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tv   Alex Wagner Tonight  MSNBC  August 26, 2022 1:00am-2:00am PDT

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throughout the hour. throughout the hour. throughout the hour. that is "all in" on this thursday night, alex wagner tonight starts right now. good evening. >> good evening. such an important topic you're talking about, we're actually talking to ron klain the white house chief of staff more about the policy and the losses and the orders in terms of protecting women's reproductive freedoms. >> i did not know you had the white house chief of staff but that is very exciting, it continues quite the booking run, but the elizabeth warren interview last night was fantastic, i loved it when she rubbed her hands. >> i see you. i agree. >> it should be a gif, whatever you want to call it. >> have a great night.
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>> stay tuned. the bookings are fantastic throughout the hour and thank you all for joining us this hour. tonight, yes, in just moments, we will be joined live by the white house chief of staff ron klain, and we will ask him about president biden's campaign trail return tonight, the new burst of democratic momentum heading into the midterms and donald trump's legal woes. plus a judge says that by tomorrow, he will release a redacted version of the affidavit used to get that mar-a-lago search warrant. as the d.a. investigating trump in georgia calls on more of his associates to testify. former federal prosecutor and senior member of the mueller investigation, andrew wiseman is our guest. and as conservatives take over the nation's school boards new reporting on who is funding the efforts and opening up a new front in the culture war. we start tonight with the president on a hot streak. president biden at a rally tonight in rockville, maryland, is jumping back on the campaign trail with his first political event of the midterm season.
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>> for decades, the climate deniers blocked any meaningful progress in dealing with climate crisis. but not this year. this year, the american people won and the climate deniers lost. for decades, the biggest corporations and the wealthiest americans, who fought to block the tax code and for decade after decade, they won, this year. so biggest companies in america flooded capitol hill with lobbyists and money and campaign contributions, and they lost. the american people won. every single republican in the house, every single republican in the senate, every single one, hear this, america, every single republican voted against lower prescription drug prices, against lower health care costs, against tackling the lower energy costs and good paying jobs and fairer taxes, every
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single one. that's not hyperbole. serve single american needs to return the favor when we vote. >> at tonight's political rally, the president had choice words for his political foes. people he repeatedly referred to under the umbrella of maga republicans. >> the alternative to the democrats are the maga republicans. well, maga republicans have awakened the powerful force in america, the women of this nation. maga republicans don't have a clue about the power of women. let me tell you something. they are about to find ut. the maga reap -- republicans don't just threaten our personal rights but a threat toe our very democracy and they refuse to accept the will of the people and embrace political violence
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and they don't believe in democracy. this is why in this moment, those of you who love this country, democrats, independents, mainstream republicans, we must be stronger, more determined, and more committed to saving america than the maga republicans are destroying america. >> tonight's rally comes as a fired up biden wraps up what can only be described as a summer of victories for him as a party. the president managed to pass a major health care and climate bill, the biggest investment in climate change in american history. he has notched significant bipartisan accomplishments on gun safety, veterans health care, and american manufacturing. he's overseen a successful military operation to take off a top al qaeda leader. he shepherded an economy with record unemployment and 70 straight days of falling gas prices and this week he provided student lope relief for more than 40 million americans. not everyone in the party is happy about that.
