this is something that has come up time and time and time again. the film, in the way it is depicted, the elements of what d this is as a sexual assault are unequivocal. how far that sexual assault goes may be subjective. this is one of any -- many things because the film overall shows donald trump, i really meant it when i said the dark side earlier but the way he became the person he is, it is the story that does not ring true to the origin people might think of him, he would like people to think of him as a man who pulled himself up by his own bootstraps. he was born with a silver spoon in his life. >> for smart folks, this is a dramatic interpretation, not a documentary. thank you very much. good to see you. that will do it for me.

i will see you tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. eastern. we will be back next saturday and sunday at 1:00 p.m. eastern. "prime: weekend" is next . ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ welcome to primetime weekend. i am rachel maddow. let's get right to the week's top stories. >> the past 24 hours have been kind of microcosm. kamala harris and tim walz are doing the stander campaign work for any major candidate, and even keel with a major interview last night that went through a lot of the republican charges against them. while they are doing that, trump is out there stumbling to put together english sentences. his campaign keeps stepping in misses of its own making, including an enormous one tonight which we will get to. both the candidate and his aides are, as usual, posting from it. the fallout continues from trump's political fallout in

campaign commercial on tiktok at the in arlington national cemetery earlier this week where he gave a thumbs up at the graves of veterans, including many who did not consent to any of these, blaming the deaths on democrats. now his campaign is openly doing battle with the united states army. remember, they just try to enforce the rules, a trump aide got physical with her. she filed a report but did not press charges, reportedly fearing retribution from trump supporters. the trump campaign spokesman immediately confronted this with a liar, saying she was clearly suffering from a mental health episode. the army was forced to put out a remark, a statement rebuking the trump team, saying the incident was important, it is also unfortunate that the cemetery employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked. arlington is a national shrine

to the honored dead of the armed forces. it's dedicated staff will continue to ensure their ceremonies are conducted with the dignity they deserve. when all this went down, the trump training paint -- campaign said they have video that would prove they were being defamed. wait, have you seen the video? i haven't seen the video. weirdly, that video, instead, trump co-caffeine managers posted this unrelated 13 second video to social media showing trump standing in a different part of the cemetery and put it up with a note saying this should trigger the hacks at the secretary of the army's office. the grown man who wrote that post is a marine vet whose first big splash in politics was putting together the attacks to sink john kerry's campaign in 2024, his career is 0éq■ army. who is triggered? the last time republicans got a

reprieve, as media attention, was the first big sitdown interview with kamala harris and tim walz as the democratic convention. it seemed to e be anticipated among republican viewers and the democratic ticket because a lot of republicans, they really seem to believe, against all the available evidence that harris is not a smart person. it is a baseless charge and carries with it a lot of sexism and racism, i think. if you need more evidence of that, trump running jd vance provided a posting social mediad saying i have gotten full kamala harris interview accompanied by the notorious interview of the fluster beauty pageant contestant. that is what jd vance seeks of the sitting president -- vice

president of the united states. here is what kamala harris actually said. >> when we came in, our highest priority was to do what we could to rescue america. today we know we have inflation at under 3%. a lot of our policies have led to the reality that america recovered faster than any other wealthy nation in the world. your right. prices for groceries are still too high. the american people know it. i know it. that is why my agenda includes what we need to do to bring down the price of groceries, for example, dealing with price gouging, extending the child tax credit to help young cr families be able to take her there children in their most formative years, what we need to do to bring down the cost of housing. the true mark of a strength of a leader is who you left up. that is at stake as any other details we have discussed in s this election. >> did that sound to you like the infamous meme from the beauty pageant responded? is that what that sounds like to you? it was donald trump last night meanwhile. >> she destroyed the city of

san francisco. i own a big building there. i shouldn't talk about this but that's okay, i don't give a because this is what i am doing. [ applause ] >> i should say it is the finest city of the world, just sell and get the hell out of there. i can't do that, i don't care. i lost billions of dollars, billions of dollars. somebody said, what you rsthink you lost? maybe two or 3 billion, i don't care. do you think it would happen again? that is the least of it. nobody, they always say, i don't know if you know, lincoln was horribly treated. jefferson was pretty horribly, andrew jackson was the worst of all. he was treated worse than any other president. i said, do that study again because i think there is nobody close. [ laughter ] >> to trump. even got shot. who the hell knows where that came from, right? >> he can't keep a single

