okay. i get a big announcement. i'm heading to north carolina on wednesday to interview second gentleman doug emhoff. i will ask about his advocacy of reproductive rights and how is helping to shift the conversation around masculinity. addressing anti-semitism. you can see that interviewing next sunday at noon. that does it for me tonight. the rachel maddow show starts now. >> that is exciting. you are on your way to north carolina to talk to doug emhoff and i am beaming in from north carolina tonight. the democratic gubernatorial candidate there. >> that's right. josh stein. there's a few things happening in north carolina. in north carolina. the schedule. i'm really looking forward to that conversation. thank you, my friend, much appreciated. >> thank you. >> and thank you at home for joining us this hour.

josh stein will be joining us this hour. you have heard about mark robinson, the guy who cnn reported described himself years ago as a quote, nazi. he praised hitler. he called for the return of slavery. the "washington post" then reported on him praising mein kampf. mark robinson, the republican candidate for governor in north carolina right now, he denies all of it. but i should note he has said explicitly that he wants to go back to a time where women were not allowed to vote and he hasn't denied that because it is on time. you've heard a lot about mark robinson in recent days. you've probably heard a lot less about josh stein. but josh stein is the democratic nominee for governor in north carolina. he's the guy running against mark robinson. he is currently the attorney

general of north carolina.en and running for governor is a high pressure thing. always a big responsibility. think about what josh stein has on his shoulders right now, right? i mean, if josh stein does not win this governor's race in north carolina, it's not just like, oh, lost opportunity for the democrats. if josh stein does not win this race in north carolina, north carolina really is going to get a governor who calls himself a nazi and says he wants to bring back slavery and says he wants r women to not be allowed to vote. talk about the stakes in an election. t no pressure, josh stein. north carolina democratic candidate for governor josh stein will join me here live here in just a moment. i'm really excited to talk with him. we're going to be joined by the former chairman of the ir republican party in the great state of maine. and that's because today, not one, not two, but three former chairs of the statewide republican party in that state just endorsed democratic candidate kamala harris for president. this is three republican state party chairmen dorising harris.

i'll be talking with former maine republican party chief ted o'marra this hour as well. we've got a lot coming up. that endorsement for harris from those republican party chairmen in maine, it's the latest in what has just been this long string of kind of man bites dog, unexpected company endorsements for kamala harris and herpe campaign. it's not just former republican vice president dick cheney endorsing harris and his very conservative former republican congresswoman daughter liz cheney. it's not just the big group of former reagan administration officials endorsing kamala harris. it's not just the trump officials who spoke to kamala harris's behalf at the democratic convention. it is more than 700 military and

national security leaders who just this weekend signed on to a mass endorsement for harris.se the national security and retired military endorsements for harris coming at a particularly fraught time in the international news. israel, of course, has just launched something that looks very much like it may be a full-scale new war against hezbollah targets inside lebanon. hundreds of people killed in lebanon by the israeli strikes. this is simultaneous with the ongoing attacks in gaza where tens of thousands have died. president biden and vice president harris each had separate meetings with the president of the united arab emirates. both the president and vice president talking with him about trying to find some way out of the gaza, hamas, israel catastrophe now potentially spiraling into yet another

full-scale conflict involving hezbollah in lebanon. he is here in the united states for the same reason that so many heads of state from all over the world are here in the united states right now which is that the united nations general assembly is this week in new york. and this happens, all these heads of state come from all over the world for the general assembly this week at a moment of just profound peril and difficulty in so many parts of the world. with everything going on, it does not help that in the midst of everything going on, the united states, the host country for the u.n., the most powerful and influential and richest country in the whole world, we ourselves at this moment are apparently unsure as to whether we would prefer kamala harris to be our next president or whether we would prefer to go back to the guy who launched a violent attack on the u.s. congress when he lost in the last presidential election in the united states. t

i mean, the rest of the world can see that we're doing this. and they have to cope with it, right?av how do they explain what the future of the united states is like given what we're doing right now? initially, there was widespread revulsion in this country over n the attack launched by trump supporters against congress after the 2020 election, but e that didn't last. republicans have now almost universally decided that that wasn't so bad. they picked him to be their presidential nominee again. he is running for president nown again by praising the rioters and promising to free them from prison. it's hard enough for so many of us to get our heads around it. imagine being an important american ally, a country really relying on us that has real trouble. this week you send your president, your prime minister, your head of state to the united nations this week in new york of and you have to say before you