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just tonight, ohio democratic senate candidate tim ryan pushed back on biden's student loan decisions saying, quote, it sends the wrong message to the millions of ohioans working without a degree, working just as hard to make ends meet. and tim ryan is not the only one. nbc news reports today that democrats in tough races have begun distancing themselves from biden's student loan decision ahead of crucial midterm elections. and despite the criticism, it sort of looks like president biden's accomplishments are finally starting to break through with voters this. week president biden's approval rating ticked up for the first time in months according to two new polls and while voters may be starting to warm back up to the president, they are downright excited about other members of his party. on tuesday, democrats won a closely-watched swing district in new york validating their mid-term message on reap duck tively rights. on top of that, new polling out today from pennsylvania shows john fetterman with a whopping 13-point lead over his opponent,
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tv doctor and crudite enthusiast mehmet oz. and in pennsylvania, josh shapiro has an 11 point lead over his far right opponent doug mastriano. when the defacto leader in the republican party continues to plun ng deeper and deeper into a well of legal dramas. we expect to get a partially redacted look at the version of the affidavit that the justice department used to get the go ahead to search former president trump's home for documents and we know it will keep the mishandling of classified information front and center. at the same time, the current president has gotten boulder about criticizing the trump-ist influence in the republican party and is now predicting its demise. we think. ahead of tonight's rally in maryland, biden told reporters what we're seeing now is the
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beginning or the death knell of an extreme maga philosophy. it's not just trump. it's the entire philosophy. it's like semi fash im. it is a wild state of affairs among the two political parties especially given where we were a few months ago where republicans looked poised to sweep both houses of congress. can the biden administration keep up the momentum? and how do you plan to deal with an erratic former president whose scandals keep stealing headlines? i know just the person to ask. joining us now is ron klain, white house chief of staff for the biden administration, and a man who has been working very, very, very, very, very hard, mr. ron klain, thank you for being here. >> alex, thank you so much for being here. good luck on the new show. great to be a guest. >> good luck to us both here on the same show. ron, let me just start with the words, the words of the president, hours ago, about
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semi-fascism, is the president's belief that fascism lies at the root of the current republican party? >> i think you heard the president tonight explain in his own words the difference between what he and the democrats are fighting for and what the maga republicans are fighting for. he and the democrats are fighting for standing up to special interests, saving our democracy, bringing down costs, and protecting a woman's right to choose, getting guns off our streets, and donald trump and the maga republicans are fighting to reverse all of those things. they're fighting to, they oppose the inflation reduction act, every single republican in the house and senate, they stand, rick scott, the head of the campaign committee, talking about getting rid of social security and medicare and putting it on the chopping block every five years. and the list goes on. you heard the president detail it in the speech in rockville. and the contrast between democrats and joe biden and what
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donald trump and the republicans, the maga republicans are fighting for, that gap couldn't be wider. >> he is using the world fascism to describe the republican party. >> does he see a difference betweening ina republicans and republicans or is that one and the same? >> he made it very clear in his remark, there are mainstream republicans referring to governor hoegen in maryland where he was speaking as a mainstream republican, as a republican, a more traditional kind of republican, but we're clearly seeing on the campaign trail are maga republicans engaging in the big lie, refusing to accept the outcome of elections, threatening to overturn the will of the voters, in subsequent elections, that's what the president is referring, to that's the threat to our democracy, and the president is quite clear, and quite eloquent about it tonight. >> you mentioned larry hogan and i think it's worth mentioning that the guy that is running for the governorship in maryland is dan cox, very much a maga
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republican. the president said it's either the beginning or the death knell of this maga republican fascism. which is it? those are two very different roads, one would think divergent, the start of this, or the end of this, which one is it in the white house's opinion? >> look, i think again, the president was very clear about this tonight. voters have to see the clear difference between the two political parties. they have to see, the american people have to see where the democrats stand, fighting for things like, you know, making education more affordable, fighting to protect social security and medicare, fighting to bring down the cost of every day goods, lower the cost of prescription drugs, standing up to the special interests, making corporations pay their fair share in taxes, and depending a woman's right to choose, versus where the maga republicans are. which includes, you know, trying to push a nationwide ban on abortion, in all cases, including rape and incest.
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that difference as i said before, it just couldn't be a wider difference. >> let's talk about where the democrats are. we know that there was yesterday, a lot of trump sounded, we had elizabeth warren on the show talking about student loan relief, 409 million americans who will see -- the 40 million americans who will see some relief because of what the president decided to, do but people in your own party that w.h.o. are in critical races as far as the democratic control of congress who are not, it seems, on board. and i will draw your attention to tim ryan who said, while there is no doubt that a college education should be about opening opportunities, waiving debt for those who are already on a trajectory to financial security sends the wrong message to the millions of ohioans without a degree working just as hard to make ends meet. it bears mentioning that 53% of ohioans without a college degree voted for barack obama in 2012, and 58, with some college or less, voted for donald trump in 2020. ohio is a difficult climb for
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tim ryan for democrats. he has some momentum right now, are you worried that this choice to alleviate student debt for 40 million americans could hurt key democrats in key races in november? >> look, what tim ryan and joe biden share in common is a dedication to making sure that every person in this country, whether they went to college or not, has a chance for a better life, to make more money, to improve their life and their family's life. that's why joe biden has led the fight to bring back manufacturing jobs to this country. we brought more manufacturing jobs to this country, most of which pay well and don't require a college degree, we've done more of that in 18 months, than we have in the past ten years in this country. and that's why joe biden fought so hard to get the chips act passed, so we can build more and more of these manufacturing jobs, to benefit people. again, whether or not they have a college degree.