thought in his head more than three seconds, it is just manifesting as obvious. jd vance, one side of the race his mental decline is so me significant he cannot stay on topic for more than one or two seconds before turning to is default resentments. there is an even darker subtext of the beauty pageant contestant, which shocked me because it was so gross and uncalled for. the actual woman in the clip brought her radical and have it on her life. jd vance was asked about it this morning. >> i'm not sure you are aware, in 2015, caitlin upton did a interview in new york magazine about all the social media this got, i went through a period where i was very, very depressed but i never did let anybody see that stuff except for people i could trust. i had dark moments where i thought about committing suicide. so when you posted this last night, were you aware that the

woman you are posting a picture of had contemplated committing suicide for the attention she received? >> no, certainly not, john. my heart goes out to her, i hope she is doing well. politics has gotten way to lane, john, way too boring. you can have some fun while making a good argument to the american people on how the will see their lives improved. >> would you like to apologize to caitlin upton now that you know ? >> john, i am not in apologize for posting a joke but i wish the best for caitlin upton. >> caitlin upton, who has posted in the past responded on social media this morning saying 17 years later this is still being brought up. something i do know, social media and online billing needs to stop. she had to delete her account a short time later because of t that. an nbc political contributor and senior advisor to bernie sanders join me now. we've got some news it just broke on the campaign,

literally just 10 minutes before i went to air. it is about donald trump and abortion. you may remember yesterday my u colleague dasha burns interviewed trump about the referendum in florida that would uphold abortion rights on the ballot this fall. it would secure abortion rightsd in the state and overturn the six week ban that was signed by ron desantis. when asked yesterday, donald trump didn't actually answer the question but seemed to indicate he was going to vote for that piece of that referendum as a voter in the state of florida, to uphold abortion rights and an avalanche of pushback and anger from the antiabortion rights people came after that.

so he was asked about it today after his campaign sort of walked back. he was asked about it today. i think we have a clip. here is what he said today. >> so i think six weeks you need more time. six weeks, i disagreed with that right from the early primaries when i heard about ie it. i disagreed with that. at the same time, the democrats are radical because nine months is just a ridiculous situation.s i will be voting no for that reason. >> so, just to be clear, this is news now, he said he seemed to say, i am going to vote yes, i will vote to secure abortion rights. i think the six week ban is bad. he got hammered [ laughter ]

over 24 hours and now has done a 180 today. what you make of it? >> i think it is incredible that anyone in the media can have a conversation about kamala harris allegedly flip- flopping on anything when donald trump is giving us a master class in the last 24 hours. >> [ laughter ] >> in the literal definition of flip-flopping but worse than that, chris, it is the central question we have to ask ti ourselves, not just with trump as a candidate but god forbid da he becomes president, women's health, to him, is a political tool or a general policy proposal. maybe he is talking about the abortion and now the government suddenly paying for people to use ivf, which i would ask him to actually explain if he knows what the procedure is or what du it entails. it is a disaster. nobody should believe anything he says because he will listen to whoever talks to him last. apparently this time it was someone from his list. >> on that last point i agree with you, it is all bs, right?

it is quintessentially just words coming up. you guys like ivf now? gu what about free ivf, it is like, whatever. one thing that is clear hair guys, one reason i think you can hear the cheers go up in the harris-walz campaign is that the one thing that is clear is, he made a promise to get elected in 2016 to the antiabortion movement he would choose justices that would overturn roe from a preapproved list. and then like every other th promisee is ever made in his life, he miraculously kept thate promise. they overturned roe. the last 24 hours shows there is one group that the guy won't doublecross, he won't screw over in that he will just bow before. that is antiabortion forces in the republican party. >> chris, you get this, but let's be clear. why are we talking about ivf ? why are we talking about the florida abortion measure? why? donald trump, the arsonist, who created a fire, we trust arson is to put out the fire? who cares about his positions on ivf. he created this problem, his supreme court justices put us e in this position. now we have this major fire here. he is like an artists -- arsonist burning this and that t down. we are having too s much of a rational debate about when he came out with this interesting position.

