♪♪ tonight on "the reidout" -- can i answer the question? >> no, you cannot. you are refused to answer the question. >> i'm answering your kwi. the attorney general does not decide whether to arrest -- >> how did you choose not to enforce this statute? >> marshalls on scene -- they do make the decision whether to make an arrest. >> to prosecute someone, no they

don't. >> attorney general merrick garland facing the self righteous indignation of ted cruz and other republicans. new reporting tension between the fbi and justice department over the mar-a-lago raid. cpac is back, home of normal conservatives nothing more than a clown show. it does reflect the current state of the republican party. and from performative to alarming, republicans and ron desantis's florida are cracking down on lgbtq people and moving to cancel the entire democratic party. we begin tonight with a lingering question from the 2016 presidential election. what was going on inside the fbi? remember, just 11 days before the election, fbi director james comey announced that the agency was reopening its investigation into hillary clinton. effectively costing her the election. the motivation behind comey's move seemed to be coming from

the fbi's new york field office, which, according to reuters, had a faction of investigators based in the office known to be hostile to hillary clinton. and then there's what they didn't announce, which is at the same time, they were also investigating the trump campaign's ties to russia. a fact that never came out until after trump was elected and eventually impeached, the first time. so the question of what was going on inside the fbi was never fully answered, at least not publicly. but that's not the -- but that same question is coming up again. as we're getting new reporting from "the washington post" involving apparent fbi resistance to the august search of trump's mar-a-lago estate to recover classified documents. the post reports, two senior fbi officials who would be in charge of leading the search resisted the plan to do -- as too combative and proposed instead to seek trump's permission to search his property, according

to the four people who spoke on the condition of an himty to describe a sensitive investigation. not only some fbi agents want to slow down the probe but some wanted to shut down the criminal investigation all together last june. after trump's legal team claimed that all classified documents had been turned over. which as we now know, was proven to be false. while the "post" points out it's not unusual for fbi agents and justice department prosecutors to disagree during an investigation about how aggressively to pursue witnesses or other evidence, some of the reasons for resistance seem to relate to fear of career consequences or political repercussions, which are not supposed to be a thing when it comes to federal law enforcement enforcing the law. especially with national security on the line. what's also concerning is that the investigation is still on going, which begs the question, why is this information being leaked at all? and what's going on inside the fbi now? that question is further

compounded by the latest action by the current fbi director christopher wray who is a trump holdover. i will say, that he has shown some good judgment in the past. calling out white nationalists as the largest domestic terrorist threat facing the country. but that was put into question when he decided to speak out publicly for the first time yesterday on the fbi's belief that covid-19 most likely originated from a chinese lab on of all networks fox news. the one network that's almost perfectly set up for conspiracy theorizing, not only is fox news pushing conspiracy theories about covid this whole time, but as we learn from the dominion voting systems lawsuit, they also knowingly pushed conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. conspiracy theories that turned out to be dangerous for members of congress, the vice president and for our democracy. and literally deadly for members of law enforcement. which brings me to another shocking national security story. speaker kevin mccarthy's

decision to selectively provide access to more than 40,000 hours of january 6th security footage. i mean, it was bad enough when he announced that tucker carlson, the chief propagandist at fox would get exclusively. i mean, we know what he'll do with it, cherry pick video to lie to his viewers about january 6th. something he's been doing for two years. but now mccarthy agreed to provide the highly sensitive videos to the actual people who attacked the capitol in the first place. some of the same people who were calling for the hanging of former vice president mike pence. and vowing to drag former speaker nancy pelosi and congress woman like alexandra ocasio-cortez out of the capitol by their hair. some of the same people who are associated with extremist groups like the proud boys and oath keepers. how can mccarthy justify giving some of the same people that the fbi director called the most dangerous faction of the country access to information about the

