. yes, it's gone into the toilet, wherever you say it's gone, it's gone. and no one should be optimistic about this party in the foreseeable future, because i think this is where it's stuck. >> i don't see -- i don't see any lies there. i wanted to show you all, both of you gentlemen, this is -- we used to think of the republican party as being this sort of -- the pro law and order, pro police party. they still talk a lot of blue lives matter stuff. but when it comes right down to it, an actual police officer from the metro police named mike finone, he wrote a letter to all of congress. i struggle daily, he wrote, with the emotional anxiety of having survived such a traumatic event. he talks about hand-to-hand

combat. but he also struggles with the anxiety of hearing those who continue to downplay the events of that day and those who would ignore them altogether with their lack of acknowledgement. the indifference shown to my colleagues and i is disgraceful. the time to fully recognize these officers' actions is now. michael steele, there isn't a principle to be seen here. the only principle -- i guess what they're saying, and you can tell me whether this is gop tv, the big lie is to get our voters out to vote. so we're going to pretend donald trump is still president and joe biden is a hologram. we're going to say whatever we have to say to get them to vote. things about caring about this police officer -- is it that or is it if they do what liz cheney is saying and have subpoena power, kevin mccarthy would get subpoenaed. >> yes, kevin would get subpoenaed, cruz would get subpoenaed, josh hawley damn sure should be subpoenaed if

nobody else is. so the reality is also, yes, it churns the base such that there is a base. and more importantly, it's the grift. the cash that's raised off of this big lie is unbelievable. check the fec reports of all 149 members who voted to overturn this election. definitely check stefanik's fec report. hawley is out there bragging, i'm just raising money hand over fist. so this is what the party has been relegated to is the quick cash -- >> yeah. >> -- the lie, the big lie, and burn the constitution, the concept of democracy in the process. liz cheney will be the latest victim on that pyre, and that's unfortunate and says volumes about what this party has sunk into.

>> yeah. stefanik represents the adirondacks. she could get redistricted and she's claiming she may want to run for governor. >> oh, please do. >> right. and then she'll get a show on newsmax or whatever. eugene, the thing that scares a lot of democrats is that despite how ludicrous and freakish the republican party has become, because of gerrymandering and because of the census and the way it turned out and people not turning it in, et cetera, this actually could work, right? >> oh, absolutely. >> they could acquire power without having done anything other than behave as a freakish rump of what a party is supposed to look like, and then what? >> and then what? and i hope we don't find out, but we may find out. you add gerrymandering and whatever new gerrymandering is done. but you also add history. add the fact that in the first

midterm election after a new president, the other party generally picks up seats in congress. now, you know, there are historical exceptions to that. george bush after 9/11 in his first midterm, he -- the republican party gained seats. and joe biden and the democrats have to try to make this, you know, the post-pandemic midterm like the post-9/11 midterm and try to gain seats. they're fighting history. this is serious, because as you said, then what? what if this, this republican party, this shell of a party actually -- actually obtains any measure of power right now. it would be awful to the country, just objectively awful for the country. >> it's hard for me to imagine what that even looks like, michael, but can you discern as a republican, what is it that they would want to do if they got power?

because all they seem to want to do right now is fall on their knees and worship donald trump. so let's say they get power. what is it that they want to do? what are they going to do to us? >> light it up as much as possible. you know, most people say light it up. no, they just light it up as much as possible. >> basically hold power essentially just lock people of color out of being able to vote. >> i think you got a sense and a glimpse of it during the four years of donald trump of what an extended, unchecked, unfetterred power base would look like in this iteration of the party. the three of us, persona definitely non grata. look, all i'd have to say is just a quick tip on that, tucker, if you're going to go for the queen bee, baby, you

better make it count. >> don't bring tuckums up. leave tuckums alone. >> no, it's an absolute power grab right now. here's why you know that. what are the governing ideas they put out? what's your policy prescription for -- >> voter suppression. >> -- for infrastructure, for health care, for the economy? okay, you cut taxes, but, you know, what do you do about those people who didn't get the full benefit of that? so there are a lot of pieces here that go to governing that the party has given up on. what did mitch mcconnell just say? what did he just say? our goal is to stop everything donald -- i mean joe biden is doing. >> joe biden. >> we figured that out. can you put something on the table that you want to do? >> somebody call joe manchin, because literally it's shots and checks on the one side and just a freak show on the other side. i don't know what else it's going to be. eugene robinson, michael steele,