it is, he is trying to win an election and lying to people and trying to deceive you. on abortion, he is trying to move every which way, he can figure out where he is supposed to be, he doesn't care about women's rights, reproductive rights, just to be clear, let's know who started this. we are all still living it. >> yeah, it is a good point. it is almost worth reminding i people there are, whatever people say on campaigns, there s are two major parties that actually do stuff and they actually vote on stop, they passed things. donald trump pointed to the three justices, also, there was a vote this year, in fact, in the united states senate, of all places, where the places that laws are made, to basically mandate ivf treatment for americans with insurance. senate republicans blocked the bill as ivf pushes on reproductive care. it only got two republican votes. alexi mccammond, everyone, including jd vance, was on the ticket, voted against it. there is no daylight here. e i mean, like, everyone knows, i

think, her nose this seriously, knows who is on what side. >> who's on what side and just like the number of times trump continues to lie at any given time he opens his mouth to give a speech or comments to the press or anything. i mean, that can't and shouldn't be discounted. the man is going so anfar as to evolve from fake news in 2016 to now claiming there are a.i. crowds and images of a.i. crowds being created at kamala s harris' events because he is not living in reality. the facts don't matter to him. that is a problem, whether it comes to women's health or otherwise. i just feel like we cannot state that enough. the man lie so much i can't keep up with it. who cares what he has to say. he started this fire. also, he hasn't even been believed or know the words that are coming out of his mouth at

the time he is saying them. >> that is a good point. it is even, i think this is a real conundrum, you see this in campaign coverage, it is past gn lies, even. it is this meaningless prattle of salesmanship combined with maybe cognitive decline [ laughter ] brought upon by age but there is no semantic, there is no propositional content in the whole thing. >> now we are getting to trump and why he is uniquely dangerous in american politics because he is so deeply e immoral, he has no vision of right or wrong or anything. therefore, he will create false realities for his own to say, cooked up economic stats, they are feeding you lies in this, democracy doesn't work because they are creating fake routes for kamala harris. he is creating a false reality for his followers, which, of hi course, then goes to than the election, which is, if he on loses, how does he talk about a

rational loss, a logical lost, he does it, right? he is ceding this and sowing the seeds of distrust in the very institutions and democracy around us. honestly, when was the last time even got a vote? people read between the lines. e he is building a reality that is dangerous for all of us in democracy. >> alexi, i found myself pretty disgusted by these comments about kamala harris, like she is not smart, it that is what trump said and jd vance at, i think it is gross. it strikes me as counterproductive. you know, you're making her outn to seem so ridiculous and that she does the interview. okay, that is a vice president of the united states. she is talking about the debate, i am not sure that is a good tactic, really.

>> well, it is in such trance -- contrast to the interview that harris and walz did, taking time to ask about positions to be involved on overtime because of intellectual curiosity but meanwhile these folks are doing x, y, and z. they don't, they try to keep it above the fray. i think it is disgusting to see the sexism and racism coming se from that side already but it will just remind out there, not just american but women in a crucial swing states these guys have no ideas what they are doing on abortion rights, they have no idea what they're doing with reproductive rights in general and they have no idea to give respect to the sitting vice president of the united p states. they have a complete lack f of respect for many traditional american institutions or leaders or organizations, like the army, like diyou were just talking about at the start.

it is completely in contrast not just to traditional republican party values but i would say the core of america, the american dream at the end of the day. coming up, it is one of the underappreciated threats of donald trump fs concept for do 2024. what the mag a fpurge of american civil service will meet to you with the one and only michael lewis next. ♪ ♪ next. ♪ ♪ on my six pack. switch to a king suite- or book a silent retreat. silent retreat? hold up - yeeerp? i can't talk right now, i'm at a silent retreat. cashback on everything you buy with chase freedom unlimited with no annual fee. how do you cashback? chase. make more of what's yours.

craig here pays too much for verizon wireless. so he sublet half his real estate office... how do you cashback? [ bird squawks loudly ] to a pet shop. meg's moving company uses t-mobile. so she scaled down her fleet to save money. and don's paying so much for at&t, he's been waiting to update his equipment! there's a smarter way to save. comcast business mobile. you could save up to 70% on your wireless bill. so you don't have to compromise. powering smarter savings. powering possibilities. ♪♪ ♪♪ i think that what trump should do, if i were giving him one piece of advice, fire every single bureaucrat, every civil servant and replace him with our people. you can get taken to court.