security routes of lawmakers? where their safe rooms are as well as where security cameras are located? i mean, is he deliberately trying to give these people crucial information they would need to plan another attack and perhaps be more successful? because if he's not doing that, he sure is doing a great impression of someone who is. for mccarthy, just the latest example of him capitulating to the demands of the extremists who dominate his congress at the expense of the safety of everyone at the capitol, lawmakers, staff, capitol police. and yet all of these facts that you just heard have not stopped republicans from continuing to play the victim card with the fbi. despite the fact that all of the evidence shows that the justice department and the fbi have bent over backwards for years and years to accommodate trump and his supporters at every turn. and despite all that accommodation, what you're hearing today is republicans win

jing about how unfair the whole system is to them and what victims they are. and trying to spin the truth on its head. like senator josh hawley, who infamously ran for his life on january 6th after pumping his fist in support of the mob. this morning, in a hearing with attorney general merrick garland, he laid down the victim card. >> my question is, how often do you overrule fbi field agents for political purposes? >> i have skimmed that article. it is not -- that's not an accurate reflection of what the article says. i approved the decision to seek a search warrant after problem cause. >> overruling the fbi agents who did not want to do so. did you talk about this with the white house beforehand? >> the memorandum -- that "washington post" article does not say what you're saying. i'm sorry. >> joining me now is congressman eric swalwell member of the judiciary committee and 2021 impeachment mag and tracy walder.

congressman, i have to go to you first. it's kind of stunning to hear josh hawley attempting to make it sound as if it is republicans and conservatives and he and all of his fellow members of that committee saying they're the victims. here is josh hawley on january 6th throwing up his fist and then running for his life. in what way has law enforcement been unfair to people like him? >> fist boy josh hawley is no victim, joy. he's someone that encouraged and rooted for the rioters as they ransacked the capitol on january 6th. but the story that he's referring to is really troubling. i'll tell you why, it's because it shows that the trump tactic of creating artificial redlines continues to work. we saw this in 2016 when he said the election was going to be rigged. and guess who was trying to rig the election, the russians. what did that do to the obama

administration, it made them hold back on publicly calling out the russians. during the mueller investigation, donald trump said it would be a redline to look at his finances. and what ended up happening? mueller held back on looking at his finances. and now, when it's so clear that this guy has got a trove of classified information that the department of justice wants to seek, donald trump is in the heads of fbi agents who are afraid that this would cross some trump redline and that they would be called out. so it's essentially letting him win and rewarding somebody's bad behavior because you're afraid of the backlash. thank god jack smith and merrick garland and the team per -- what did they ultimately finding, exactly what the evidence showed was going to be there. a trove of highly-sehighly-sens classified documents. >> there's so much evidence of this kind of fear, right? just to go through here what "the washington post" reported about what these fbi agents were afraid of. just what you're saying. fbi agents found ways to make the search less con -- i'm

sorry. let me start in the beginning here. prosecutors heard from top fbi officials that some agents were simply afraid. they worried that taking aggressive steps investigating trump would blemish or end their careers according to some people with knowledge of the discussions. one official dubbed the hangover of cross fire hurricane which was a previous investigation into russia and trump's campaign. fbi agents found ways to make the search less confrontational otherwise could have been. the search would take place when trump was in new york, not in palm beach. the secret service would receive a heads up a few hours before fbi agents arrived. agents would wear white polo shirts and khakis to cut a low profile. peter who used to be an fbi agent said the following, in 20 years of working cases involving classified information, i never, not once, encountered prosecutors who wanted to get a search warrant and reluctant, refusing agents the other way around for sure. and tracy, i want to bring you in here, because the evidence seems to be that if anything the fbi is acombination of

sympathetic to trump and his supporters or terrified of him and his supporters. >> well, i think it's a little bit of both to be honest with you. i think these fbi agents have really gotten what the heart of their job is about mixed up quite frankly. that whole idea of service over self. your job is to protect the american people and uphold the constitution of the united states. trump was given multiple opportunities. he was afforded every single opportunity under the sun to hand over documents. they had plenty of probable cause to believe that he held national security secrets. that's not protecting the american people when you say you are not going to go ahead with a surprise raid, which they had every right to do because the reality is they had reason to believe that this evidence could be destroyed. and when you are sort of standing in the way of that, the head of the washington field office, is standing in the way of that, that is sending a very,