you guys are great. thank you very much. still ahead on "the reidout" concern about lax security is just one of many reasons why the justice department is taking a closer look at that bizarre pretend recount taking place in arizona. plus renee montgomery will be here to tell us how it feels to make history as the atlanta dream's co-owner and vice president. and a certain southern state republican governor just offers himself up on a silver platter by glee fully stripping residents of voting rights on live tv. "the reidout" continues after this. "the reido ut" continues af this -well, audrey's expecting... -twins! grandparents! we want to put money aside for them, so...change in plans. alright, let's see what we can adjust. ♪♪ we'd be closer to the twins. change in plans. okay. mom, are you painting again? you could sell these. lemme guess, change in plans? at fidelity, a change in plans is always part of the plan.

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donald trump is no longer president, but the clownish reality show of his presidency isn't over. take, for example, the sham audit, quote unquote, in arizona where republicans have handed millions of ballots over to the cyber ninjas, a sketchy sounding firm led by a trump-supporting conspiracy theorist and where a

forensic analysis is under way to determine if the paper contains traces of bamboo. >> there's accusations that 40,000 ballots were flown in -- >> to arizona? >> to arizona. and it was stuffed into the box, okay. and it came from the southeast part of the world, asia, okay. and what they're doing is to find out if there's bamboo in the paper. >> that's right. fake auditors led by the cyber ninjas are looking for bamboo fibers based off of lies that 40,000 ballots from asia were smuggled into maricopa county to tip the state to biden because, of course, anything involving asia must be laced with bamboo. no, this isn't the maga remake of the forensic files, this is unfortunately real life. the ongoing charade reveals deeply disturbing patterns that

could pave the way for republicans to contest any fair and honest election they don't win. meaning any party can question, probe and bamboo search your vote if it doesn't go their way. that doesn't sound like democracy to me. or to the department of justice, who sent a letter to arizona senate president karen fan expressing concern over ballot security because federal law requires ballots to remain in the control of elections officials for 22 months. the justice department also fears that contractors' plans to contact voters could amount to voter intimidation, which is illegal under federal law. joining me is arizona state representative lorenzo sierra and philip bump. i want to go first to you, philip, with apologies to the state representative, because you wrote a story about this bamboo search thing which is just so bizarre that it doesn't

read like it's real but apparently it's real. apparently the person, and i don't know if it was the same person we just saw in the clip, who spoke about this search for bamboo admits he doesn't even believe it, right? >> yeah, that's exactly right. so he was speaking -- yes, go ahead. he says he does not believe it. >> and so why are they doing it? >> well, i mean that sort of gets to the heart of the question, right? this is a result which has already been audited by the state. the maricopa county results were audited by the state and found to be fine. there's no evidence at all that anything untoward happened. so all of this is an effort to try to construct evidence out of thin air to suggest bad had happened. and so this is just the weirdest subset of that plot. it is this weird attempt, this bizarre theory that goes back to this korea air flight having flown in ballots. there's literally no evidence for it. but now they're using this theoretical process to try to detect bamboo. i spoke with a forensic document

examiner who is very much like you can't tell bamboo just by taking a picture of a piece of paper. so not only is there no evidence for undergoing this examination, they're not even doing it right. so there's no reason to think that anything about this is straightforward or in good faith. >> it's -- you're tempted to laugh at it, representative sierra, but it's deadly serious in the sense that this is an admission that one of our two political parties does not accept that their voters are ever allowed to lose, that they must win and they'll just keep counting until they win. that is not democracy. but i want to ask you about this other apparent part of their plan. i don't know if it's the cyber ninjas themselves or who are planning to go door to door and presumably in communities of color. that sounds like voter intimidation, to knock on people's door and demand to know about their votes. can you tell us about that and is there any way to stop that? >> so i don't know if there's any way to stop that, but i

don't know if it's going to happen. do you want to know the great irony about all of this? last year the first bill that the governor signed into law was senate bill 1135. guess what senate bill 1135 did? that was a bill our rules by which we would electronically count our votes. and guess what happened with that vote? the same senate that said that we need to audit these votes is the same senate that voted unanimously to approve the way we were going to count our votes. so if we need to count -- if we need to audit something, let's audit why they approved this in the first place. this is a sham. i will not put up for people coming and intimidating people in my community. if they're going to do that, they're not going to be met with open doors and i can tell you, joy, i walk these streets all the time. people welcome me with food,

