okay, as we have been talking about there is a big vice presidential debate tonight. probably the last debate before the election. nancy rachel maddow will lead the whole team for special coverage for lots of people at the table. lots of analysis about the vice presidential debate between j.d. vance and demo. hosted of course by cbs news. coverage begins tomorrow 7 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc that does it for me tonight. the rachel maddow show starts right now. t now. right now. rachel. >> hi, jen, i feel like vice presidential debates are among the least predictable of all

presidential election regular things. but if these two guys in particular, what you're talking about, about j.d. vance, i feel like that's more so -- more true than evero this year. >> yeah. they don't typically matter. but this one may. >>on yeah. >> o and we don't know which j. vance we may know but we really don't know which one will come tomorrow night. so, we'll see. >> i've got a big rachel maddow show style spiel, a big story that i think people don't know about vancedo coming up a littl later on in the show. >> oh, good. >> that's my homework assignment for tonight. >> we'll be watching. >> thank you, jen. muchnk appreciated. thanks at home for joining us this hour. this is one of those news day where everything isho busting o all over. there's a lot going on. and a lot of the big news in the country and the world is still developing tonight. so, i have to tell you, tonight we are keeping our eyes trained on the middle east. a suggest nif can't expansion in

the conflict between israel and hezbollah in hebb non. hezbollah, of course, is the iran-backed militia group that's based in lebanon. they are a keyin ally of hamas. hezbollah and israel have been trading fire for months across the border of those two countries since the hamas attack in israel last october. you will also recall that earlier t this month, israel, st of, opened a new foray there. they launched attacks in lebanon that killed dozens of hezbollah members, injured thousands of other edpeople, including civilians. israel then ramped up air strikes across lebanon, which killed hundreds of people and displacede hundreds of thousan. they then killed the leader of hezbollah. well, earlier today, israeli troops were seen massing on the ground near the lebanese border. and now israel has reportedly launched a ground incursion over the border inside lebanon. this is a big deal.

two u.s. official telling nbc news that an israeli ground operation has, in fact, begun tonight inside lebanon. u.s. officials have been blunt about the fact that they fear operations like this could sink the whole region into further and moregi widespread fighting d chaos. but, again, the news tonight, the developing story, we are keeping our eyes on it. israeli troops on the ground inside lebanon tonight. i'll keep you posted as we learn more. here at home tonight, news of every imaginable shape and size. tomorrow, of ancourse, is the ve presidential debate, which is always an interesting point, t, always, kind of, an unpredictable wildcard in any presidential election because of these two vp candidates this year. i feel like this time at least i submit for your consideration will may be at it worth thinking a little bit harder than usual about this particular debate in advance before it happens.

so, as i mentioned to jen at thn top of the hour, i've got a lot more coming up on that later on in the show this hour, in particular something that you might not know, something you might have heard about but you might not h really know about j. vance in particular. so, we've been working on that story for a long time.y i have to tell you, i've debatee with myself a long time about whether or not to do this story. but it's the eve of the debate. it's time to do it. we are going to do it. that's still ahead later on in the show tonight. we also got major news today from the fbi, which just released its report on violent crime in america for the first half of this year. according to that new fbi report, violent crime is significantly down in the countryic for the first half of this year, down by more than 10%. in is mfact, it's down by every metric in the report. aggravated assault downre 8%, robbery down 13%, rape down 17%, murder down more than 22%. so, as donald trump and j.d.

vance campaign for president and vice president by saying that america is a crime-infested hellscaperi because of joe bide and kamala harris, this new report from the fbi may play a role in the debate tomorrow, may play a role in the campaign in general. but regardless of the politics, it is good news for the country full stop. we're also watching the ports right now on the east coast and on the gulf coast where the g longshoreman's unio has a contract that expires tonight at midnight. really important for the whole country. there's about 47,000 longshoremen in that union. and in a lot of ways, they are a lynchpin in the american economy at large. the ports along the east coast and the gulf coast that bring goods into this country, those ports literally can't operate without the longshoremen. and it has been decades since this union has gone on strike. if this strike happens, if it is prolonged, it has real potential