very clear message that you care about self or service. and i think the fbi has really aligned themselves politically, which is so disturbing to me because i served under two different presidents. and i never felt the political sway that i think that some of them are feeling right now. >> let me play ted cruz. this is emblematic of the self owning. >> please don't. >> the fbi buys against trump. here is ted cruz. >> as you know, the fbi raided donald trump's mar-a-lago home. and subsequent to that raid, there have been multiple leaks about what was discovered there, including a photograph of documents that were discovered there. did you know about the leaks of that raid? >> the photograph -- i don't think we finished the next part. the photograph was a filing in court in response to motion by trump. trump did the filing and it

wasn't a leak. it came out because donald trump filed a motion and it came out as a result of that motion. trump caused those documents -- the pictures of the documents to come out. not garland. not the doj. go ahead, congressman. >> everything we know about this case is because of donald trump. they extended him courtesies and the benefit of the doubt that no criminal suspect or individual who would have their evidence or possessions seized would ever get. they did that for donald trump. and the only reason that we know about this raid is because donald trump tweeted about it or truthed about it. and the only reason we learned about what they found anything about what they found is because he went to court to try and get the documents back. and so donald trump has initiated every part of these proceedings that has given us any bit of information about what is out there. so this is entirely of donald trump's doing, from taking the classified documents to publicizing the fact that the fbi had the crazy idea that they

shouldn't be in his basement. >> let me move on to the other thing which i think is in some ways even bigger story. this decision by kevin mccarthy to hand over that very sensitive information to people who are accused of ransacking the capitol and threatening to kill the vice president and other members of congress and the speaker of the house, barry the person behind this idea, congressman, is the guy who was giving tours, tours to some of the people who wound up ransacking the capitol. to me it seems like such a blatant security breach and a threat to everyone's lives in the capitol. your thoughts on this development. >> well, kevin mccarthy has the title speaker, but he doesn't have the job. the only way he has the title is because he struck a corrupt bargain with the most extreme members of his conference. and so this is just the latest installment payment on that corrupt bargain, which is he has

to turn over to tucker carlson sensitive security footage that will be selectively pulled out, as you said, to either amplify their conspiracy theories about january 6th, or, and to be a blueprint for any future insurrectionists. so you have this security camera footage in the hands of the proudest boy of all who has the biggest microphone of all and that's quite disturbing. but kevin mccarthy, again, to him this is just how do i live another day as speaker and what do i have to pay. that's what we're living through right now. >> tracy, as somebody who has been in law enforcement, this to me is the equivalent of giving a burglar, the security camera footage. saying now you know how the whole house is laid out. if you want to go back in there, you have the blueprints. in this case the burglars ransacked the capitol and threatened to hang the vice president of the united states and kill the speaker. so, this seems to me to be an entire mess. your thoughts. >> so really i have two thoughts on that.

first of all, as someone who served in afghanistan, served my country and was in harm's way, i did not risk my life for something like this to happen, to really hand these back over to people to go ahead and potentially raid the capitol again if whomever they want isn't seated as president. but also the way i look at this, strangely, is actually no different than what edward snowden did. if you think about it, he took these documents. these classified documents, laid out blueprints of our satellites, gave them to the media. in this case tucker carlson. then the media selectively chose what was out there. then it's a huge breach to our national security, all these countries know what we have in terms of our capabilities. and the reality is this information is put out there and isn't handled carefully, we could more so than just the proud boys be giving this sensitive information to other countries. that's a huge national security problem. >> absolutely. especially given the affinity of this particular host to russia and, you know, god knows what