send your leader out into the u.n. general assembly, try to make nice with both sides of america. america is apparently having a hard time deciding between kamala harris and donald trump. so while you're there, try to develop nice relations with both sides. i mean, how do you -- how do you do that? but they all have to do it. there is volodymyr zelenskyy, v the president of ukraine, visiting a factory in pennsylvania yesterday. a pennsylvania factory that makes 155 millimeter artillery shells that we supply to the ukrainian military. zelenskyy is there in pennsylvania to thank the factory workers for making these artillery shells, to say ukrain needs as many as they can possibly make. then he has to come to new york, right? to yes, meet with harris and biden from the biden administration. but also presumably to meet with trump. looking at the poll, it is 50/50

trump might win. so somebody like volodymyr zelenskyy with everything else he has to deal with, he is likely going to have to make the best out of some kind of meeting, presumably, with this guy who tried to extort him and his government into announcing a false investigation into joe me biden as a political favor to donald trump on which trump conditioned military aid to his country. this guy trump had a says he's in love with putin. he says as far as he's concern, putin can do whatever he wants to all our allies in nato, who won't support ukraine, he won't even say he wants ukraine to win, he was asked that at the presidential debate and wouldn't even say that he prefer that our ally ukraine win the war. and who incidentally, putin and russia are helping again, again for a third straight campaign to try to get him back into the white house.

zelenskyy has to meet with him and make nice with him. we as a country apparently can't decide.un it's 50/50 right now as to who will be the next president. r the whole world has to hedge their bets and try to make nice with both. our election is only six weeks away. it's tied. it's six weeks. people are already early voting in multiple states. being this far in the process means a couple of things. most importantly, personally, you at home, if you have feelings about this election, if you have feelings about who you want to win the election, whether it is the presidential race or a u.s. senate race or a race where you live or the state legislature, anything, if you have feelings at all for who you want to win in this election, this is now officially the time that you need to do something about it. to help achieve the results you are hoping for. it is now six weeks until election day which means it is now time if you care about the election results this year. if you're not already es volunteering.

if you're not already offering to phone bank or do door knocking for a campaign, you're late. it's time to do it. now. right now. no later. this is the time when you're actually supposed to start e volunteering to help one way org another. pick a race. time is short and the river rises. watching tv and worrying about the news doesn't count as actually doing something to help your country. if you think this election matters and you have a preference as to who wins, you must now do something other than worry. that's the first thing. the other thing though is that being this close to election day, being six weeks out, means we now have a pretty good idea of what the campaigns will look like for this election. the character of how each side will run their candidate for the presidency. so we know, for example, that republicans will keep trying to win the election this year by gaming the system. by trying to change the

administration of the election. trying to change how the votes are cast and counted. today the pro-trump majority on the georgia state election board met again and pushed through yet more changes in that crucial swing state even after they were just warned by the state's attorney general's office, the state's republican secretary ofn state's office last week, they were just warned that they're doing things they're not allowed to do. today they announced more. today they announced they wouldy investigate eight different counties in georgia for having rejected mass republican challenges to individual voter registrations. voter challenges aimed at taking voters off the rolls. the state election board with its pro-trump court will investigate counties that didn't do enough to throw voters off

the rolls. they announced a whole new plan six weeks out from the election to mandate that photos of every ballot should be put online t immediately following the election.el we're six weeks out. people are already, the ballots have gone out. and this is yet another new rule they want. local officials, and again, statewide officials like the ag and the secretary of state, have said now on the record that what the state board is doing is crazy. the word used by the secretary of state's office was absurdity. but hey, they're going for it.'s if maximum chaos is what they want in that critical swing state, apparently maximum chaos is what they're determined to get. so we have eyes on the rolling disaster in georgia. we're also keeping eyes on nebraska where republicans in the trump campaign are trying to make a last-minute change to the rules in nebraska that have been in place for more than 30 years. republicans are afraid that kamala harris may win one electoral vote from a

congressional district in omaha, the state's biggest city. so they are now at the very last second trying to change the rules in the state of nebraska to block her from being able to win that single electoral vote. republican u.s. senator lindsey graham, you may have seen, has been in nebraska trying to talk republicans thereinto doing it. today a single republican state senator said that he was not going to go along with this plan. that it didn't seem right or fair to him to do it this way. especially at the last minute. the reason i say we are watching nebraska in the wake of that news today is because naturally, once this one republican state senator came out and said he wasn't going to go along with it, thus apparently scuttling the plans for the last-minute change, donald trump is now singling out that one state senator. singling him out by name. attacking him online. blaming him.