when the courts stop you, stand before the country, like andrew jackson did, and say the chief justice made his ruling, let him enforce it. >> that was donald trump if his vice presidential pick nearly 3 years ago laying out what is now a central part of the project 2025 vision, curbing government expertise and replacing it with advances for our people, right? corrupt trump loyalist. trump tried something like this last time around, you really do. that is something michael journalist -- michael lewis covered. it outlines just how crucial that independent expertise is to not just the day-to-day function of the government, but for preventing catastrophes, like, for instance, nuclear war. an upcoming push shows that has critical for their services that the very people donald trump was to purge under project 2025. "washington post" opinion's guest writer, his latest, going

infinite, and he joins me now. when i saw the project 2025 section about the civil servants and when i first heard that jd vance clipped, i think that book, more than any i have read is sort of about just how sort of central and essential exactly that vast expertise basis is to running the entire country. >> it is like one of the great untold stories that the civil service, it is what the president is supposed to be managing, at least not screwing up. and when you actually go in and ask what they do, when you just, you know, don't just hand

wave, deep state and civil unrest, you find the most amazing stories. it is not boring. it sounds boring but the people, there are people who are engaged passionately. subjects they have become obsessed with in solving problems that will not just be solved any other way than by this instrument. so for me, you know, i was kind of shocked about the material and shocked by how receptive the audience was to it. in the "washington post" starting tuesday, we have done, i have brought in six of the writers, i like picked six writers and said here's the literary opportunity of your career. we are parachuting them into different parts of the federal government. this will run once a week until the election. the writer, the writer was just

told to find something that interests you. i swear to god, after about five minutes, they all came out and said, how did i not know about this? how did i not know these characters were as good as they are? so then, that is what this series is. i hope, i mean, i hope people will read it. it is sort, the country needs a civics lesson. >> you know, the point about, one of the things that came through when i had the opportunity to interact with folks who are sort of in the federal bureaucracy in different ways, a lot of times, you know, people really take it seriously what they are doing, whether they are checking hormone levels are doing soil erosion were, you know, whatever it is, they are really doing it because they care about it and also, you just have no idea what their politics are. you know? literally none. they can have whatever politics. what they're focused on is doing the job. there is something so important about that and also so ominous to me about the phrase our people as like a recipe for replacing that knowledge base with like who signs a loyalty card. >> yeah, that is exactly right. you actually, their politics are largely irrelevant. they are dealing with problems that no one else is going to deal with.

think of it, they are not even thinking about politics. they don't have to think about them as a group. it is like, the kind of people who are, i don't know, my character, this will sound boring if i tell you about it but when you read it, you will see how great that character is, this entire thing preventing coal mine roots falling on the heads of coal miners. it killed 50,000 coal miners in the 20th century. it is a huge deal. it is a 30 year odyssey and it is incredible and a great story. this guy, you can read about it, but this guy never once asked for attention. it is like the opposite. obviously, the opposite of trump and opposite of the impulse and the person who

stands up to run for office. it is not look at me. it is the character in the school play. they are the most important person. the goal, my goal was just like, as i say, it was the literary opportunity because the stories are so good but it is sort of like, stop looking at the thing you're looking at all the time and pay attention to this. this is critical. this is life or death stuff. and you need to know about it. you need to know about it before you decide who you will vote for. >> you know, one thing that points to, when we talk about opposite the person who is running for office, all the things we think of that person's job being, you know, this sort of, some sort of symbolic role, right? they sort of channel the nation and talks to the nation about stuff, this sort of proposer of legislation and budgets, the thing they are, more than anything, is the boss at the top of the organizational chart that is all the people from seal team six to the guy that works on the problem of coal mines collapsing. that is literally what the job is. [ laughter ] >> literally the opposite. if you have someone in the office that is just constantly abusing people, that can't be a recipe for success. right?

we had an episode yesterday or the day before when trump went into the military cemetery and tried to use it for political purposes, which is actually against the rules. he got in that kerfuffle with the employee at the military cemetery. what no one ever said is that the person in the department of veterans affairs who runs that sacred part of our government, how we bury our war dead, that person turned it from a kind of only kind of well-run thing into the best run organization in the country. there is an operation in michigan that ranks sort of the consumer satisfaction or customer satisfaction of private and public institutions. those people are number one. i mean, they are like federal express. it is like, trump is rolling in there and just using it for his purposes. it happens in people say, those people who work in the cemetery, they are delivering a service that is a sacred duty of the country. they are better at it than

anybody. we don't even know how that happened or why. i think, you know, this is a failure of the citizen to understand the government. that is sort of wooden we need to step in and correct that. the stores are so fun. i am hoping everyone reads them , it is not just trump that is the problem. nobody is really telling the stories and people don't know they need to know them. ♪ ♪ "primetime: weekend" continues ahead with rachel maddow. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ s thanks to the donations. and our family is forever grateful because it's completely changed our lives.