the affinities of some of these insurrectionists are, violent affinities, this sounds like a recipe to have it done again and this time to have even greater national security implications. congressman eric swalwell and tracy walder, thank you very much. up next on "the reidout," thanks but no thanks. cpac continues its dissent into irrelevance with many of the republican party's rising stars choosing to skip this year's event. but real talk, cpac does reflect the current state of the party. "the reidout" continues after this. h the pandemic, getrefunds.com can see if it may qualify for a payroll tax refund of up to $26,000 per employee. all it takes is eight minutes to get started. then work with professionals to assist your business with its forms and submit the application. go to getrefunds.com to learn more. (tony hawk) skating for over 45 years has taken a toll on my body. i take qunol turmeric andbecause it helpsication. with healthy joints and inflammation support. why qunol? it has superior absorption compared to regular turmeric. qunol.

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in case you missed it, the annual conservative political action conference, cpac, got under way today. the annual right-wing con fab used to be highly relevant. helped launch the ronald reagan era. he spoke at cpac more than a dozen times including the first meeting in 1974, where he outlined his shining city on a

hill treat tis of america. the gathering is now more like the star wars cantina, a collection of castoffs and losers. that's not a dis. we're talking actual losers. this year's keynote speaker at the once prestigious ronald reagan dinner is failed arizona gubernatorial candidate, election denier and governor in her head, kari lake. they'll also hear from jair bolsonaro of brazil and donald trump. the pro insurrection republican agenda comes with one great big elephant in the room, so to speak. namely the lawsuit accusing cpac's chairman matt schlapp of fondling a male aide. he denies the allegation, but the scandal has proved -- provided convenient cover for some of the big name no shows. kevin mccarthy, mitch mcconnell, rnc chair, mccanal are skipping along with potential 2024 republican presidential

hopefuls, mike pence, ron desantis and virginia governor and anti-books activist glenn youngkin. the cpac crowd will, however, hear from the real leaders of the maga party in congress. matt gaetz, marjorie taylor greene. which actually makes sense. since that is the current republican party. the party whose new house oversight chair james comer is made that president biden's son beau who died of brain cancer eight years ago was never prosecuted. i guess for being a biden. matt gaetz, who invited an accused murderer to give the pledge of allegiance at a judiciary committee hear after insisting on creating a rule for a daily recitation of the pledge. and of course, serial ha razor and professional marjorie taylor greene tried to sell her national divorce plan. >> we are fed up. we're fed up with democrat policies. we're fed up with the woke ideology being shoved down our

throat. and we're tired of our children being brainwashed into these same ideas. we want our own safe space. and we deserve it. >> joining me now is former republican congressman and msnbc political analyst. i bet you never thought you heard the word safe space out of the mouth of far right republican. they need a safe space. how can we get one for them? >> yeah. you know, what's remarkable about this, joy, marjorie taylor greene, ron desantis, all these others who say family and kids are under attack, you and i talked about this, just reflects their own insecurity in their parenting. somehow society has this outsized influence on their ability to raise their kids. kind of the biggest safe space plea of all from these folks. cpac will be her big safe space among a bunch of crazies. but to your point, i think there's this question, this real pressing question, it is true that all the other presidential candidates are skipping this. they're going to the more establishment club for growth retreat. and so people are saying, well,

maybe cpac doesn't have the luster. that might actually still be where exactly the heart beat of the parfy and the heart beat of the movement is. and if we got one thing wrong in '16, i say this collectively as a nation, we underestimated donald trump could go straight to the crazy, ignore the establishment and become president. i don't know that we should take that bet again this cycle. >> you're absolutely right. you think about it, mitt romney, we're both old enough to remember mitt romney in 2016, he wasn't invited to cpac because he voted for impeachment -- 2020 i mean. 2020 he literally was disinvited and actually people -- they feared for his personal safety in 2016. it was trump he cancelled. i'm not going, right? and said i don't want to be there because you guys are sort of being cruel to me and not digging me. and he ends up becoming the nominee. you're right. it's not indicative of who is going to get it. i went back and pulled some of the people who have gotten in before won the straw poll they