to cause serious chaos and disruption in the american economy,er potentially leading very visible consequences for americans doing their everyday shopping, shortages in the stores, priceor increases. and that of course would all be happening just a few weeks before the f presidential election. if this strike happens, it's estimated that it will cost the u.s. economy about $4 billion every day that it goes on. again, unless there is a last-minute agreement at the bargaining agtable, that potentially very consequential strike is expected to begin tonight at midnight. like i said, news of every shape and size right now, including a lot that's going to be developing overt the course of this evening. we've also still got eyes on georgia, specifically on a giant toxic gas plume in rockdale county, georgia, east of e atlanta. you probably saw the news early yesterday morning. there was a fire that erupted at a chemical plant in conyers,

georgia. that fire at the chemical plant produced this giant poisonous chlorine cloud. and this isn't out in the middle ofn nowhere. this is in very well populated georgia. in the immediate aftermath of the hefire, interstate 20 had t be shut down in both directions. i-20 has since reopened. but more than 24 hours after the initial fire, there are still more than 90,000 people who are still under stay-at-home orders as of today, people who are being advised to not open their windows, not open their doors, not turn on their air conditioning, all to prevent exposure to these poisonous chlorine flumes. that order has just been lifted, but it was in effect for most of the day today, a very consequential, again, chemical plant fire and toxic gas plume. and then of course on top of all of that, we have just been consumed inbe what has happenedn

the h wake of hurricane helene, which has killed at least 121 people across six different states. it has left extensive damage in its wake, particularly in beautiful western north carolina. the region that hasl endured wt one local official described as, quote, biblical devastation. more thanca 300,000 people are without00 power in north caroli tonight. the epicenter of the damage in north carolinar appears to be bunken county, particularly the lovely and historic city of asheville. at least 40 people have died in bunken county alone. more than 600 missing persons reports were filed as of last night. roads andas bridges, homes and a businesses, have just been washed away. the citywa of asheville's water system has taken extreme damage. officials said today that full restoration of ashe t vill's war could take weeks. and as you know, a place without water is pretty much uninhabitable. the mayor of asheville has

described power lines in the city as looking like spaghetti. power down and all the other damage has knocked out cell service. that, in particular, has hampered recoveryla efforts. north carolina's governor, roy cooper, was on the ground in asheville today surveying the damage, meeting with first responders. his assessment coming out of there was grim. he said, quote, the devastation was beyond belief. and even when youio prepare for something like this, this is just something that has never happened before in western north carolina. joining us now live, i'm honored to say, is the governor of north carolina, roy cooper. governor cooper, i know you are really in the middle of it.dd thank you for taking the time to beki with us tonight to help us understand what's going on. >> thank you, rachel. glad to be here. >> we've all covered a lot of storms, a lot of hurricanes, a lot of devastating inland flooding. even stillng it feels like the scale of this is just something qualitatively different. can you tell us a little bit about how -- i guess the scale of it and how this compares to

other things that you've had to contend with in your time in leadership? >> i've seen a lot of storms and aftermath of storms. i've never seen anything like this. this is an unprecedented disaster. but we are meeting it with an unprecedented response. we have 92 search and rescue teams out now rescuing people as we speak. we're working closely with fema. they've been onwi the ground wi me all day today. they delivered a million liters of water, 600,000 meals, hundreds and hundreds of pallets are being airre lifted to communities that are completely cut off from the ground because they aref surrounded by water.o we know that there are a lot of people hurting. when you don't have power, when you don't have cell phone service,l when you don't have water, this is a catastrophic situation for you.

and we are coordinating federal, state, local non-profits into helping the western part of north carolina. you know, this is rugged terrain on beautiful blue sky days. but after these landslides and raging rivers like we have never seenke before, some of our communities are completely wiped out. and it'stely really emotional, particularly to people in north carolina and people from all over the country who go frequently, just w seeing the devastation here. but i've talked to people today. there isto a real strength ther. nurses sleeping in hospitals, restaurants serving free meals, hotels offering their rooms to first responders, people working in thers parking lot passing ou water at churches. people are pulling together. we're going to get through this. but we have a lot of work to do in the short term and a lot of