with water. they're going to get slammed doors in their face, i can tell you that right now. >> and the fear, of course, philip, this is -- this is from the arizona republic story. cyber ninjas, the senate's main contractor said in its work plan that it would be reaching out to voters through a combination of phone calls and physical canvassing to collect information of whether the individual voted in the election. this raises concerns of voter intimidation which is illegal under federal law and that was part of what was in this letter from the department of justice. the fear is if you start knocking on people's doors and saying did you vote in the election? what's to stop them from saying who did you vote for? or some kind of intimidation so the next time they go to vote you wonder if that harassment will happen every time. it is intimidating and can reduce people's turnout. this strikes me as so broadly illegal, including having a private firm hold on to ballots. it's shocking to me that this is not entirely illegal.

>> yeah, i mean the question about the maintenance of the ballots is a very serious one. there are federal statutes which say that they have to be kept in the control of the state over a certain period of time. that's something that the justice department actually oversees. and i think one of the other issues with this idea of doing sort of spot checks to see if people voted is all you're going to do is you're going to ending up with these scenarios in which they try to call someone, that person is not home and they'll say let's put that in the maybe pile. they're trying to generate ways in which they can raise questions about what happened. remember, joe biden only won by 10,000 votes, 40,000 in maricopa county. if you can broaden enough questions around those votes you'll get what former president trump said last week, which is arizona is going to be the first state to prove him right. this is just another methodology they're using to do that. >> and then what, right? we're now hearing, this is the

arizona state senator katie hobbs wrote a letter talking about the fact that some of these laptop computers with people's data on them are being left unattended. they're sitting abandoned at times, unlocked, unmonitored. they're not even trying to keep the ballots secure. and so if the ballots are up in the air and we don't know if they're going home with the cyber ninjas. you know, to philip's point, they can do any count they want and say this is the result and then what? what do they think is going to happen if they miraculously trump won arizona by 300 bazillion votes, 99% of them like saddam hussein? >> they have the result. they know the results they want. now, are they going to get them? no. what they're doing is probably trying to make themselves look busy so it looks like they did something to get to the outcomes that they wanted in the first place. but despite all these republican talking points about protecting democracy, joy, this is doing nothing but destroying

democracy. and we really have to be very wary about this, because it's happening here in arizona right now. guess what, michigan, it's coming to you next. florida. it is going to come to any place where they didn't like the way the vote turned out. but when you think about what happened with these 40,000 supposed ballots dropped off from asia or wherever they're saying is do you -- if you were going to come up with some cockamamie plan, there are thousands upon thousands of variations of ballots in arizona, in maricopa county, based on jurisdiction. so it's not just that they're going to make a ballot that says the presidential race and the u.s. senate race. you've got -- >> before i let you go very quickly, have your senators weighed in on whether or not they're going to support s-1 to stop this kind of thing from happening in the future?

you would think they would both want to support that bill. >> we have reached out to them as the democratic caucus in the house and in the senate we have written a letter to them asking them to do so. >> all right. we'll see what happens with that. arizona state representative, lorenzo sierra and philip bump. thank you both. up next, renee montgomery is here and we're going to talk about her new role with the atlanta dream and her ongoing social and racial justice activism. i am so excited to talk with her. stay right there. st ay right the re wealth is breaking ground on your biggest project yet. worth is giving the people who build it a solid foundation. wealth is shutting down the office for mike's retirement party. worth is giving the employee who spent half his life with you, the party of a lifetime. wealth is watching your business grow. worth is watching your employees grow with it. principal. for all it's worth.