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at the same time, we also want to have opportunity for people who do go to college. the president noted yesterday, about 40% of the beneficiaries of his student loan plan, are people who have the worst of both worlds. they have a lot of debt and they never got their degree. maybe they went to colleges that weren't, that defrauded them, maybe they just didn't have the money to finish their degree, so helping those people get out of the hole they are in and get back on track in life, enabling them to buy homes and raise families, that's good for our economy. that's good for our country. that's good for their economic opportunity. >> and you think that the katherine cortez in nevada, tim ryan in ohio, they have enough sort of wins to propose to their voters that the student loan debt does not become a liability in november? >> look, i think, obviously, they have their point of view. we're a big party. we have diversity of views in our party, the core shared value and the core shared value is the
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belief that everyone, whether they went to college or not should have the opportunity for a better life. we invest in public schools, we invest in programs for community colleges, we invest in programs for trade schools, pell grants to help students get to college, we have a whole array of educational programs, of which this student loan plan is just one part of. when you take all of those plans together, look at what we're doing to promote education, look at what we're doing to give people economic opportunities, whether or not you have a college degree, the fact that we have the employment rate down to 3.5%, and not just the lowest in 50 years, you've got an administration that is creating economic opportunity force all americans whether they went to college or not. >> i want to talk about abortion, ron, because after the primary in new york, on tuesday, there's a lot of talk about how much democrats should be messaging on choice, going into november. i will be speaking of course with pat ryan in new york's 19th district and his win there largely on a pro choice
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messaging platform. the president has been reluctant to talk about abortion in months and years past. there's even i think a website that says about whether or not joe biden has used the word abortion.org. he is now talking about abortion. he talked about it tonight. is this something we're going to see more of from the president? do you feel like abortion is a major plank of the campaign we're going to see the president do in the coming months? >> look, i think the issue of reproductive rights, the issue of abortion, the issue of other rights, you heard the president talk about abortion tonight, you played a clip earlier alex of him saying, the maga republicans don't realize the force they've unleashed here, the power of american women, who are registering in record numbers here, and voting in record numbers, we're going to see that force in the elections this year. and you're going to hear the president talk about that, talk about other rights that the supreme court's decision puts on
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the chopping block, marriage equality, he mentioned tonight, the right to contraception, he mentioned tonight, so we're working very hard to do what we can on an executive basis to protect reproductive freenld but ultimately the way we will protect a woman's right to choose is to pass a federal law to enshrine roe v. wade into the law of the land. to do that we will need two more democratic senators and a pro choice majority in the house, the new congress can pass that law and put it on the president's desk and he will sign it. >> i got to ask as we talk about the string of victories the president has had in recent weeks and the battle ahead and abortion and many other issues, how concerned are you about the oxygen sucking from florida, mar-a-lago, and the orbit of donald trump more generally? right? he has 17 or one trillion, some precise number of investigations swirling around him, and as you are trying to cut through the
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noise, how much of a hindrance is that, given the sort of historic nature of these investigations of the former president and the way in which indeed people seem to be drawn to the sensational scandal of trump world? is that a problem for the biden administration? as you try to make your case? and also reiterate to the american public the stakes at hand in november? well, look. i think that it's understandable people have an interest in these things, but i also think that how much coverage it gets is a case the cable executives make, not us here at the white house. i think fewer talking head panels mar-a-lago and explaining how people can get new appliances in the inflation reduction act and new things for their home with rebates that bring down their costs, i think people are interested in that, too and i wish there was more of that on the cable tv. i will leave it to the cable executives to decide what they
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show on tv, but what the democrats are delivering, and i think that is registering with the american people. >> yes, and i knew that there was going to be a cable dig in there, ron, fair game. but i got to say, you know, we have reporting that white house officials are concerned about the classified information that may have been in possession, donald trump's possession in mar-a-lago, this is not a nothing burger, right? do you have an opinion on that? is this something you're concerned about? is this an investigation you're following? >> this is an investigation we are not involved on, we have no briefings on it, we didn't approve or have any advanced notice of the serving of the search warrant. we are letting the justice department do its business. we are doing our business at the white house which is continuing to work to protect the rights and freedoms of the american people, continuing to work to deliver to lower the costs of health care, and we will do our job and we will let the justice department do its job. >> the busiest man in washington, d.c. other than joe
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biden, chief of staff ron klain, thanks for being my guest and thanks for doing the hard work and thank you for your time. >> thanks, alex. the judge will release a redacted document detailing why it went down tomorrow, andrewwiseman joins us next. and the effort to take over the nation's school boards and control what teachers can say. stay with us. boards and control what teachers can say. stay with us (woman) oh. oh! hi there. you're jonathan, right? the 995 plan! yes, from colonial penn. your 995 plan fits my budget just right. excuse me? aren't you jonathan from tv, that 995 plan? yes, from colonial penn. i love your lifetime rate lock. that's what sold me. she thinks you're jonathan, with the 995 plan. -are you? -yes, from colonial penn.