recovery in the long term. >> rescue comes before recoverye as you said. 92 search and rescue teams out tonight, as we speak. is there any place that search and rescue teams are still having trouble getting to? are there impassable -- are there places that they can't get to? are there resources that could help, again, the rescue teams that you don't have that you need? >> atwell, we have rescue teams from all over the country right now, from over 20 states, federal rescue teams. our national guard is deployed. we have over 700 activated. we're taking phone calls from people who haven't heard from theiren friends or relatives an doing well checks on them to make sure they are okay. and if you can't get to them by land, then we are using aircraft to get in there. there have been g a number of a

rescues, actually hundreds of air rescues, because areas have been cut off. we're going to keep pouring in the resources. this is going to have to be a sustained response tarks you canning -- talking with the president a coupleon of times today, talking with the vice president, theal fema director on the ground. stay in north carolina. she and i will be in the western part of the state tomorrow. we know that this is going to require g everything we have to get these roads open as quickly as we opcan, to get cell phone service ceup, to get power on t people, to make sure that people have food and water, people are working around the clock, real heroes who have damage to their own homesar are out there worki giving medical assistance to people, working in first response. it is amazing, heartbreaking, and encouraging at the same time

to see everybody working together so, so well right now. >> north carolina governor roy cooper, we know that your state is really -- right now. thank you for taking time to help usr understand. good luck.go stay in touch if there are things to get the word out about or things to ask for that you need, let us know. >> thank you so much, rachel. we do have word from the white house that president biden,ho you just heard governo cooper say he's going to be back in north carolina tomorrow. president biden is scheduled to visit the statet the day after tomorrow, on wednesday. all right. up next, something that i have been debating for a few weeks now whether or not to do on the show. but i feel like, well, if not me, who? it's not coming up in other places. i, sort of, feel like we all need to know it. so, now is the time. on the eve of the vice presidential debate tomorrow, i feel like now is d the time, so we're going to do t it. settle in.

right on the other side of this break, i have a story to tell you. it is one, i will confess right now, it is a story that gives me the ughs big time. but we've got to do it. got to know. that story's next. next. llinois. i'm not an actor. i'm just a regular person. some people say, "why should i take prevagen? i don't have a problem with my memory." memory loss is, is not something that occurs overnight. i started noticing subtle lapses in memory. i want people to know that prevagen has worked for me. it's helped my memory. it's helped my cognitive qualities. give it a try. i want it to help you just like it has helped me. prevagen. at stores everywhere without a prescription. that grimy film on your teeth? dr. g? ♪♪ it's actually the buildup of plaque bacteria which can cause cavities. most toothpastes quit working in minutes. but crest pro-health's antibacterial fluoride protects all day. so it stops cavities before they start... crest.

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that's what i do. is that love island? okay. this is one of those stories. you ready for it? here we go. his name was charles r. walgreen. he lived in illinois.

as a young man he lived in a shoe factory. at an accident in the factory, he got injured. he lost a finger. because of that, he had to give up the shoe factory job. so, he started working instead as an assistant pharmacist at a drugstore in his hometown. he had to go off and fight in the spanish american war in cuba. while he was in cuba, he got both malaria and yellow fever, neither of which is any fun. but he survived both of them. and he came back to the u.s. after the spanish american war, came back to the chicago area and decided he would keep going with the pharmacy stuff. so, he opened up his own drugstore. but it wasn't just a drugstore. charles walgreens big retail innovation was that, yes, he operated a pharmacy, but his pharmacy would also sell stuff other than drugs. they'd be a place you could also get a sandwich or a milk shake or buy other stuff you might

need for your house. and with that model, mr. walgreen was wildly successful. by the 1920s, he had over 100 walgreens drugstores by. the 1930s, he had hundreds more. and by the 1930s, he was also very deeply freaked out about his niece, specifically about his niece, lucille, being exposed to free love and communism. charles walgreen's niece, lucille, had gone off to the university of chicago, great school. but when she came home from school, she and her rich uncle walgreen apparently started having what he called frequent arguments. here's "the new york times," april 12, 1935, c.r. walgreen takes niece from college. karls r. walgreen has caused his