do at the end. george w. bush won in 2000, jack kemp back in 1993. gary bauer 1999, man. ron paul in 2010. it's a grab bag. >> yeah. well, so that's when the conference truly was conservative, if you will. it was the most conservative. it represented this far right wing of the party. now the angry populist movement and the maga movement. what i'm watching for, joy, this is the biggest opportunity donald trump has had since he launched his re-election campaign, to do one thing, go after ron desantis, mike pence and the establishment of republicans. he's attacked david mcen tosh, the leader of the club for growth. on the eve of cpac, ron desantis just rolled oun the endorsement of jeb bush. donald trump is worth his salt at the angry, populist leader of maga nation, he will hang that around ron desantis's neck and do it at cpac. but we haven't seen that vigor from donald trump yet. it will be curious what he does

at cpac this year. >> you know, it is interesting. you make the point that he can show up and just sort of own that crowd, which is already his crowd. let's be clear, this is the maga crowd, but no one is attempting to sort of walk any of them away from him. you know, i think nikki haley may be the only other candidate that's going to show up. they're giving him that platform to himself. it's not like he needs to win those people over. they're already his people, but he could do himself probably some good by showing up and giving a speech to try to take down some of his opponents. >> that's exactly right because in their absence, he has the big stage. and ron desantis, mike pence and others maybe they think they're playing it safe themselves not showing up at cpac when matt schlapp credibly accused of sexual offense. but look, at the end of the day, ron desantis and mike pence don't get to the republican nomination without going through cpac. >> yeah. >> this is an opportunity for donald trump. ron desantis and mike pence are going after the big donors this weekend. and donald trump seizes on republican leadership activity like that.

and it is a shoed by the base. we'll see what he does with it. >> at the end of the base, donald trump has been accused 26 times including of rape. matt schlapp is a bit more embarrassing given where the party is anything that has to do with same sex, but he denies it. i should note he denies it. but it's not as if that has ever stopped any republican from -- named donald trump, from rising before. we'll see. we'll see. david jolly, always appreciate you, man. thank you very much. republican lawmaker in florida is pitching a bill that would eliminate the democratic party in that state. which is plenty hilarious all right. but wait, there's more and that's next. but wait, there's more and that's nt.ex type 2 diabetes? discover the ozempic® tri-zone. in my ozempic® tri-zone, i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack, or death in adults also with known heart disease.

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♪♪ a republican in florida state legislature filed a bill that if enacted would eliminate the florida democratic party. no, i'm serious. the ultimate cancel act, that is the bill's real name, would cancel the filings of any party that previously advocated for slavery, which the democratic party did, more than 150 years ago. it's a performative move, toxic and deceptive, but it also serves as an educational opportunity to examine the fascinating story of our two major political parties. now usually i don't do this because black history month is over, but want to hear it. here it goes. back in the day, way back, the mid 19th century to be exact. the republicans were indeed the

anti-slavery party. it was the democrats of the south who wanted to preserve slavery. and who opposed republican reconstruction legislation. it may sound a little disorienting but basically the republicans were the liberals. while democrats were the staunch conservatives who wanted to remain slave holders forever. as you can imagine, once the civil war was over in the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments gave black men the right to vote, at least on paper, black voters preferred and importantly voted essentially unanimously for the republican party. but over time, the party's flipped idealogies. they literally switched brands. the shift happened for many different reasons and took decades to complete, but in very simplistic terms the democrats who remember were the conservatives began to defect over their party's increasingly pro-civil rights platform. the shift was gradual but punctuated by 20th century democratic presidents, franklin d. roosevelt dramatically

transformed the democratic party by launching the new deal after the great depression. hi successor harry truman who pushed to desegregate the military after world war ii. john f. kennedy who shifted on civil rights after a series of violate attempts to integrate southern universities and lyndon johnson signed a civil rights and voting rights act breaking the party's ties with sovereign conservative, the break away dixie crats and white supremesy. conservative was the prevailing ideology of the republican party, meaning modern day republicans are nowhere near what they were 150 years ago or even 50 years ago. but even with all this history in mind, there is another thing, do not let today's republicans trick you into thinking the pre-20th century republican party was was the republicans back in the old days who were anti-slavery. following emancipation the party consisted of both white and