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switch to xfinity mobile today. in a matter of hours, or really any minute now, our understanding of the justice department's investigation into trump and the classified documents found at his palm beach estate, well our understanding might just grow by a lot. our maybe not by much.
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and we're of course talking about the fbi's affidavit that convinced a federal judge to approve the mar-a-lago search warrant. the affidavit, to use the justice department's own language is, a road map to their ongoing criminal investigation. that currently sealed document holds all of the secrets of the investigation. it lays out their argument as to why the justice department believed evidence of crimes would be found at mar-a-lago. sources and methods detailed in that document, laying out not what the government knows but how it knows, it makes sense that the government did not want the public or the press to see that document while the government continued its investigation. doing so, the d.o.j. argued, the d.o.j. argued could compromise the investigation, even if the public and especially the press want to very badly to see said document. so today, the department offered the judge's edited and highly redacted version of the affidavit, one that they felt would not basically give up the goods on their case. and today, the judge in that
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case says okay, fine, specifically he wrote in his order, quote, based on my independent review of the affidavit, i find the government has met its burd of showing that its proposed redactions are narrowly tailored to serve the government's legitimate interest in the integrity of the ongoing investigation and the least onerous alternative to seelg the entire affidavit. the judge gave the government until noon tomorrow to up load the redacted version of that affidavit publicly but in reality that filing could come any minute now. we don't know how much of the affidavit will be redacted but the fact that the public is going to see even a part of it, even if it is just how many pages of evidence the government presented to make a case for what might be found at trump's home, well, that alone is historic. joining us now is andrew weissmann, former fbi general counsel and former senior member of special counsel robert mueller's investigative team, currently a professor at nyu law
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school. thanks for joining us tonight as we guess, educated guesses on what might be on the horizon. how you are thinking about this affidavit? >> i divide it into the sort of educated guesses, and what do we sort of really know. and i think what we really know, are that whatever is disclosed is not going to be good for donald trump. this is a situation where disclosure of what the government has amassed as proof is not something that is going to be exculpatory of the president, it is going to be inculpatory, we know that not just because a judge looked at this and says it establishes probable cause. just remember, the former president knows exactly wlae took to mar-a-lago, and if there was anything exculpatory about it, he is free any day of the week to make that public and said i never took documents or i never took classified documents, and here's at what was at
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mar-a-lago and here is wasn't, so what i think we can expect that anything we actually learn about, i don't think it will be good for him, precisely because he hasn't spoken about this in any definitive way about what he was doing. the second way i look at this is really, as you said, sort of educated guesses, and i sort of divide the world into sort of what are the key questions that i have. one is the question of what was taken from mar-a-lago, why was it taken by the president, and what was he planning to do with it? and i think on those, the former president hasn't spoken to those, and i think what we might get unsealed partially redacted affidavit, is a bit of an answer to the first, of what was taken. not by specifics, but in terms of classification. in other words, that it was top secret, et cetera. and i think that isn't going to be all that new, because we have some of that from the archives but it will be additional data. i think the second area that i
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think, when i think about this, is i think about why did the department of justice need to use a search warrant? i think that's like a big question that's been asked. and it's a legitimate question. i think that's the area where we really might get actual information, because the back and forth with donald trump and his colleagues, and representatives, is the kind of thing that i could see the department of justice saying that at least some of that can be revealed without actually revealing classified information, without really damaging the ongoing criminal investigation, so if we're going to get anything, i think it is going to be something that helps answer that question. >> the back and forth is what we read about in reporting but we haven't heard of it, we haven't heard about it officially, right? than could be revealed, not a good data point for donald trump who said over and over again, i cooperated, i cooperated, i cooperated, and here we may have the case being made by the