putting pressure on him. which is exactly the kind of tactics trump bought to bear in 2020 when he singled out individual local republican officials in places like michigan and georgia and pennsylvania and all the swing states, telling them to do his bidding or else or face the consequences. that kind of name and shame intimidation from trump alone, and from the legions of his followers who take what they think is the appropriate action on command when he singles someone by name to target, that is a rerun from what we saw in trump in 2020 which did not ultimately work to throw out the election results in 2020. it did ruin the lives of a whole lot of low-level officials and state officials who he targeted by name to tray to bend them to his will. right? it transformed their lives. it transformed the lives of their family members and all in very bad ways.

that's how trump politics works. that's how he operates. and if we have learned anything as a country from seeing previous iterations of his intimidation tactics brought to bear on low level object 0 or state-level officials, if we've learned anything from seeing this happen before, we should have learned that the way you stop his intimidation tactics from working is by opposing them. by recognizing when that is what he's doing and by overtly standing up for these people when they are attacked. making sure the only people who get in trouble in a trump-initiated like this, those who force them into doing what they would otherwise not do. when trump singles out individual, particularly republicans, but individual local, municipal, county, state

officials like that, to get them to do what he wants around the election, we know, yes, sometime it works, sometimes it doesn't, to get them to bend to his will. we know it also ruins their lives.no we've seen it over and over and over again. that's why the intimidation tactics work. because it makes people afraid. the way for us as a country is to stand up for people who are targeted in this way and make sure anybody threatening or trying to coerce them gets busted for it.co we did not do enough of that in 2020. we have to do in it 2024 as part of defending our democracy. the "washington post" this weekend front paged a story about what they call the, quote, turbulent phase that trump's campaign has entered into for this last six weeks of the campaign. they've described trump's behavior in the campaign right now as, quote, impulsive and impetuous. the post noted in a single 24-hour span at the end of last month, trump amplified a crude p joke about vice president harris

performing a sex act. he falsely accused her of staging a coup against president biden. he hawked digital trading cards. he became embroiled in a public feud with staff and officials at arlington national cemetery. all in 24 hours. and that is true. the post goes on to describe gently, i think, what they call trump's policy incoherence at this point in his campaign as well. and to be clear, along with the sort of just erratic behavior and outrageous behavior, the policy coherence really is off the charts. right? i mean, there is explicably high levels of interest as if they are similar kinds of cats that we can assess using the same kinds of terms. they're not the same kinds of cats. they're not the same kind of candidates. they're not doing the same kinds

of things. like here's kamala harris getting the endorsement of 700 current and former national security officials. here's trump promising if he's president, he's going to find where california is hiding its huge secret faucet that they use to dump all the rain water into the ocean. if he's president, he's going to find the handle on the gigantic faucet and turn it the other way. it takes a whole day to turn the handle, he says. so problem solved. everybody will have all the water they want. okay? here's kamala harris promising a child tax credit and saying how she would pay for it. here on the other hand is donald trump saying, he's going to abolish the department of the interior for some reason. nobody even bothered asking him why.

why do you want to abolish the department of the interior? here's trump saying he wants to take away the broadcast licenses of agencies who criticize him. here saying he wants to put him in front of a military tribunal bust harris does want a child tax credit. one of these things is not like the other. i mean, even if you go to the less outrageous stuff. republicans in the house of representatives just ignored trump's demand to shut down the government before the election. they are going ahead with funding the government against his wishes. they are not going to bring about a government shutdown even though he demanded one. that insult and rebuke to the republican party's leader would have led the news for days if this was a candidate who attracted normal political coverage. but instead, you know, while trump instead races toward election day, rolling out a new scam, some new money-making effort to squeeze money out of his fans almost every day.