niece to withdraw as a student at the university of chicago and has written a letter criticizing the institution for its communistic influence. his letter was sent to president hutchins in the university. copies were mailed to the university's trustees. this turned into a big famous thing at the time. there was a whole bunch of newspaper coverage about it at the time. you can see the headlines here. walgreen answers university of chicago, asking facts. promising proof of communism. here's another. university of chicago head demands data on charge of radical teachings. attack is called vague. here's another. legislators hear walgreen charge. he asserts university of chicago taught communism. free love is also alleged. oh, no, not free love! they actually did hold a hearing in the state legislature in illinois on this scandal of the

walgreens guy taking his niece out of college. his niece was exposed to free love and communism. the hearing was dominated by walgreen's expert witness who he had called to testify on his behalf. her name was elizabeth dylan. and she really took over the hearing and turned it into a big spectacle. she demanded no one silence her. she said she would continue her testimony on the radio if they told her her time was up in the legislative hearing. she said she knew, she had lists of all the communists at the university of chicago. she also mentioned she had lists of u.s. senators who she knew were communists as well. she said the president of the board of trustees at the university of chicago, who was, like, a millionaire meat packing guy. she said, he was not only a communist, but she said, he was

a communist, of, quote, the cream puff type. yeah. that was elizabeth dilling. the hearing that she testified at was, sort of, wild. the a.p. described it as fist swinging, hooting, cheering, and heckling. elizabeth dilling's husband was there. he punched out a guy from the antidefamation league at the hearing. it was crazy. charles walgreen arguing with his niece goes from that to a full blown state legislative hearing on whether the university of chicago should be shut down by the state as a subversive organization. and even though that crusade by uncle walgreen did not work to shut down the university of chicago, the crusade, sort of, caught on. after the walgreens university of chicago thing, the same expert witness, elizabeth dilling, got a call from henry

ford of the ford motor company. he paid elizabeth dilling $5,000 to come to michigan toxpose all the evil communists at the university of michigan and try to get the university of michigan shut down as well. then it was california. the los angeles chamber of commerce paid elizabeth dilling to come to southern california, where she assured everyone that she had confirmed that ucla was a hot bed of communism, presumably also free love. she did the same thing at cornell. she did the same thing at northwestern, trying to get all of these universities shut down. they wanted all of these universities shut down, as evil, subversive, communist institutions. they did not get the university shut down. but a lot of very rich, very influential people were working on this. this is what they thought was a main stream political project. as weird as it sounds, this is a thing they really put at the center of their agenda. and the expert who they had work on all these campaigns, elizabeth dilling, she was a

piece of work on her own. not to put too fine a point on it, but she was a huge fan of adolf hitler and the nazi party. before we got into world war ii, the nazis in germany paid her expenses for her to repeatedly visit germany and go back to the u.s. and praise the nazi party and hitler's lead eship. the german press had a nickname for elizabeth dilling. they called her the female fuhrer. she wrote a series of wildly anti-semitic books about how jews were secretly plotting to rise up against the world. she was put on trial for sedition in 1944. when the trial dragged on for months, the judge allowed her to take breaks from attending the trial every day so she could go back to her day job to pay the bills. her day job -- leading the crowd in anti-semitic songs, which she

wrote herself. elizabeth dilling was bananas. but this crusade to shut down the universities, to expose universities of subversive institutions that have to be shut down if we're going to save america, this has been a recurring thing on the far right for a long time. i mean, that all happened in the '30s. but when barry goldwater was the republican nominee for president in 1964, one of the minor scandals in his campaign -- which had a lot of scandals -- is that his campaign employed a full-time campaign worker whose organization had been shut down by the u.s. government during world war ii because it was an american fascist organization. the guy's name was allen zol. he reorganized himself into something called the national council for american education, which investigated american universities for subversion and

tried to shut them down for being communist or whatever. he put out pamphlets with titles like "they want your child." allen zoll also somewhat famously testified in congress that felix frankfurter shouldn't be approved as a supreme court justice, specifically because he was jewish. he said that was the grounds which he thought he shouldn't be confirmed. the shut down the universities thing has been an obsession on the far right on and off for a very long while. and its most famous proponents have just not been the best people. just objectively, they have mostly been associated with not just the far right but literally with fascism. allen zoll's organization was banned by the u.s. government as a fascist group. elizabeth dilling was a fascist nazi and hitler enthusiast who spent her life crusading against jewish people and who was put on trial for sedition, right? the shut down the universities thing does not have a good