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department of justice that no indeed he did not. >> yes, and the reason that i think that is not going to be good news is because it is not just like the department willy-nilly did a search warrant. they could have done that on day one or two. and they waited so long. and so as we have been hearing and reporting, but don't have really hard evidence from the department of justice, is exactly what the back and forth was, and why they waited, and all of the various ways in which they tried to do this short of a search warrant, which to me simes like a very natural -- seems like a very natural thing for the department to have undertaken and again, that is not going to be good for donald trump, because it doesn't just show, that he didn't cooperate, but i think it could really be damaging in terms of his intent to, not just that he intended to take the documents, but he intended to keep them and he he might have been deceptive what he turned back over to the
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archives and what he kept hidden at mar-a-lago, so it could be quite a damning document. >> let's me just turn us to another investigation that's ongoing, the criminal investigation donald trump has in fulton county, georgia. there are a lot of them admittedly. they are now seeking testimony from mark meadows and sidney powell, what does that signal to you in terms of the crescendo of this investigation? >> i think it is a, as you pointed out, this level of people that they're speaking to, that rudy giuliani, mark meadow, sidney powell, to me, those are all sort of the key people that we've heard about, people who were involved in the phone calls, plural, to raffensperger, to put pressure on him, to find just enough votes for donald trump to have won georgia. those are the key people to be trying to speak to, we know that they certainly have a very active grand jury investigation, and they are doing pretty well in the courts in getting those
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enforced. so to me, this shows that this is really not a sort of insippent budding investigation, i think we're coming down to the homestretch. >> not a budding investigation indeed. andrew weissmann, former fbi general counsel and former senior mib of special counsel robert mueller's investigative team, always full of wisdom and educated guesses. thanks for your time tonight, andrew. >> nice to be here. way down in the ballot, in florida's primary elections this week were races for school board, thee, these elections are normally bipartisan and ho-hum affairs and now ron desantis endorsed 30 for school board and hand picked candidates aligned with desantis on race, gender and sexual owner tation taught in public schools. 19 won their races and six more have a chance to win runoffs in
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november. only five out of the 30 candidates lost outright. that is at minimum a 63% success rate. governor desantis's experience in meddling with down ballot races is getting results but he's not the only one. incredible new reporting about who else wants to try their handle at in particular nation, coming up next. r handle at in particular nation, coming up next
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the day before school started in the keller independent school district outside fort worth, texas, last week, all of the district principals got last minute orders from the school board, they were instructed to remove all copies of 41 different books from their libraries and classrooms by the end of the day, books like "the bluest eye" by toni morrison and a graphic novel representation of ann frank's diary. last year, a community of family members decided they were okay but the keller school board decided otherwise. in grail grapevine-colleyville school district, 4-3 voted to restrict ow students can discuss race and gender. the policies row hibbert teachers from teaching or discussions the 1619 project or critical race theory, and it requires coos schools to restrict bathroom and locker
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room news to the biological sex listed on student's birth certificates. when you look at school districts on a map, you might think this is a particularly conservative area getting on board with the anti-crt and anti-lbgtq bandwagon but the grapevine-colleyville school board meeting where they passed the policies the majority of the community members who showed up, they spoke out against those policies and the counties that both school districts are in texas narrowly went tore joe biden in 2020, going blue for the first time in six decades. believe it or not, the connective tissue between the school boards and those two counties, listen to, this explain their recent hyper conservative agendas, the ting that explains all of that is a cell phone company. open boards. shameful abandonment. disregard for human life. the prospect of more mandates and lockdowns. and the list goes on.
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now, more than ever, we need to stick together. voting alone is not enough. we must use our dollars to support like minded companies to fight or our rights and beliefs. the only christian conservative far right who shares more values. >> you heard that correctly. patriot mobile. america's only christian conservative wireless provider. but they aren't just a wireless provider. they are a political movement. up to 5% of every patriot mobile phone bill goes directly to supporting patriot mobile's political action committee, patriot mobile action. to give you a sense of the politics of this groon, here is their executive director speaking at a conservative women's event this summer. >> my name is lee wambscan st. s and my pronounces are bible believer. jesus lover. gun carrier.