black americans. they literally called themselves the black and tans. but as the 1800s ended, some of those white republicans weren't too happy about the gains made by their black counterparts and wanted to eliminate them. the lily white movement emerged within the republican party as an organized effort to drive black folks of party leadership. at the same time, black americans were moving north in the great migration. and their votes were being courted by big city democrats. this happened in the waning days of reconstruction when it began, which means white racist republicanism pre-dates the 1960s. racism is a complicated religion afterall. the true story about our political parties, it is the stuff today's republicans don't want you to learn. it's how they continue to lie and gaslight and coopt the abolitionist legacy of abraham lyndon this bill in florida to cancel the modern day democratic party because southern democrats advocated for slavery during the

civil war is both dumb and anti-historical. it's also dangerous. if florida republicans had it their way with this bill, millions of democratic voters would be notified that their party no longer exists. it would automatically change their voter registration to no party affiliation. essentially the legislative version of desantis election police. disenfranchising mainly voters of color who would no longer be able to vote in the state's closed primaries. even worse, this isn't the only message bill republicans are cooking up to excite their base and own the libs. florida is moving to expand the don't say gay law. this time waging a war against pronouns. florida state senator chevron jones joins me next to try to explain. a kayak denier, so please don't bring it up. - bring what up? kayak? - excuse me?

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save $1,200 on the sleep number 360 i10 smart bed. only for a limited time. florida governor who has a new book, hilariously titled "the courage to be free" is doing whatever he can to restrict the freedoms of over. on tuesday a bill was filed that would prohibit schools from creating any policy calling for the use of the gender pronouns students or teachers prefer other than the ones printed on their birth certificates and also require schools to go beyond just prohibiting woke politeness, it would require them to affirmatively adopt policies that assert a person's sex is an immutable biological

trait. an entirely unnecessary and gratuitously cheap shot at transadults and kids already among the most bullied people in schools. i don't know. it sounds more like the courage to be an unmitigated a-hole. the proposed law would also expand the don't say gay law restricting topics related to sexual orientation and gender identity up to the eighth grade and adding restrictive guidelines through the 12th grade as well extending the pre-k to third grade classrooms. let's talk about this with chevron jones. the new don't say gay law kind of throws overboard the lie that was told to us previously the only concern republicans had was k through third grade, now up to 12th grade. >> we knew this was going to happen. now they want to shift the conversation to talk about pronouns just one year under the

don't say gay bill, children's books are being banned. safe space stickers are being peeled from classroom windows. school districts refusing to recognize lgbtq history month. families are wondering whether it's safe to stay here at all. and expanding the governor's agenda of censorship would make it even worse what we're seeing right now. and now you see what we have just -- has just been filed in the legislature with this expansion because they -- they have polled their base and they want more. and so they're going to give their base more. >> you know, it's sort of ironic that this governor, who required a safe space at his book signing, such that they called the police on trump supporters who just stood across from the books with their trump t-shirts on, they literally had them arrested and carted away. so he needs a safe space to sign his little book, right? they feel that their kids, that white kids, need a safe space in school to never learn anything negative about thomas jefferson,

yet black kids, fine for black people to walk under statues of the former enslavers. they're so fragile. they need to get over it. what is so harmful, if they want to be called she instead of he, what is the harm to children in that? >> there's no harm at all. and as a matter of fact, we are in a time within florida even within the florida legislature where unfortunately the republicans don't care who they hurt. and who is hurt by what -- who is hurt by what they're doing. and all of this is theater that's happening. because while this is happening, they are ignoring the real issues that need to be dealt with in florida. one year after proclaiming themselves as the champions for parental rights, now we have these same politicians are now proposing that we revoke the rights of parents to decide how their children would be addressed at school. the same way that a trans mother