pedigree on the american far right. but it comes up in a recurring way. and we do have some new proponents of it now, which i think we should all be aware of, particularly ahead of tomorrow's vice presidential candidates' debate. >> i think if any of us want to do the things that we want to do for our country and for the people who live in it, we have to honestly and aggressively attack the universities in this country. ladies and gentlemen, the universities do not pursue knowledge and truth. they pursue deceit and lies, and it's time to be honest about that fact. of course i imagine that i don't have to convince any more of -- any of you that this is propostrouse, that the university in our country are fundamentally corrupt and dedicated to deceit and lies. our universities are so committed to some of the most preposterous dishonesties in the world. >> j.d. vance is now the republican nominee for vice president of the united states. this is a speech he gave not

that long ago. the title of the speech was "the universities are the enemy." he gave the speech less than three years ago in florida. but the theme of this speech, this is, sort of, a recurring thing for him. >> you come to america, america is an evil place, gou to howard and put your preferred pronouns in your bio and learn to hate people in the heartland. $41 million of money, a lot of that is going to aggressively promote left wing radicalism. harvard university funds some of the antiradical stuff that's out there. harvard university endowment pays a 0% tax rate. maybe it's time to pay the endowment, penalize the endowments for being on the wrong side of these cultural war issues. so, yes, i think there are ways for us to seize the endowments. we just have to be willing to

actually do it. >> right. i like that answer. >> i like that answer. this is a podcast interview that j.d. vance did, again, not that long ago. elizabeth dilling didn't succeed in shutting down the university of chicago or university of michigan or ucla. the fascist zealot allen zoll who tried it in 1949. but j.d. vance has a plan to do it now, at least to seize harvard's endowment and then see what happens. and he has a plan to do this as part of a larger plan to destroy all the things which conservatives don't have complete control over. and it's not just the universities, which has, again, on and off for a century, been a topic of concern of the far right. but it also, for j.d. vance, includes the private sector, businesses. here he is in that same interview explaining that the right wing needs to start doing stuff that's really, really,

really radical, including to businesses. and both j.d. vance and his interviewer both clearly find this very exciting. >> capital money itself is increasingly taking a side in the culture war, and it's not our side. it's not the side that i want to win. unless you're willing to make these people feel like -- there's no serious way to fight back against it. the only way to pushback against this stuff in a real way is to make these companies feel like i'm in pain. there are a lot of ideas out there of how to do it. if you're not recognizing this moment, how crazy things have gotten and how outside the box we need to think, i think you're ultimately not really serious about taking back the country. look, i agree, we are in a late republican period. if we're going to push back against it, we have to get pretty wild and go in directions that a lot of conservatives right now are uncomfortable with. >> indeed. i've got to say, among my

circle, the phrase extra-constitutional has come up a bit. we do need to take an aggressive stance, a muscular stance. we're going to have to become a little bit more robust in our behavior. >> yeah. that's exactly right. and look, you know, i -- i think that what's so difficult about this moment for conservatives is that we love the country so much that we don't want to admit to ourselves how far gone things are, right? and i hear this from a lot of conservatives. look, it is still the best country in the world. but we are accelerating very, very quickly to a place that none of us want to go. and it's really time to wake up. >> keep talking about extra constitutional. yeah, yeah, yeah. we're accelerating to a place we really don't want to go. we're in a late republican period. he doesn't mean capital r republican, he means we're at the end of us being a republic. j.d. vance has not only to conservatives to, in his words,

wake up. but what they need to wake up to is the fact that most of american life and culture should be, in his words, ripped out like a tumor. those are, again, his words, not mine. watch. >> our leaders right now are so corrupt and so vile that if you assimilate into their culture, you're assimilating into, like, garbage liberal elite culture. you're not assimilating into traditional american culture. so, this is a tough, tough pickle for me. i don't even know what the right answer is here because you can't just teach these things. you can't teach that we live in a great country if the leaders are ak tufly aligned against it. almost the thing you need to do, step one in the process, is to totally replace, like, rip out like a tumor, the current american leadership class and then reinstall some sense of american political religion. >> we need to rip it out like a tumor and then install political