leo! he's there when we wake up, he's there when we leave, he's there whenever we come back home from school, he's just there always. mash it up doofus. ever since we introduced him to the farmer's dog, his quality of life has been forever changed. he prefers real, human-grade food. it's... ...like real food! it is! he's a happy dog now. he's a happy, happy dog. he's a happy, happy, happy dog!

t-mobile's 5g network connects a hundred thousand delta employees

so they can make every customer feel like they've arrived before they've left the ground. this is how business goes further with t-mobile for business. it ain't my dad's razor, dad. ay watch it! it's from gillettelabs. this green bar releases trapped hairs from my face... gamechanga! ...while the flexdisc contours to it. so the five blades can get virtually every hair in one stroke. for the ultimate gillette shaving experience. the best a man can get is gillettelabs. ♪♪ ♪♪ looking at presidential polling averages from the swing states, it is clear who has a momentum right now, according to the "washington post" polling averages. kamala harris and donald trump are practically tied in all seven swing states. but the momentum is with the democrats since president biden decided not to run for reelection.

harris has increased the democrats' lead in every state by at least three points. which is no small feat, in any of these tight races go in any of these hard-fought states. it is particularly striking in north carolina, where democrats have and wondered presidential race since 2008. obviously, the enthusiasm for harris and the strength of her campaign has a lot to do with it, but there is something else going on in north carolina, as well. this november, on the same ballot as a presidential race, north carolina voters will also be choosing a new governor. the guy on the left here is the democratic nominee, his name is josh stein. the guy on the right side of your screen is who the republicans picked. his name is mark robinson. you know the black panther? the republican candidate for governor mark robinson said that was created by an agnostic jew input to film by a satanic marxist. really? he says the music industry is run by satan and by the

illuminati. he calls gay people filth and maggots. he says kids who survive school gun massacres are, quote, media prosti-tots anita shut up. so, with that record, the survey says, [ laughter ] , even in a closely fought swing state like north carolina, north carolina does not want that guy. the republican candidate for governor in north carolina is currently polling 14 points behind his democratic opponent, josh stein. democrats are not only hoping to beat mark robinson very badly, they are hoping he will be such a drag on republicans up and down the ticket, that it will give kamala harris and

every other democrat on the north carolina ballot at considerable boost. north carolina democrats have announced a get out the vote effort targeting young voters. they are holding 30 different college campus events across the state in three days, 30 campuses in the 30 days. that campus will be led by the chair of the north carolina democratic party and only 26 years old, which makes her the youngest chair of any state political party in the whole country. she joins us now. thanks for being here, i appreciate your time. >> thank you for having us. >> i am looking at this through an admittedly reductive lens about who is at the top of the ticket on the ballot in your state. are there nuances or angles here that i ought to be noticing or that should give people a different impression about how things are going to be fought in your state?

>> no, i think you laid out the case against mark robinson just fine. i also think the extremism at the top of the ticket is one we are finding that run straight down the ballot, as well. north carolina is one of 11 states in the entire country that elected council of states or a executive branches, not just the governor's office, not government positions. the attorney general we have, jeff jackson running through dan bishop, who is the author or the bathroom bill in north carolina, hb 2, that cost north carolina over $3 billion. you've got michelle morrow, who is running against moe greene to be superintendent of schools right now. someone that called for the public execution of barack obama to be publicly televised. she belongs nowhere near our classrooms right now. moe greene is someone who has been the superintendent of the third largest school system in

north carolina and made the case that our children in our public schools matter more than anything else this year. it is not just donald trump and mark robinson we are looking at this year or extremism, but it was the route that this date legislative races that fully endorsed what mark robinson stands for the top of the ticket. we have not had one republican in our state that separated themselves from mark robinson this year. >> i was can ask you about that dynamic. sometimes when you get extremism of the type you are describing, that opens up an opportunity for the non- extremist party, in this case, the democrats, to win crossover voters and to start targeting a different audience than you might in a typical election, not just independence, but republicans to crossover for the more sane ticket. how are you allocating resources? how you think about the type of messaging, the type of events, the type of spending you are doing in your party to maximize persuadable voters and reach them? >> we have a campaign that is reaching people across the state. we have taken the inferences year that everybody is somebody we are talking to.