this alone is completely bizarre. imagine kamala harris doing anything like this. but every day, there is the new trump commemorative coin that he is selling to his supporters. t this comes hot on the heels of trump's new cryptocurrency venture which he has rolled out with the help of a man who literally calls himself the dirt bag of the internet and another man who is a self-proclaimed i pickup artist. here's his wife hot on the heels of the news that the majority of her campaign appearance this is whole election cycle were ones for which she was personally paid hundreds of thousands of h dollars. here's his daughter-in-law who he installed as the chair of the republican party nevertheless ed finding time in the home stretch of the campaign to drop a new single for her side hustle where she's a singer. none of these things from the commemorative coin to the single -- none of these are raising money for the trump

campaign or the republican party. they're all just personal money-making gigs for him and his family that they are launching at the height of the campaign. imagine if kamala harris was rolling out a mortgage scam and some commemorative trinkets right now. not for the campaign but just to get her and doug some money. trump, you know, brought a 9/11 truther to the 9/11 commemoration on 9/11. t and his staff really did shove an arlington national cemetery worker when she tried to stop them filming thumbs up big grin campaign videos at grave sites. and no, apparently, he's not got any sort of problem with the re north carolina republican candidate for governor who he endorsed and who he has celebrated as a candidate no problem at all, not even after the reporting that the man literally called himself a nazi, praises hitler, praises "mein kampf," and wants

to bring back slavery. according to him, slavery was good. imagine being a world leader from some other country coming to new york for the united nations this week.is coming to the united states of america fully briefed and cognizant that a presidential nominee in this country in that situation who can't even criticize or distance himself from a candidate had a has said those things, a presidential nominee of one of the major parties has essentially even odds of being elected president of the united states. president of the united states of america. imagine having to come up with like your contingency plans for that. for that matter, imagine being josh stein in north carolina right now. the one man tasked with the one job of making sure that trump-endorsed self-proclaimed pro-slavery candidate doesn't take control of the state of north carolina. the republican party nominated

that guy to be governor of north carolina. trump endorsed him and praised him and won't take it back. it's the democrats' job and josh stein's job to stop that guy. north carolina attorney general josh stein joins us next. xt getting a walk-in tub? well, look no further! safe step's best offer, just got better! now, when you purchase your brand new safe step walk-in tub, you'll receive a free shower package. yes, a free shower package! and if you call today, you'll also receive 15% off your entire order. now you can enjoy the best of both worlds! the therapeutic benefits of a warm, soothing bath that can help increase mobility, relieve pain, boost energy, and even improve sleep! or, if you prefer, you can take a refreshing shower. all-in-one product! call now to receive a free shower package plus 15% off your brand new safe step walk-in tub.

- [narrator] life with ear ringing

sounded like a constant train whistle i couldn't escape. then i started taking lipo flavonoid. with 60 years of clinical experience, it's the number one doctor recommended brand for ear ringing. and now i'm finally free. take back control with lipo flavonoid. in 1971 the u.s. supreme court was considering what would ultimately be a landmark case. it was a group of families in north carolina who were suing the local school board who were arguing that not enough was being done to desegregate their kids' schools. this was 1971, more than 15 years after brown v. board. brown versus board of education which was supposed to end racial segregation in schools nationwide. in this district in north carolina, nothing had really changed on the ground. most black kids were still

attending schools that only had black kids in them. so this group of families brought this case to try to force north carolina to actually desegregate its schools. 1971. and the case was argued before the supreme court by this man, julius chambers, who was a north carolina legal leader. he had opened the first integrated law office in north carolina. black lawyers and white lawyers, and the law office specialized in civil rights cases. and chambers would go on to win that case in the u.s. supreme court. before the supreme court ruling was handed down in that case, while chambers was still in the middle of arguing the case, his law office back in north carolina was firebombed. charlotte, north carolina, it happened around 4:30 in the morning. it took 50 firefighters and seven fire trucks an hour to get the fire under control.