religion. the man who is interviewing j.d. vance here gets very excited about this idea, and it leads -- this is important here. it leads j.d. vance to explain, sort of, influences on his thoughts, where he gets his ideas on subjects like this. >> you said something that i would like to zero down on. how do we effectively, quote, rip out the disgusting leadership class? >> oh, man. i mean, you know -- >> because let me expand on that just a second. >> yeah, yeah, yeah. >> i'm going to give you a little cover here. it's not just -- i mean, obviously elections. that's one thing, okay? but unfortunately, this evil leadership class has already taken over all of our institutions. current pipeline is to turn them into those people that we just called evil and disgusting. how do we, aside from

elections -- how do we rip out this leadership class? so, these institutions are corrupted and rotten to the core. this ideology is everywhere and in all the things. what other options do we have besides voting them out, which we're seeing is ineffectual. >> this is a tough question but this is maybe the question that confronts us right now. there's this guy, curtis yashin, who's written about some of these things. >> there's this guy, curtis, who's written about some of these things. you're asking, hey, we don't want elections anymore. voting is ineffectual. we want to destroy the whole thing, not only the system of government, but the whole american system like we're ripping out a tumor. how do we do that specifically, whereupon vance gets uncomfortable, buys himself a little time, and says, yeah, there's this guy, curtis yarvin, who writes about this stuff.

a chuckle from the interviewer. this is curtis yarvin who j.d. vance is citing here as he is talking about the need to seize the universities, destroy -- use the government to destroy businesses who aren't right wing, talking about needing to rip out the american system like a tumor. here's the guy he is citing as his, sort of -- the source of his thinking on these matters. >> so, i've raised this very complicated problem to a simple four letter acronym which is r.a.g.e., which stands for retire all government employees. very, very, very simple. now, the problem with this is, why have we never heard this before? why has no one suggested let's get rid of this thing. what is government?

a government is just a corporation enjoying the country. nothing more, nothing less. it so happens in our corporation, very poorly managed. and there is a very simple way to replace them which is what we do when all four have failed. we simply believe them. we haven't been able to do that. >> we should delete the u.s. government because it's stale. it has been around for too long. we haven't been able to do that, meaning delete our government, for 200 years, so it's gotten a bit stale. it's been around too long. so, what would that entail, deleting the u.s. government? >> the other thing about getting rid of your government is you can't just say, well -- formal government. you have to say, well, what is the system actually? and it includes a lot of things, ngos, universities.

it's very, very large system. and it all needs to be destroyed. there's lite of talented americans who actually know how to run things and make things work and are generalists. and you can get these people, put them in positions of responsibility and have them do their thing. and finally, you need a ceo. a -- ceo is called a dictator. it's the same thing. there's no difference between the ceo and a dictator. >> if americans want to change their government, they're going to have to get over their dictator phobia. so, the vice presidential candidates' debate is tomorrow. tim walz, the democratic candidate, has been governor, is currently the governor of minnesota. he's been a long-term congressman, high school teacher, football coach, a soldier for decades. j.d. vance, the republican

candidate, is a different kind of cat -- forgive me. aside from a brief stint in the marine corpse, where he served with the public affairs unit, he has spent his adult life working for or being supported by right wing tech billionaires, specifically ones who have devoted themselves to the political teachings of this guy. >> finally, you need a ceo and an actual ceo is what's called a dictator. it's the same thing. >> i have debated whether or not to talk about this on the show because i feel like it gives me the ughs. but i also feel like this is an important thing to know about the republicans' vice presidential nominee and what he has to offer and why he was brought on to the ticket despite his palpable lack of political skill or lackbility, his lack of any track record in politics whatsoever, and after he spent less than two years in the only public office he's ever held,

which is a senate seat, that he only barely won thanks to one of those eccentric tech billionaires giving him the single largest senate campaign donation in the history of this this very, very obscure, eccentric, right wing subculture of tech billionaires. and his relationship with this eccentric silicon valley pro dictatorship philosophy has been pretty widely discussed in print. these are a whole bunch of articles. i've discussed this at one level or another. it's been discussed in print. but i don't feel like it's widely understood by the country who is paying attention to this guy as a candidate. but this is where j.d. vance's big ideas come from about where the country is heading for. quote, vance is friends with curtis yarvin, who he openly cites as a political influence. yarvin, the main political