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this past year saw millions of americans make their voices heard in the fight for social justice and to end police brutality toward black and brown people. joining those ranks was the two-time wnba champion renee montgomery who announced she was sitting out the atlanta dream's season to focus on social activism. she took part in protests over

the killing of rashad brooks. it happened just two and a half weeks after george floyd was killed by police in minneapolis. and now that officer, garrett rolfe, who initially was fired following the incident, has been reinstated. a city review board said he was not afforded his right to due process. rolfe is still awaiting trial for 11 criminal charges, including felony murder. ray shard brooks received no due process. joining me now is renee montgomery. the first former player to become both an owner and executive of a wnba franchise. congratulations on that. before we talk about that just a little bit, we were looking up the timeline. you decided to sit out the season only about a week after rayshard brooks was killed so i would love to get your assessment of black lives matter as a movement and all that we've

seen just in this year with these ongoing cases, including the fact that officer -- former officer rolfe is back on the force. >> yeah, no, joy, thank you for having me back here. it's tough, because you talked about the timeline. it was actually six days before i opted out. when i was telling people, there were a string of events that happened, that was the string of events. we're sitting at home. we watch george floyd get murdered in minnesota. and then we saw what happened with rayshard brooks. he didn't get his new process. but for me it's the father of four. he's a father that's not going to be able to go home to his family. when we start talking about hash tags and names and due process, sometimes we miss the human aspect of it all. the human aspect to me was a man running away from the cops and that now won't be able to go home. so that's a tough pill to swallow because knowing that he could still be alive, that's the

hardest thing. he's a father of four. >> yeah. and i was struck, the dream really were a dream for social activism. the bravery of the players who walked out there and said no to the former senator, kind of ran her out of town really and made it very clear that they were going to -- that you all were going to openly support her opponent in the senate election, reverend raphael warnock and just make it clear that it was unacceptable to attack black lives matter. talk a little bit about the risks athletes take on that level and how you see that now, now that you're in the ownership position. how are those -- how severe are those risks? >> they're huge. i mean just think about our team and the bravery it took to wear those shirts, you know. they stood together and they knew that there's strength in numbers. and the whole sisterhood of the wnba was standing behind like,

yeah, what's up? you need that support when you're doing something bold. as you see there, it was different teams, different people from all different walks of life coming together for a common cause. when we talk about black lives matter movement, it's not just about black lives, it's about social justice, it's about equality. and so the pillars that the wnba are going to stand on this year, women empowerment, health equality, lgbtq rights. we see a lot going on with that. those are the things we're going to stand on. so just because last year happened and the election is over, the work will still continue with myself and the atlanta dream and the wnba. >> and has the wnba, do you feel they have been sufficiently supportive of the activism taking place? that's always a question, whether the leagues are fully supportive. >> yeah, that's a valid question for a lot of leagues. a lot of leagues may not be able to stand behind their players and say that they're doing that and the players might not agree. but with the wnba, we had a say her name campaign where we said the name of victims of police

violence every week, we talked about it. we brought attention to the names. we hear a lot of men's names but we're a women's league so we want to make sure that the women's names are still getting said. breonna taylor. we want to make sure those stories are heard. at the end of the day for me it's always about humanity and these are names that i want to say because these are families that are probably still grieving. as we move on and time moves on, we might forget about certain things and let our lives take over, but families are still grieving the loss of members that were killed to police violence. >> to that point, what do you make of the olympics barring black lives matter activism there? i know that you were an aspiring olympian. >> yeah. no, it's tough because i know plenty of athletes that right now they write motivational things on their sneakers, they write their family's name on their sneakers. jamal murphy had breonna taylor's face and george floyd's

face on his sneakers. so for the olympics to basically take away their freedom of speech and their freedom to express themselves, i don't think it's fair. i think that athletes should -- whatever motivates you is for you. so if my motivation comes from, look, i want to be the best i can be so that i can represent america and so that america is going to be a different thing than what we're used to and writing blm on my sneakers does that, why can't i do that? that's my motivation. that's what i'm turning up for. so i don't think the olympics should hinder people from speaking out. the olympics is where we have seen a lot of different protests happen. i don't know if that's going to make the athletes not do it, but for me i just don't think you should put that on the athletes. i think that whatever is for you is for you and the olympics, may the best man win. >> my last question to you because you are an inspiration. give us some motivation for those who want to be you. how does somebody get to do what you're doing and be what you are

because you've come such a long way for being a woman. >> listen, be bold. i sat here and talked to you, joy, when i was a player opting out. i had no idea what was going to happen. they say fortune favors the bold and it really is true. i took a big leap but i stood on things that i believed in. i wasn't really worried about the consequences because i was doing what i wanted to do and what i felt was right. so if you feel that speaking up is right, do it. if you feel like protesting is right, do it. if you want to come to me and joy's cookout, our family cookout when we have it, you better do it. do whatever is -- listen, do whatever is passionate to you. i think that the more people realize it's not just about you, it's about everyone else, we're going to be better off. so your problem may not be someone else's problem, but you should still care about their problem as much as you care about yours. so i'm just going to ending this with saying his name. rayshard brooks. in matter what happens with the