tons of law records were destroyed. miraculously, they did actually manage to save the files about that specific school desegregation case that was actively before the supreme court at the time of the fire bombing. now, one of the partners at this firm, a man named adam stein, he talked to the charlotte observer just after the fire bombing. he talked to them about the desegregation case being motivation for that attack. at that time, the partner in the firm, adam stein, he had a young son who says today that more than 50 years after that happened, he still vividly remembers the day his dad's office got fire bombed. his civil rights lawyer dad had suffered that attack. what he was up against in his work. that civil rights lawyer, adam stein, his son was named josh. josh also grew up to be a lawyer like his dad, also in north carolina. today he is the attorney general of the state of north carolina. he is a democrat. today he is the democratic

party's nominee for governor in that state. now, josh stein's republican opponent in the race has gotten a lot of press, especially recently. his name is mark robinson. he is in the news because he once reportedly called himself a nazi and praised "mein kampf" as a good read. both of these remarks made as as comment on a pornography site more than a decade ago. he denies making either of these remarks. because of who josh stein is running against, democrats are a little more optimistic than they might otherwise be about their chances this year even if they might be a little more freaked out than usual about the stakes of what happens if they potentially lose this race. the chair of the democratic party in north carolina says that the democrats are not ceding any ground this year. they're actively campaigning, especially in rural areas that have sometimes in the past been written off as red-leaning. this year they say they'll find every single vote in the most

rural parts of the state. they're not letting republicans run uncontested in state legislative races. they're not letting any corner state be ceded as red territory. north carolina democrats plainly this year are ambitious. they are energized about their chances. not just for josh stein and that governor's race but for kamala harris at the top of the ticket, too. joining us is north carolina attorney general josh stein, democratic nominee for governor. mr. attorney general, i really thank you for being here tonight. i know it's a busy time. >> thank you, rachel. >> let me first ask you if i got that right about your father's experience when you were growing up in north carolina and what you remember about that. >> you got it exactly right. it warmed my heart to hear you say it. my father and his law partners

are my heroes. they inspired me to do the work that i do. they were always fighting for what was right and they wouldn't back down even after that fire bombing. chambers' home was fire bombed. his car was fire bombed. they were incredibly brave but they had resolve. in their hearts they knew what they were fighting for was right. it is a little different today but we are having similar fights in north carolina and across this country. what we're fighting for is right. it is about fighting for people. it is about trying to have hope, not hate. it's about decency. not obscenity. it's about competence, not chaos. it is about a better future for all of our people. that's what our campaign is about. sadly mark robinson represents 100% the opposite.

>> i want to ask but what's going on with your opponent right now. it is still a developing story. there's news in terms of him shedding endorsement and losing support even just tonight. i do want to ask but the democratic campaign. there is a lot of attention on north carolina. if kamala harris at the presidential level can win north carolina, many of the potential paths for donald trump to win the president 50 closed off. it is really important. democrats do seem like they are quietly confident that they can do it. there are a lot of paid staffers from the presidential campaign in north carolina. there are dozens of field offices. we have seen efforts in rural parts of the state that might have been written off as red-leaning because they're rural. can you tell me about the integration of your efforts, the state democratic party's efforts, and what you think about the keys to democratic victory are just strategically and tactically in your state this year. >> there is no hope for trump without north carolina. he needs to win north carolina

to have a chance. that's why he's coming again. he was just here this weekend. he's coming back in a day or two. and j.d. vance has been here twice. the same energy is happening on the harris-walz ticket. they keep coming to north carolina because they know they can win. there is widespread enthusiasm. the only thing i can liken it to is 2008 when barack obama was running. there were people knocking on doors. 250 field workers. dozens and dozens of field offices. we want to be a rising boat that lifts all tides. obviously, i'm first committed to winning this race. but in addition to winning, i want to stamp out this toxicity. to show that there is a better way forward for north carolina. and then i hope we're going to work our tails off to break this super majority. we're only one vote shy in each chamber. we have an important supreme court race. we have ten excellent candidates running for the council state. and of course, vice president harris running for president.