influence on all of the people who have supported j.d. vance throughout his career, including paying to install him in the u.s. senate. when j.d. vance says stuff like, we're in a late republican period -- which is something he says all the time -- he doesn't mean anything about the republican party. he means we're at the time right before the roman republic collapsed. and what happened after the roman republic collapsed? well, a dictator, caesar, came in. and wasn't that better? he talks about being in a late republican period all the time. that's him channelling this guy, yarvin. when vance says, universities are the enemy and they should be seized, he's not only channelling elizabeth dilling and allen zoll and all the weird far right crusaders against the universities from the '30s and '40s. that would be troubling enough. he's also channelling this guy, yarvin, who says while we are firing all the government employees, we should do the same to the universities because they're all part of the bigger system that all needs to be

destroyed. he says, quote, retire their employees, liquidate their assets. universities in particular have lovely campuses, many of which are centrally located and should be attractive to developers. meaning let's put somebody in to be a -- what does he call it -- a national ceo, which is indistinguishable from a dictator. and a dictator should take over all the universities and sell them off to developers. this is literally a pro-dictatorship pro-mon arkie philosophy this is not just about ending the u.s. system of government, deleting the u.s. government, but then using the power of a dictator to dismantle universities, dismantle businesses, to dismantle all of civil society, to instead install a whole new system controlled by the state that serves just the desires of the leader. tomorrow at the debate, it is going to come up that j.d. vance

wants national abortion ban. it's going to come up that he has told and continues to tell horrible lies about immigrants. it is going to come up that he has said his running mate was america's hitler, his phrase, and cultural heroin, and that trump's presidency was a failure. it's going to come up -- his involvement in project 2025 is going to come up. his proposal that people without children should be taxed more and should have their votes count less, it will all come up at tomorrow's debate. what do you do with this stuff? >> step one in the process is to totally replace, like, rip out like a tumor the current american leadership class. >> republicans, conservatives, we're still terrified of wielding power, of actually doing the job people sent us here to do. >> you need a ceo, and a national ceo is what's called a dictator. it's the same thing. >> we've got to get comfortable with wielding power.

>> there's no difference between the ceo and dictator. if americans want to change their government, they have to get over dictator phobia. >> going to have to get over their dictator phobia. what do you do with this level of radicalism, trying to take over in washington right now and trying to convince the far right that they've got to stop being afraid of wielding this kind of power this way? what do you do with this? at the debate tomorrow and the campaign in general? i don't know. but we've got to do something with it. watch this space.

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happy monday, happy vice presidential debate eve. here's a sleeper issue i'm going to be watching for in tomorrow's debate. and the reason i wanted to bring this up tonight is because this issue is the subject of what i think is probably the best ad yet from the whole harris-waltz campaign everywhere all year. >> my husband and i are going through ivf treatments right now. it could be our only chance to have a family. but donald trump's plan could ban ivf in some states. my husband is in the military. we are patriots and we go where he is assigned. what if we end up in a state where ivf is no longer legal?

what will we do then? >> i'm kamala harris, and a proved this message. >> what will we do then? despite trump claims that the party is now totally cool with ivf and nobody has anything to worry about anymore, project 2025, the right wing blueprint created by trump allies for a second trump administration, opens the door to banning fertility treatments. and of course conservatives in alabama already tried it. in the wake of that debacle in alabama, in washington, d.c., almost every single republican in the american senate has voted twice against having federal legal protections for ivf. trump's running mate, senator jd vance, voted for it once. he didn't show up for the bill, the second time. he called the bill, quote, ridiculous. for his vice presidential opponent, tim walz, who's going to face j.d. vance on the debate stage tomorrow, this ivf issue

is personal. tim walz and his wif had years of fertility treatments. j.d. vance has accused tim walz of lying about how his children were conceived. wow, stay classy, senator. but i just want to highlight this. i think the harris-waltz campaign has even shown even with ads like this one, arguably the best ad so far, they have shown that fertility treatment is deeply personal to so many american families and also incredibly potent as a political issue. so, it's a sleeper, i think, but it is one to watch for at tomorrow's debate. all right. we'll be right back. all right. we'll be right back. my grandchildren, they're sixth generation of dancers. it's what my family is all about. i thought i knew a lot about our irish roots. i was surprised to learn so many more things from ancestry.