that means because of the fact because we have true public servants running for these positions, josh stein is someone that has taken on a consumer financial protection person in the attorney generals office before he was the attorney general, someone who has always been protecting the people of north carolina. it is important folks realize that is not just a democrat running on your ballot, that is someone who cares about everyone up and down the ticket this year. it goes to people who is running for commissioner of insurance of north carolina, you know, people that talk about the races that affect our pocketbooks the most. north carolina has had over 16 rate hikes in our state in the last eight years alone because we had a republican commissioner of insurance that has allowed for those rate hikes to happen. it has taken insurance money this year, it has always been in the commissions office. he hasn't been working for the people of north carolina. we have a state senator who is running against him this year. she promised she would not take a dime of insurance corporation money because she wants to make sure that the people of north carolina know who she represents. those of the folks who should appeal to anybody on a ballot, not just if you have a d behind your name, it is largely not a

democratic issue, really. "primetime: weekend" continues to have with my colleague joy reid. coming up, project 2025 expose, donald trump speaking at a book banning miles for liberty event today. how fun. we will talk about how he is targeting teachers and librarians coming up. . ectatios with reliable ground shipping. thanks brandon. with usps ground advantage®. ♪♪ a test or approve a medication. we didn't have to worry about any of those things thanks to the donations. and our family is forever grateful because it's completely changed our lives. don't mind me. i'm just the flu.

i'm quite harmless, really. and when people ask, “but aren't you linked to dangerous flu complications like pneumonia, heart attack, and hospitalizations?” i just say, “but i'm just the flu.” (sniffs.) it's him! who? i'm just the flu. demand more from your flu shot. sanofi higher-dose flu vaccines are proven to provide better flu protection than standard dose flu shots in older adults. they've even been shown to better protect against flu-related complications. don't get fluzone® high-dose if you've had a severe allergic reaction to its components, including egg products, or after previous dose of flu vaccine. don't get flublok® if you've had a severe allergic reaction to its components. tell your health care professional if you've had severe muscle weakness after a flu shot. fainting has occurred. people with weakened immune systems may have a lower vaccine response. all flu shots are not the same. ask for a sanofi higher-dose flu vaccine. talk to your pharmacist or doctor about fluzone® high-dose or flublok®.

stuck at the dmv, and i think i'm late on my car insurance.

good thing the general gives you a break with flexible payment options. let's get you a break while you wait. what is this place? this is our dmvip. vending machine charcuterie? for a great low rate, go with the general. ♪♪ ♪♪ donald trump will speak at an event hosted by moms for liberty, the far right group that advocates for banned books in schools under the guise of parental rights. it comes, as we have seen, an alarming rise in both banning of the u.s. pan-american reported 4300 instances of book bands between last july and december. more books were banned in those six months alone than in the entire previous school year. over the summer, new laws have gone into effect in states like

utah, idaho, south carolina and tennessee that will make it more difficult for students this coming school year to access books deemed obscene or indecent by groups like monster liberty. what is happening in those states could start happening on the national level should donald trump retake the white house. something we know because his buddies at the heritage foundation wrote it all down in project 2025. in fact, monster liberty actually serves on the advisory board for project 2025 . several individuals tied to the 900 page document were speaking at their summit this weekend, including the author of the manifesto section on education. you know, the chapter where they say they want to eliminate the department of education? project 2025 distinctly targets libraries, writing on page 1, that children, quote, suffer the toxic normalization of transgender is him with drag queens and pornography invading their school libraries. let's just be clear, when they

say pornography, what they really mean is books by black or lgbtq authors written for young adults that sometimes include as little as one page that mentions sex, sexual violence, sexuality or in some cases just accurate depictions of racism. project 2025 directly calls for the prosecution of teachers and librarians who provide access to any books that these right- wing extremists consider pornographic , saying they should be classed as registered sex offenders. for project 2025 and groups

like moms for liberty, what they are doing in their crusade is not just restricting what students can and cannot read, they are putting teachers and librarians at risk for certainly just doing their jobs. people like amanda jones, small- town louisiana librarian who spoke out against censorship in her community. for those comments, she became the target of years long harassment campaign. well, now amanda jones has a book of her own detailing her experience and how she fought back. she joins me next. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (♪♪) this is a hot flash. this is a hot flash. but this is a not flash. for moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms due to menopause... ...veozah is the first and only prescription treatment that directly blocks a source of hot flashes and night sweats. with 100% hormone-free veozah... ...you can have fewer hot flashes... ...and more not flashes.