case, he's still a father of four that we need to recognize. >> and blessings to his family. renee montgomery, you're an inspiration. thank you so much. see you at the cookout. >> thank you very much. take care. >> see you at the cookout. >> all right, love it, love it. on a whole different note, a certain governor's decision to delay a special election to fill a late congressman's seat for more than nine months is bad. a certain governor's recent move to crack down on protesters is worse. but a certain governor going live on fox news to blissfully strip away voting rights is tonight's absolute worst. stay right there. ts is tonight's absolute worst stay right there ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪

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florida governor ron desantis returned to his pri mortal state. this morning he was back in trump twinsy mode making voter

suppression into a tv show on fox news to sign florida's new draconian voting bill into law. >> so right now i have what we think is the strongest election integrity measures in the country. i'm actually going to sign it right here. it's going to take effect. >> there you go. >> so the bill is signed. >> well, apparently that was the pilot for his spin-off of "the apprentice" which no one would watch. but anyway, the new law in florida does all sorts of things to curtail voting rights. it imposes new i.d. requirements to vote absentee and requires voters to request mail-in ballots every election. it expands powers for partisan poll watchers and adds limits on ballot drop box locations. it requires the drop boxes must be physically manned when opened, they can't rely on video surveillance. signing this law alone was egregious but that wasn't all ron desantis did with his low renting trump show today.

it's not just that he went on fox or that he was essentially holding a campaign rally to promote the orange man's big lie. that cheering crowd behind him was from a trump fan club. he also iced out reporters from other outlets, local florida media. that's right, he signed a law that says someone needs to watch you drop off a ballot but would only let certain people watch him do it. an orlando sun sent nal columnist was told it was a fox exclusive. who could forget georgia's republican governor, brian kemp, putting his state on an express train back to the jim crow era by signing that state's voter suppression law flanked by six other white guys behind closed doors and under a painting of a plantation while a black lawmaker was arrested on the other side of the door. no subtly there. now, for their part fox news went the mariah carey i don't

know her route saying that comfy couch crowd never requested or mandated that the event be an exclusive. at another event later, desantis was asked why his favorite network was the only one allowed in. >> why did you only allow fox news to capture the time you signed the controversial election bill? >> so we did a wonderful bill signing for this great elections bill, and it was live on national television on "fox & friends." we were happy to give them the exclusive on that. i think it went really, really well. i think it was a really positive day. we got a lot of great feedback on it and we're proud that we were able to do it on national television. >> except that you did not get great feedback on this law, ron. literally minutes after it was signed, the league of women voters, black voters matter and the florida alliance for retired americans filed a lawsuit challenging it. but ron desantis was proud to codify voter suppression into law on national television

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florida republicans have a history of ginning up laws to suppress black and brown voters. former high ranking public officials admitted to the palm beach post in 2012 that an election law curtailing early voting hours was designed to beat back democratic turnout after black voters turned out in record numbers in 200078 for barack obama. the outgoing governor at the time disagreed with that effort. but when republican rick scott took over in january 2011, the florida legislature passed the bill and scott signed it into law. at that time republicans left absentee balloting untouched because that's the preferred method for many of the state's elderly white republican voters. fast forward to today. they're now targeting everything, including absentee voting since black voters used

it widely during the pandemic, and we can't have that. despite the fact many republicans still used absentee voting in 2020 including the former president. joining me now is charlie crist, the aforementioned former governor who is running for governor again, this time as a democrat. governor crist, a lot of people remember the way you fell out with the republican party, having been a lifelong republican and having a family that was a republican family, was that your first offense was that you wouldn't shut the lines down when people were voting in democratic precincts in 2008. you allowed people who were still in line to vote. then your second offense was you admitted, look, there was pressure on you as governor to push through and sign really egregious voter suppression law. so my question is having been in that party and now being on the outside of it, do you feel that it is that the republican party is just anti-democracy or that they're afraid that they can't win over black and brown voters,