fights for their child, the same way that a mother want to fight for their child. now you have one group who think their voice is louder than the other while diminishing another voice. that's not parental rights. that's indoctrination within itself. >> that's a great point. if a parent says i want my child to be addressed this way, what they're saying is, no, sorry parent. you don't get to make that decision. ron desantis will decide what your child is called. it's the opposite of parental rights. i do want to ask you about this other bill, the ultimate cancel act, which this person who used to be the head of the florida democratic party is proposing because he's like, well, you're trying to cancel our statues. the statues are of traitors who went to war against the united states. it would be like having emperor hero hee toe here. we went to war against japan. they want these traitor statues here, black folk to have to endure that, we're going to cancel the whole democratic party? this would literally mean millions of floridians couldn't

vote in primaries and would have no political party. >> i will honest with you. >> the republican party, right. they think it's a game. they think that they can pick and choose and how they want to make fun -- especially using slavery as their tool or their dangling carrot to say that this is the legislation that they're pushing. but i think at the end of the day, people, one, understand this is unconstitutional. two, they just had election with the republicans in florida and their new chair just made it clear that we are going to work until we eliminate every democrat in the state of florida. so all they're doing is following everything that they said they're going to do. is it right? it's not right. it's dead wrong. all they're doing is filtering out, keep saying, all they're doing is filtering into a base don't care who it hurts, don't care how unorganized it is, and don't care who -- those who have to run it, what they have to put in place to be able to fight against these very things that they're doing. >> yeah. i mean, listen, they've

already -- the governor has installed a proud boy supporter on the school board in broward county, democratic broward county through a worm hole this morning is named after a man whose name was broward, napoleon broward who happened to be a republican segregationist and there you have it, it's why you need education. thank you, senator chevron jones. good luck fighting these folks. appreciate you. up next, a stunning defeat for chicago mayor lori lightfoot she becomes the first incumbent windy city mayor in 40 years to lose a bid for re-election. one of her opponents who now heads for runoffs joins me next. w heads for runoffs joins me next. can help your business get a payroll tax refund, even if you got ppp and it only takes eight minutes to qualify. i went on their website, uploaded everything, and i was blown away by what they could do. getrefunds.com has helped businesses get over a billion dollars and we can help your business too. qualify your business for a big refund in eight minutes.

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anything is possible with hardware. and i want you to know that no matter what happens along the way, you should always believe that. because it's true. obviously, we didn't win the election today. i stand here with my held held high. >> and a chicago mayoral election, laurie lightfoot failed to -- first chicago mayor in 40 years to lose reelection. a black queer woman took office with high expectations after she was elected in 2019 on a progressive platform. but her handling of covid-19 and social unrest after george floyd caused progressives to become disillusioned with her. most deadly, for her reaction to the 2022 teachers strike,

which she told teachers who are concerned about covid safety to get real and get back to class in person. chicago also experienced a spike in crime during her term, similar to the rest of the country, which made her vulnerable to attacks from the right. as ross -- points out in the new yorker, lightfoot alienated every ideological faction in chicago, leaving local leaders to view the mayor with increasing skepticism, portraying her as a pro police neoliberal. she managed to feud almost equally with two influential unions that hold starkly different political views. the chicago teachers union, which is left-wing, and the city's police union, the fraternal order of police, which is headed by a proud donald trump supporter. the police ordered and arrest paul vallas, who centered his campaign on crime but the teachers union backing progressive brandon johnson. both candidates won the most votes yesterday and will advance to the runoff. brian johnson joins me now.