veozah reduces the number and severity of hot flashes day and night. don't use veozah if you have cirrhosis, severe kidney problems, kidney failure, or take cyp1a2 inhibitors. increased liver blood test values may occur. your doctor will check them before and during treatment. most common side effects include stomach pain, diarrhea, difficulty sleeping, and back pain. ask your doctor about hormone-free veozah... ...and enjoy more not flashes. you could save on veozah. visit saveonveozah.com to learn more. my little miracle is beckett. ♪ ("a thousand years" by christina perri) ♪ ♪ i have died every day waiting for you ♪ we wouldn't be where we are without saint jude. and in turn, we wouldn't be where we are without those people that have donated. (♪♪)

(restaurant noise) allison! (restaurant noise) ♪♪ [announcer] introducing allison's plaque psoriasis. she thinks her flaky, gray patches are all people see. otezla is the #1 prescribed pill to treat plaque psoriasis. over here! otezla can help you get clearer skin and reduce itching and flaking. with no routine blood tests required. doctors have been prescribing otezla for over a decade. otezla is also approved to treat psoriatic arthritis. don't use otezla if you're allergic to it. serious allergic reactions can happen. otezla may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. some people taking otezla had depression, suicidal thoughts or weight loss. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. ♪♪ [announcer] with clearer skin girls' day out is a good day out. live in the moment.

ask your doctor about otezla. everywhere but the seat. the seat is leather. alan, we get it. you love your bike. we do, too. that's why we're america's number-one motorcycle insurer. but do you have to wedge it into everything? what? i don't do that. this reminds me of my bike. the wolf was about the size of my new motorcycle. have you seen it, by the way? happy birthday, grandma! really? look how the brushstrokes follow the line of the gas tank. -hey! -hey! brought my plus-one. jamie?

♪♪ ♪♪ in july of 2022, louisiana librarian amanda jones spoke out against censorship at her small town public library board meeting. faced with concerns they might remove books with lgbtq themes. jones spoke as a concerned citizen, singapore, all members of our community deserve to be seen, have access to information and see themselves, in our public library collection. censoring and relocating books and displays is harmful to our community, but will be extremely harmful to our most vulnerable, our children. days later, amanda became the target of a hateful smear campaign fueled by far right activists who called her a pedophile, a groomer and accuse

her of advocating to pornographic materials in her library's kids section. she even began to receive death threats, which took a toll on her physical and mental health. jones decided to fight back, making headlines after becoming one of the first librarians in the u.s. to sue those who launched those attacks against her. now she is telling her story in her new book entitled "that librarian: the fight against book banning in america" . amanda jones joins me now. amanda, thank you so much for being here. this is your book. i am very glad you wrote it. what prompted you to go this public, given the fact you faced so many death threats just from your community? >> i wanted to tell my story. people were telling a perceived story all over social media about me, this was a better way to do it by writing my own book. >> absolutely. let me read a little bit of you to you. this is debunking the core claim of the far right.

any book that has any sexual theme or lgbtq character in it is barack or faye . here is what you wrote. book sensors will often say there are books containing pornographic or sexually explicit material in children's sections of the library to write a public fear. they decried the need to protect children for the evil they say is next to the dr. seuss books. as if a kid could be looking for the very hungry caterpillar and whoops, there is the joy of sex or the karma sutra right next to it. that is never the case. libraries have collection development policies for

ordering books and appropriate books are placed in the appropriate section. public libraries do not purchase pornography. adult books are not in the library's children section and to suggest otherwise is ridiculous. this seems so elementary. the fact you have to explain it makes me staff this makes that sad. how are they trying to get these books out of public libraries? >> they take it out of context and say there is pornography in the library and there is not. they are just trying to marginalize already marginalized members of the society, the lgbtq community, black and indigenous people of color. they say they are not banning, they don't want to but then in their book challenges, they say removed. [ laughter ] you know, even at the books are not banned, they are challenged and trying to suppress the, you know, information from our public and school libraries. >> let me read from penn america, the most banned books in florida, texas, pennsylvania, tennessee, utah and missouri. gender is the number one most banned book about lgbtq young