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and mama bear. >> now, this political action committee, this pac is less than a year old and in the past year, it has done something of a test run. the pac had 600,000 dollars in for suburbs, and heavily right wing consulting firms, for candidates like texas senator ted cruz and virginia governor glen youngkin and turned the local nonpartisan races incredibly partisan. the pac sent thousands of flyers like this one, falsely claiming that woke politics and critical race theory have led to a recent school shooting in texas. all in all, this political action committee hand picked 11 candidates, super charged their campaigns, tons of cash, and successfully won majorities on all four of the fort worth suburban school boards that they targeted. that means more than 100,000 students now go to schools controlled by people elected by
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this weird conservative cell phone company. that is why the keller independent school district decided to pull the books from the shelves and that's why the grapevine-colleyville independent school district is forcing kids to prove their biological depender to use the bathroom. money and politics is not a new thing, but this kind of money in teeny tiny traditionally nonpartisan local races, that is new. and it is all being super charge bid big players in national conservative politics. >> you can give your money to at&t, the parent company of cnn, and you can pay the salary of don lemon, or you can support someone like a patriot mobile. and give back to causes that they believe in. >> at patriot mobile's booth at the conservative political action committee, at that meeting, they hosted meet and greets with conservative politicians, ben carson and texas senator ted cruz. the reason we know about any of this is because of incredible reporting that came out today by
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nbc news reporter mike, a remarkable piece that you should absolutely read, but don't just take my word for it. here is steve bannon speaking early today with patriot mobile's founder and chief marketing officer about mike's reporting. >> what nbc and the mainstream media is most concerned about is your guys engagement in backing these candidates and not just the ones that won in flipping of whole districts but the fact that you're just not giving up. this is just the opening round. >> we are focused on school boards here for now but our goal is to spread this as large as we can to other states and other communities that are kuwait frankly wanting what we're doing here in their communities, so to your point about the article, yes, we are going to continue to do this, and we're going to continue to grow this and get our message out there, and help others like us that want to get involved. >> it's actually a great piece.
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nbc hasn't made it to be a great piece. >> the author of that great piece, mike joins us next. piece, mike joins us next. policy you no longer need? now you can sell your policy - even a term policy - for an immediate cash payment. we thought we had planned carefully for our retirement. but we quickly realized we needed a way to supplement our income. if you have $100,000 or more of life insurance, you may qualify to sell your policy. don't cancel or let your policy lapse without finding out what it's worth. visit coventrydirect.com to find out if your policy qualifies. or call the number on your screen. coventry direct, redefining insurance.
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i want to make sure we get this article right because it is really in detail and everyone should read it about the schools, and what does nbc, what is the case, blaming you guys, for what, supporting school board members who would get in and have a biblical point of view and number one purpose to
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make sure that the teaching and the academics in the school districts got better is, that essentially it, scott? >> that is it, and i will say this, it's a sad day in our country when protecting our children is being labeled as far right. you know, it's not secret, the left has been injecting their ideology into our schools for years now. whether it be critical race theory or gender fluidity, or literature, what have you. >> that is former trump adviser steve bannon on his podcast today talking about this story, published by nbc's mike hixenbaugh this morning, in a new piece hixenbaugh explains hor a far right christian nationalist phone company is using national republican strategist and consultants to take over school boards in texas. and they do not plan on stopping there. joining us now is mike hixenbaugh, senior investigative reporter for nbc news, mike spent years covering how education has become a battle ground for conservatives, you can see him here, reporting for
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his peabody award winning podcast south lake and covering how american's history and how it is taught to suburban classroom kids and how the ride is responding to it. thank you for being here tonight and thank you for the report that i and steve bannon enjoy reading, not something i can say often. what is the catalyst for the odd conservative phone company setting its sights on this fort worth area in texas and its school boards? >> alex, thank you very much for having me. so patriot mobile is based in tarrant county, and what we saw in 2020, in 2021, with this backlash to teaching about racism, that was described as critical race theory by conservatives, we saw that that backlash shifts in the past several months, to become intertangled with this kind of
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growing movement by far right christian conservatives to try to insert or to reassert christopher value -- virch values in schools. so patriot mobile is part of that story. they saw the success that some of these smaller political action committees had, in flipping control of school boards in the initial fights over critical race theory, and so they, this year, decided to make school boards their thing, rather than focusing on congress, or other, you know, officers, and they forced 600,000 dollars into flipping local school boards in tarrant county, as you mentioned, a county that they say is traditionally a red county, but did flip to biden, and in their mind, keeping tarrant red is the key to keeping texas red. >> i mean i did some reporting on this very subject in florida, and what is so haunting are the similarities in the language, in the goals, in the texts, in the