>> even before the recent round of reporting about online -- reported online statements from your opponent for governor, i should say, he denies these statements. even before that, he is on record saying he wants to go back to a time when women were not allowed to vote of the he said that women should not be allowed to lead. he has said the only reason that women care about, the only reason women want abortions, or that women care about abortion rights is because they can't keep their skirts down. he has called gay people filth. he has called teachers terrible people. in worse terms than that. that's all before he got to the most recent round of reporting with cnn that he has reasonably called himself a nazi, praised hitler, praised "mein kampf" and said he wants to bring slavery back. this is madness. i don't know what else could be revealed about a candidate to

make him more cartoonishly offensive to most people who will be considering whether or not to vote for him. what do you think should happen in your race? do you think that he should drop out? do you think the republican party should do something to try to remove him from consideration as their republican nominee for governor? how do you handle this tide of revelations about him? >> mark robinson has revealed himself to be absolutely unfit to be governor. unacceptable for any elected position. i don't care what office it is, let alone governor. and this was true before last week's story broke. yet practically every republican running for office in the legislature and above have endorsed him. former president trump has endorsed him. not a single republican in north carolina has rescinded his or her endorsement of mark robinson.

it's astounding to me. no, he shouldn't be the candidate. he never should have been the candidate. he is wrong for north carolina. he is wrong for the people. he's divisive, hateful, he is mean-spirited and nasty. it is just unacceptable that we would have somebody like that leading our state. and it doesn't have to be that way. we do not have to have that future in north carolina. there is a better path forward where we're fighting for people. we're trying to create opportunity for people. we're tapping everyone's potential so we can build a better future for all of us. that future is possible if we win this race. folks out there, if they want to help us defeat mark robinson and create a better future for north carolina, go to my website. josh stein.org. it would be incredibly helpful. >> democratic nominee for governor, thank you very much for being here. i know you have a very, very, very important race to run. i appreciate you taking the time. >> thank you, rachel. >> i should mention that just since we've been on the air, the republican governor of georgia, josh stein is right, the north

carolina republicans have not pulled their endorsements. but georgia republican governor brian kemp tonight pulled his endorsement of mark robinson in north carolina. we should mention that the republican governor's association has announced that they will no longer be running any ads on mark robinson's behalf. all right. we have much more news tonight. we have gotten in just moments ago a pretty jaw-dropping statement from a republican who is running for senate. this is a new statement. apparently the statement is on tape. i have read the transcript of what he said, which is jaw dropping. i have not yet heard the tape, but i'm going to hear it here with you because we just got into it into the control room. we're going to turn it around for you and have it on the other side of this break. stay with us. it on the other side of this break stay with us

i mentioned before the break that we just got in something sort of shocking from a u.s. senate candidate, a republican candidate, this is coming from ohio. in ohio, the democratic incumbent senator is sherrod brown. he's running for re-election. republicans have nominated a wealthy car dealer to try to unseat sherrod brown. his name is bernie marino. we just got in this time of bernie moreno at a campaign event in lebanon, ohio. watch. >> you know, sadly, by the way, there's a lot of suburban women, a lot of suburban women that are

like, listen, abortion's there. if i can't have an abortion whenever i want, i will vote for anybody else. okay. it's a little crazy, by the way. especially for women past 50. i'm thinking to myself i don't think this is an issue for you. >> oh, thank god my wife didn't hear that one. a little crazy, by the way, but especially for women that are past 50. i'm thinking to myself, i don't think that's an issue for you. that tape just in from lebanon, ohio. republican senate candidate bernie moreno saying any woman over 50 doesn't have any reason to support reproductive rights. abortion rights. are you kidding? because, you know, women over 50. i'm thinking to myself, he

actually says that. i'm thinking to myself, i don't think that's an issue for you. wow! unluckily for bernie moreno in ohio running against democrat sherrod brown, women in ohio, even women over 50, apparently do still have the right to vote even if he doesn't think they have the right to an opinion. good luck, sir. amazing. that's why he switched to dovato. dovato is a complete hiv treatment for some adults. no other complete hiv pill uses fewer medicines to help keep you undetectable than dovato. detect this: leo learned that most hiv pills contain 3 or 4 medicines. dovato is as effective with just 2. if you have hepatitis b, don't stop dovato without talking to your doctor. don't take dovato if you're allergic to its ingredients or taking dofetilide. this can cause serious or life-threatening side effects. if you have a rash or allergic reaction symptoms, stop dovato and get medical help right away. serious or life-threatening lactic acid buildup and liver problems can occur.