people. all boys are blue is also this topic is gay , the perks of being a wallflower which my kids already in junior high school, and, of course, the bluest eye by toni morrison. they deemed the bluest eye to be pornography which in and of itself is pornography just saying that. >> it is so ridiculous. i read the book. it has been around forever. i feel like we have all read it at this point. it is an amazing book. it is raw and it is real. it reflects how we were as a society. i don't want people to read these stories, they want people to suppress the information. if you love our country, like i do, we wanted to be the best week can be and what better way than to re-what happened in our society, learn from our mistakes and move forward. they don't want to even hear the stories. >> how fearful are you in a world in which project 2025 is the law of the land, librarians like you will be put in jail or labored a sex offender just for providing books? >> very fearful. you know, there have already been lost, they have tried to pass laws in louisiana to imprison librarians. they tried to pass a law to imprison libraries at the library in congress, that was

successfully defeated but it is dystopian. i feel like for a lack of a better word, it is in his, in my opinion. librarians love their communities. the field of library science is to give back to the community that love children. i don't know a single library and it doesn't love children and wants to do the best weekend. they are using us as political pawns. it is really sad that politicians would use librarians and educators in this way. >> did you think of yourself as political before this all started? did you think of yourself as a moderate or conservative? >> i am actually a registered republican. i have been my entire life. i will say the past three or four years i voted democratic for the democrat party. i guess i will do that this time. >> the idea that the republican party, i'm glad you mentioned that, this is happening in one political party, it is not a broad fear that is shared across even if with independents and democrats, it is just the republican party. do you think it is a sincere belief these books are harmful

or is it just really politicals and getting conservatives elected? >> well, the politicians don't really believe any of this. [ laughter ] they are just using the books and stories as political pawns. they stir up real fear in communities where there are real citizens that do believe this. you are raised to trust your politicians. >> yeah. >> you know, they say that but to believe it is really harmful that to believe the politicians. >> i interviewed the head of bond for liberty, one of the cofounders of it. she cannot answer me why they don't just use this form you can get in the state of florida that lets you opt your kids out of reading books you object to, why you have to make that decision for the parents, they didn't have an answer to that. they want to control everyone, not just their own children. this is the book, amanda jones, "that librarian: the fight against book banning in america" i don't know if you know but librarians are my

favorite people. i love libraries. thank you so much for being a librarian and thank you, amanda jones, for being here. this has been "primetime: weekend". i am joy reid. tune out to the readout at 7:00 p.m. and all of our prime time shows weeknights on msnbc. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ and older. rsv can be serious for those over 60, including those with asthma, diabetes, copd and certain other conditions. but i'm protected. arexvy is proven to be over 82% effective in preventing lower respiratory disease from rsv and over 94% effective in those with these health conditions. (♪♪) arexvy does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients. those with weakened immune systems may have a lower response to the vaccine. the most common side effects are injection site pain, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, and joint pain. arexvy is number one in rsv vaccine shots. rsv? make it arexvy.

did you know your skin barrier is more receptive to skincare at night? olay super serum night repair. delivers five benefits in one. visibly renewing surface skin cells while you sleep. you'll see visible results in 7 nights. olay. when did i call leaffilter? when i saw my gutters overflowing onto my porch. leaffilter is a permanent gutter solution, so, you never have to worry about costly damage from clogged gutters again. it's the easiest call you can make. call 833.leaf.filter today, or visit leaffilter.com. why use 10 buckets of water when you can use 1 fire extinguisher. and to fight heartburn, why take 10 antacids throughout the day when you can take 1 prilosec. for easier heartburn relief, one beats ten. prilosec otc. one pill. 24 hours. zero heartburn.

i still love to surf, snowboard, prilosec otc. and, of course, skate. so, i take qunol magnesium to support my muscle and bone health. qunol's extra strength, high absorption magnesium helps me get the full benefits of magnesium. qunol, the brand i trust.

good evening and welcome to politics nation. good evening and welcome to politics nation. tonight's lead, clacking in. tonight, we are in the middle of the labor