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lessons, in the standards, it all feels very much a part of this broader conservative movement that has been incredibly efficient as sort of getting indoctrination installed in public school. i want to just call everybody's attention so what specifically is happening, in the policies, in these school boards, on race, for example, and the grapevine-colleyville, independent school district. the policies say that in accordance with the texas education code, the district, including its teachers and administrators, shall not instruct employees or students that meritocracy or traits such as hard work are racist or sexist or were created by members of a particular race or group to oppress members of another race or group of the advent of slavery in the territory that is now the u.s. constituted the true founding of the united states, that is a specific big dig at the 1619 project and with rp to their relationship to american values, slavery, and racism, are
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anything other than deviations from, betrayals of, or failures to live up to the authentic founding principles of the united states. which includes liberty or equality. this is all under the rubric of patriotism. isn't it? but it is more than that. >> that's right. >> it is more specifically furthering the sort of christian nationalively agenda that seeks to effectively white wash america's history on race and institutional racism. >> that's absolutely right. and in the piece, we touch on this once kind of fringe christian theology, and political philosophy thony as the seven mountains mandate, or christian dominionism, it is an idea that has been around since the '70s or even longer that true biblical christians are called to assert their biblical values in seven key areas of public life. including government, business, the media, church, and
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education. and what i was talking to religious scholars and historians, the election of donald trump, in 2016, of all people, brought back that world view and philosophy and made it mainstream. and we're only just now i think really starting to understand just how pervasive this is, and i think we're seeing it now in school boards, where as one scholar told me, if you're waging a spiritual war over what is america, what better place than the school where we teach our history, where we teach kids what is okay, and what isn't. and so you know, and part of this, you cannot separate this, part of this christian conservative ideology is standing firm, that you will not make my kids accept lbgtq students. you will not force us, or any
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teachers, to, you know, address kids by their chosen pronouns and that is part of what is happening here. >> it is a piece that everyone should read, it is something that is happening across the country, not just in texas, mike hixenbaugh, peabody award winning senior investigative reporter for nbc news, mike, thanks so much for being here tonight. thanks for the reporting. >> thank you. up next, the state that has led the way in so many of the progressive moves this country has made takes a very bold move to fight climate change. stay with us. nge. stay with us and he's on it with jardiance for type 2 diabetes. his underhand sky serve? on fire. his grilling game? on point. and his a1c? ron is on it. with the once-daily pill, jardiance. jardiance not only lowers a1c... it goes beyond to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death for adults with type 2 diabetes and known heart disease. and jardiance may help you lose some weight. jardiance may cause serious side effects, including ketoacidosis that may be fatal,
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dehydration that can lead to sudden worsening of kidney function, and genital yeast or urinary tract infections. a rare life-threatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. stop taking jardiance and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this infection, ketoacidosis, or an allergic reaction, and don't take it if you're on dialysis. taking jardiance with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. a once-daily pill that goes beyond lowering a1c? on it with jardiance. ask your doctor about jardiance.
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the statistics are kinds of staggers, los angeles drivers spend something like 60 hours a year stuck in traffic, never mind the other time spend on the road and then the visuals, crowded california highways lid up in red and white and bumper to bumper traffic ahead of any major holiday or just, you know, on a tuesday. there are a lot of cars in california. and the state is home to the largest car market in the united states, one that is now like bob dylan in 1965 going electric. today, california regulators approved a sweeping plan that will ultimately ban the sale of gas-powered vehicles in the state, requiring all new cars, trucks, and suvs, to run on electricity or hydrogen by 2035. not only will this drastically change the landscape in california, it is expected to push the rest of the country in this direction as well. if passed as president, at least a dozen other cities are expected to follow california's lead. washington state governor jay
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inslee has already stated that his state is ready to adopt california's regulations by the end of this year. and while the zero emission vehicles are still more expensive than gas-powered ones, officials in california are betting that they will become more affordable in the near future thanks to federal credits and the overall direction in which the country is headed. "way too early" with jonathan lemire is coming up next. you and 81 million americans voted to save our democracy. that's why donald trump isn't just a former president. he is a defeated former president. and it's not otherwise, now you need to vote to save democracy again. >> that was a rare and direct attack on donald trump by president biden last night, calling the former president's maga movement quote semi-fascism. muchor

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