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good morning, bangor, maine.

the queen city, home to 30,000 people and important and super cute international airport. a fittingly large statue of paul bunyan. as of this morning's paper, a new center of no from republicans who do not want the republican presidential nominee, donald trump, to be president again. as headlined in the bangor daily news, we chaired the maine republican party. we endorse kamala harris for president. this op-ed was written by three different former chairs of the maine republican party. quote, we led our party at a time when candidates of both parties were not only civil and believed in the rule of law but we believe had the best interests. state and entire nation foremost in their hearts, even when we disagree on policies. we see these same positive characteristics are on full display in vice president harris

and her candidacy. sadly, they are completely lacking in her opponent, former president donald trump. each of us has had the honor of traveling the state of maine to recruit and support candidates and to talk about the values that a big-tent republican party once stood for. trump's maga republican party is unrecognizable to us. much of the leadership of the republican party has joined the cult of trump and we know they will care little for what we have to say. we also know at the republican party in maine has been and is still home to many honest, hard-working principled people want what is best for our state and nation. we hope they will join us. that's the former chairs of the state republican party in the great state of maine. joining us now, ted o'meara, one of those former chair who's endorsed kamala harris today. i appreciate your time. thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me on, rachel. >> so what went into this decision for and you the other two former state republican party chairman? >> i think it was an easy

decision for us. as the op-ed states, we all led the party in a different time and place when it was truly a big tent. when it stood for personal liberty and a clean environment and fiscal responsibility. and today, it has become a cult that really has no principles and believes whatever dear leader has to say on any given day. >> liz cheney spoke a couple of days ago about the prospect that the republican party may have sort of run out its lease on credibility by sticking with donald trump for three consecutive election cycles. that the republican party, if it can't fundamentally reinvent itself, in a post trump way, that the party may need to go out of business and some other governing, responsible,

conservative party may need to build itself from scratch in the united states. i wonder your thoughts on that, having had a leadership role yourself in your state. >> maybe she's right. i still think the basic foundation is there. we are the party of lincoln and teddy roosevelt and here in maine, margaret j. smith. that foundation is still there. but i think we have to end donald trump's reign before that party can be rebuilt. all of us who once led the party and many of us who like me have left the party, none of us rushed out to become democrats. we left the republican party because it no longer stood for the things that we believed in and it no longer stood for the things the party has always

stood for. so also, rachel, i think over the last decade or so, just the constant chaos and insanity that we've been put through. we have to put an end to it. the only way to do that is to get behind vice president harris and tim walz and join them in a few way forward. that's the only way the republican party or any other alternative party will be able to emerge. >> you and your fellow former state party, state republican party chairmen, you closed the op-ed by saying this. jeff duncan, a republican, put it best in his speech to the democratic convention last month when he said, let me be clear to my republican friends at home. if you vote for kamala harris, in 2024, you're not a democrat. you're a patriot. and then you close your op-ed by saying on november 5, be a patriot. i wanted to ask, as somebody who spent a long time as a political professional and supported lots of campaigns and thinking about strategy, ago when do you think the impact is of former

republicans like yourself, mr. duncan, people like liz cheney, former reagan administration officials, former trump administration officials, so many republicans coming out and saying it's patriotic to go vote for harris. what do you think will be the strategic impact of that? >> i hope it helps people feel that it's okay to join us. that putting your state and your country and your family before any party label is the most important thing you can do. you know, as the op-ed talked about, there are many good hard-working people out there that still consider themselves republican. this will be a close election. if we can encourage a few people to come along with us and say it's okay this time to vote for a democratic candidate because it's what's in the best interests of our state and our nation and in our families. i hope we can persuade a few people that it is okay to join us. >> ted o'meara, former maine republican chairman, thank you. appreciate you being here. >> we'll be right back.

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one last thing. tomorrow night, alex wagner is hosting a special edition of her show from swing state michigan. she spent the day today with union members in saginaw. joe biden won that county last time by just over 300 votes. but alex wagner's show tomorrow at 9:00 eastern from michigan will be really good. check that out. that does it for me. "way too early" is up next. and vladimir wanted it badly. that was the apple of his eye. ukraine was the appleal of