so they're just determined to suppress them? >> joy, i think it's both. thanks for having me on. it is definitely anti-democracy, and it's definitely a fear that they have of being able to get black and brown voters to vote for them. i mean it's -- there is systemic racism in our country. ron desantis said the other day on fox news that he thought that was horse manure. nice choice of words. but, you know, that's how detached he is and unaware of what's really going on in america. as you pointed out in an earlier piece, you talked about the fact that he signed this horrible bill, you know, to suppress the vote, to keep people from voting, anti-democracy at its worst, and he did so virtually in secret except for one audience and one audience only. this is a guy who is clearly running for president, wants to be the nominee in 2024 and appealed to this audience this morning. this is so nontransparent what he does. they won't give up public

records. there's no transparency, no sunshine laws being respected by a governor who happens to be an attorney. and i think he went to a pretty good school, harvard or yale or both. but what's important is -- and this is an important point. i'm running for governor on a positive message, that we have a florida that is for all people, no matter where you're from, no matter what the color of your skin, no matter what your sexual persuasion, no matter what your religion. florida is a beautiful place. you're a floridian, joy, so you know this as well as i do. and floridians deserve better. what we're getting now is sort of a one-trick pony that only talks about the far right, only appeals to the far right, and florida is diverse. it's diverse as any state in our country. that's why i'm running for governor, to have a florida that truly is for all our people, that will accept medicaid, make sure we have medicaid expansion. as a result of the governor and the legislature not doing that, 800,000 of floridians go to bed every night knowing they do not

have health care. that is cruel and unusual beyond the pale. i'm looking forward to the race. i'm looking forward to fairness. >> you've won multiple times in the state of florida. you were education commissioner. you were governor. you know the state very well. but it's now a state versus when i lived there that has now passed laws saying you can't film police, that people can hit black lives matter protesters with their cars. it's just a gun-wild state now. it's the complete takeover of the nra. you had ron desantis today saying, we need to know who you are when you're voting. we need to have voter i.d., except that he wouldn't let people, as you said, see him sign a bill. it is a much more right-wing state now, right? so how do you win in a state like that when it has gone so far right? >> you go to people and tell them the truth. you tell them that you want to lead with the heart, that you want to have a governor that has compassion, that understands and

truly cares about people above politics. that's what i've been telling them. i announced on tuesday in my hometown of st. petersburg. then we went to orlando, took a flight to pensacola, all the way out in what would be considered red pensacola, but it's not. there's a lot of blue out there too. then we came back to tallahassee in the morning. 5:00 this morning, i got up. i swam. then we drove over to jacksonville. i'm in orlando now, in lake county, considered to be traditionally red. but you got to go to people, joy. that's how you win it. there's still almost 200,000 more registered democrats and republicans in the sunshine state, and i'm not going to forget it. a lot of open-minded independents, and there really are some good republicans that don't like what they see from that trump acolyte in ron desantis. they don't want a trump light as the next governor or the next president in 2024. >> you have to first get through potentially a primary. are you looking down the road at maybe nikki freed, who is the agricultural commissioner, and

maybe even val demings running in a primary, or do you anticipate that there won't be such a primary and are you worried about it. >> i don't know, and i'm not worried about it. i can only concern myselves with the things i can control. i can't control other people's lives or what is a very personal decision to decide to run for governor the florida. so whatever comes what may, it comes. so i'm focused on trying to beat the governor. i think we need to defeat ron desantis. i think we need to have a governor in florida like we have a president of the united states now in joe biden, a man who has compassion, who really cares about people, wants to fight for them every day and make sure they're given fundamental fairness. if anybody wants to help us, please go to charlie crist.com. we need your help to win. >> i guess my last question to you would be are you too nice for florida politics? i mean florida politics has gotten pretty mean. it's trumpy. >> it is trumpy. there's no question about it.

a famous quote said, never confuse kindness with weakness. we are going to take the battle to them. i'll be a gentleman as i do it, as i always strive to be, because i believe in the golden rule. do unto others as you would have done unto you. >> i can tell you this is a very tough man to beat. you know what you're doing, sir, so former governor, current congressman charlie crist, best of luck to you. that's tonight reidout. "all in" with chris hayes starts now. tonight on "all in" -- >> what are your thoughts about what's going on in arizona? >> i fully support the audit in arizona. >> liz cheney's replacement records a big lie demo tape as a republican project to forget the attack on america moves forward. then just what is happening in arizona? >> uv lights are looking at the paper. >> what they're doing is to find out if there's bamboo in the paper. >> we're out here really doing a