congratulations. this was a historic shift. normally, this isn't the way it goes. but now, you're one of two people who's gonna go into the runoff. very quickly, what do you think the disillusionment with laurie lightfoot was mainly about? >> yeah. thank you for having me tonight, joy. i started my career as a public school teacher teaching seven and eighth graders. it's still the best job i've ever had, teaching in a neighborhood in community that i believe people around the country will be familiar with. as i've worked to become an organizer in the city of chicago pushing for education, justice, and fighting for workers rights, mayor lori lightfoot three years ago made history by embracing the very movement that made her election and candidacy possible. then, unfortunately, she was a disappointment because she abandoned all of the progressive promises that she made, and clearly, the city of chicago is ready to turn the

page on her, and actually connect to someone who is definitely tethered to the movement. >> the way that this race played out, i mean, there was six african american candidates including yourself. there was -- a lot of people remember, he was the one latino candidate, and then there was the white candidate, mr. dallas. it is you in dallas who an all go head to head. crime is a major issue on it -- at least according to the reporting, right? of what people were thinking about. you have a lot of african-american middle class folks moving out of chicago due to things like, you know, discrimination, law and order issues, you know, multiple issues causing people to leave. then, you also have a lot of, you know, white chicago eyes who are complaining about crime. the crime rate increase, it's not even across communities. it's not even across racial communities. you are campaign has said that you are a tack on that is to cut 100 $50 million from police budget, tax lurch for billion dollars, and you're spending on schools, mental health, job

creation. that's your campaign platform. paul vallas, who the fraternal of order of police is backing, his tactic is to call it an utter breakdown of law in order, and his whole campaign is about taking back our city. you plans to take the handcuffs off police officers to stop raving criminals. that sends an alarm bell in a lot of black folks heads. your thoughts on that? >> look, public safety is top of mind of many people. my wife and i, we're raising our three children on the west side of chicago, and the dynamic neighborhood of the austin community, one of the largest concentrations of glass folks around the country. that we love our community, it's one of the more violent neighborhoods in the entire city of chicago. so, we experienced this firsthand. raising three children there. between me and my opponent, no one has a greater incentive for the city of chicago to be safe than someone who is raising a family under the circumstances. look, the bottom line is that paul vallas in the 90s was in charge of the budget of the chicago public schools, and had

budgetary leadership within the city government. we are in the economic crisis that we are experiencing right now because of his failures. in fact, i was in high school at the time, in which he blew the budget. but he did it in philadelphia. he did the new orleans, after hurricane katrina, shutting down schools. the loss of black educators under his reign -- he's been an absolute nightmare. but this is someone who's also identified with the extreme right wing. once president obama, the first black president, was elected, he said he identified more as a republican. he said he was fundamentally opposed to reproductive rights and abortion. here's someone who's been embraced by leadership that has been supportive of the january 6th insurrection. so he certainly represents the most extreme aspects of the political dynamic throughout the country. i, on the other hand, i'm doing what works. the safest cities in america all have one thing in common,

joy. what that is is they invest in people. so what my budget plan does, which is balanced, the only person who actually released one, having passed multibillion dollar budgets on the county board, we get at the root causes of violence in the city of chicago, while also dealing with the immediate crisis. and we do that by promoting rank and file members to become detectives, 200 more. we do it by spending to make sure the consent decree that the sum mission has ignored is administered with all due expediency. but we also make sure that we hire young people. there's a great predictor, a violence reduction throughout the country. young people working is the greatest predicted to drive down violence. that's what my plan is committed to doing. it's ultimately a plan that invests and people. because that's what safe american cities do all over the country. i know that as a teacher, as an organizer, and of course, now is a county commissioner. >> and are you concerned that the sort of breakdown over the crime issue will become as sort

of racially polarized in an ugly way as it has another cities during the campaign? >> well, there certainly been a whole lot of dog whistling here. so look, painting a public school teacher in a certain light is something that, of course, the extreme right wing as embraced. but as a progressive democrat, i'm definitely committed to making sure that we do what works. and you know, again, investing in lives and young people is the best thing that we can do, making sure that we're providing mental health services to deal with the trauma around the city of chicago. that's what i'm committed to doing. >> all right. we wish you luck. please come back. chicago mayoral candidate brandon johnson, thank you. we should let you know we did invite paul vallas on the show as well. we look forward to talking with him. that's tonight with -- tonight's read out. all in with chris hayes starts now. s read o>> tonight on all in -- >> the fox news hosts have done is flat out dangerous. dangerous. >> at