1892. oh and here's the boat they came over on. there was a julie healy, a mary healy, this is all their names? yes, yes. wow.

as americans, there's one thing we can all agree on. the promise of our constitution and the hope that liberty and justice is for all people. but here's the truth. attacks on our constitutional rights, yours and mine are greater than they've ever been. the right for all to vote. reproductive rights. the rights of immigrant families. the right to equal justice for black, brown and lgbtq+ folks. the time to act to protect our rights is now. that's why i'm hoping you'll join me today in supporting the american civil liberties union. it's easy to make a difference. just call or go online now and become an aclu guardian of liberty. all it takes is just $19 a month. only $0.63 a day.

your monthly support will make you part of the movement to protect the rights of all people, including the fundamental right to vote. states are passing laws that would suppress the right to vote. we are going backwards. but the aclu can't do this important work without the support of people like you. you can help ensure liberty and justice for all and make sure that every vote is counted. so please call the aclu now or go to my aclu.org and join us. when you use your credit card, you'll receive this special we the people t-shirt and much more. to show you're a part of the movement to protect the rights guaranteed to all of us by the us constitution. we protect everyone's rights, the freedom of religion, the freedom of expression, racial justice, lgbtq rights, the rights of the disabled. we are here for everyone. it is more important than ever to take a stand. so please join us today.

because we the people means all the people, including you. so call now or go online to my aclu.org to become a guardian of liberty. ♪♪ at bombas, we dream of comfort and softness. which is why we make the best socks and slippers in the history of feet. ♪♪ visit bombas.com and get 20% off your first order. alice loves the scent of gain so much, she wished there was a way to make it last longer.

say hello to your fairy godmother alice, and long-lasting gain scent beads. part of the irresistible scent collection from gain. the biggest and most wonderful news in the state of georgia right now is that jimmy carter, son of georgia, former president of the united states, beloved statesman and hero, jimmy carter turns 100 years young storm. happy birthday to president carter and the family who loves him so much. at 100 years old tomorrow, we are luckier than we ever dreamed we'd be with him. also in georgia, big news today from the courts in two ways but actually from the same courtroom, from the same judge, at the center of both of these stories. the first one is an important

abortion ruling. tonight georgia's abortion ban was struck down. fulton county judge robert mcbernie struck down georgia's six-week ban after the conservative majority on the u.s. supreme court georgia started a defacto total ban on all abortions in the state, a ban after all abortions after six weeks. abortion is now legal again up to 22 weeks of presidency. the ban was in place long enough to lead directly to the death of two young women living in georgia because of that abortion ban. so, this milestone ruling today getting rid of georgia's abortion ban. it is a really big deal on the facts and on the policy for the people of georgia. it's also just the first thing in what is turning out to be a big milestone week for that specific judge, for judge mcbernie. tomorrow at 9:00 a.m., he is

going to oversee a bench trial, which will be live streamed, a trial over new election rules that were recently passed by the maga pro-trump majority on georgia's state election board. one rule requires county officials to conduct a reasonable inquiry before they consent to certify election results. it gives no explanation of what counts as a reasonable inquiry, the other allows county officials to examine all election-related documentation before they certify a result. democrats behind the lawsuit that's going to be heard tomorrow say that these rules could be used to upend the statutorily required process for certifying election results in georgia. but the georgia certification issue has been just off the rails ever since the pro-maga majority took over of the state election board. that trial starts tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. it will be live streamed by way of fultoncourt.org.

so, that's going to be a really interesting way to start the day. the question, so much national focus on what election is doing essential to mess with its own election processes before this all-important presidential election. we'll be able to see those changes, those late changes to their processes, get tested in a bench trial tomorrow live streamed from the fulton county court. we'll be watching that. and then tomorrow night, we'll all be busy together. tomorrow night, join my colleagues and me here at msnbc for our special coverage of the vice presidential debate. it starts at 7:00 p.m. eastern. our special coverage, the debate itself is hosted by cbs news. but you can watch it here ones in msnbc with us. we will be showing the debate itself. we will have highlights and reaction and analysis right after. our coverage starts at 7:00 p.m. eastern. we'll all be here for the whole duration. now it's time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell. word" with lawrence o'donnell.