tv The Weekend MSNBC February 9, 2025 5:00am-6:00am PST
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>> first. >> you know. >> the whole opening. >> of the season and. yeah. >> all right. well, season two of mo streaming right now on netflix. check it out. also, mo's new nationwide comedy tour, el oso palestino, begins later this month. co-creator, executive producer, director and star mo amer. thank you so much for joining us this morning. >> thank you. i would. >> like to be addressed as the. palestinian bear. from now. >> on, we will. >> add that to the notes. >> for your. >> next appearance. >> that's it for us this weekend. we're back tomorrow morning, 6 a.m. eastern. bright and early as we enter the fourth week of trump's second term. until then, thanks for watching. >> good morning. it is sunday, february 9th. i'm alicia menendez with symone sanders townsend and michael steele. new overnight donald trump says he's revoking the security clearances of even more political opponents. attorney norm eisen is on that list and he is here
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to react. plus, congressman jamie raskin is at the table to debut his plan for americans to fight elon musk's doge chaos. and trump says he's firing the chair of the federal election commission, ellen weintraub. she says she's not going anywhere. she's going to join us later in the show. we have a packed two hours today, so grab your coffee, settle in. welcome to the weekend. >> without clear legal authority, donald trump is trying to downsize the federal government. tomorrow, millions of federal employees face a deadline to accept or decline a so-called deferred resignation offer. notice. i didn't say buyout. workers who quit have been promised pay until the end of september. it remains unclear if the trump administration can deliver on that promise without approval from congress. meanwhile, russell vowed to the
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project 2025 coauthor, now serving as trump's budget chief, is taking over the consumer financial protection bureau. and late last night, nbc news learned that vote has issued a directive to pause most of the agency's activities. also this morning, there's new fallout from the push to dismantle the u.s. agency for international development. small businesses who work with the government face layoffs, charities they've lost funding, and even american farmers who grow crops for foreign aid have been impacted. joining us now is democratic congressman john garamendi of california. he served in the peace corps. seeing the impact of u.s. aid firsthand in ethiopia. >> welcome, congressman, to the table. it's a real pleasure to have you here. let's pick up on that part of your personal story and how it translates into what we see today. you and your wife, patty, met and got involved with the early missions of the peace corps and in ethiopia. but what i would like you to do is give
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people an appreciation of what what that work means and how important usaid is today in that fight. >> well, our first involvement with usaid was in 1967. we were peace corps volunteers way out in the remote western part of ethiopia. no electricity, no running water. but usaid came through with a team to do vaccinations for smallpox, and we spent a full month working in the villages in the area doing those vaccinations. successful. smallpox is essentially gone, except in just a few very small places around the world. that was the first we had. and then through the years, we've continued to be involved. patty ran the in the department of agriculture, the foreign service programs, the food programs, and she went to famine camps, refugee camps, lokichogio in
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northern kenya, ebola outbreak. but the food was provided by usaid, the medical services, usaid, saving lives and providing security. >> here. >> in the united states from a pandemic. in that case, it was ebola. and right now, ebola is once again in kampala, uganda. usaid was working in those clinics to stop that outbreak. they're not there anymore. so maybe that will expand. and it's just 15 hours away from washington, d.c. >> and we're. >> already gets on a plane and we're here. >> and we're seeing, congressman, the impacts of this. there's a headline in reuters about a burmese refugee who died after being discharged from a shut us funded clinic. and then you have the impact here at home. this headline from the washington post about how gutting usaid actually threatens billions of dollars for u.s. farms, quote, purchases and shipments of u.s. food aid worth
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over $340 million, including rice, wheat and soybeans, have been paused during trump's foreign aid freeze. that's according to officials in an email obtained by the post. my question for you, congressman, is when republicans inevitably take a victory lap on this, say that they have cut government waste. what is democrats? counterpunch. >> it's not waste. it's an essential american program. it is the soft power. general mattis, former secretary of defense, said it very clearly. he said that if you do away with the soft power that is usaid, then you better get me a whole lot more bullets. the fact of the matter is, as we pull away from those places where usaid is presently involved, for example, africa, you can bet that. >> china is. >> right behind. they're going to fill that space, and then they will have the influence. we know, for example, that china wants a port in west africa. why? because they want access to the atlantic ocean, the eastern
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atlantic ocean. how are they going to get it? us pulls out, the aid programs are gone. the country needs help. they'll turn to china. and part of the deal is, okay, you can have a port here. this is a national security issue as well as humanitarian issue. >> what can congress do on this? because this usaid was created by legislation. yes. the this is after there was money that was given from the foreign service act years ago. and then the president at the time created usaid, and then it was codified into law after that by congress. and so you have the executive branch here essentially defunding something that congress said should exist. and i thought the power of the purse was with you all, not the executive branch here. so what can you all do? >> well, we can push back in every way possible. go on your show, talk to the american public about what's going on here. you're absolutely correct.
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usaid was actually created by kennedy back in the 60s. over the years, it's been the authorization has gone on forward, most recently in the 90s. there was a moment in the 90s where the administration could change it, but that was a period of time. that time has passed. there is no legal authority. it is illegal for the trump administration to kill or to stop. usaid cannot put it into the state department. there is no legal authority to do that. and so, yes, the lawsuits are out there in the courts. we will support that in every way possible, and we'll talk as best we can about what usaid does, not only in food, not only the effect on the farmers that it just mentioned. it is a major problem in the midwest. i would expect to see some republican senators going, oh. >> i'm from nebraska. i know the farmers are like, what is going on? >> exactly, exactly. so all of that is in play. the problem
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here for me personally, is this is a personal issue. these are things that we, patty and i have spent our life working on. and we know i would just ask trump or musk, go to one of these camps, go to one of the famine camps, one of the refugee camps, and hold a starving child in your hand. look at that extended belly. look at the eyes. they're just vacant. we have developed usaid, has developed a nutrient system that can immediately revive that young child. it is a supplement. it's not available. now. that child's going to die. so where's the humanity here? where is the humanity? do they understand what they are doing for these lives? and then the medical side of it, if you pull usaid out of these countries, you're going to have a medical crisis here in the united states. it will come here. >> congressman, in addition to the incredible work of usaid, we
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have come to understand that it's not just usaid. there are other relief services out there. catholic charities, for example, a significant player here domestically as well as globally. catholic relief services, right. which is, you know, a companion organization working hand in hand with usaid, national catholic reporters already indicating that catholic relief services is laying off staff cuts and programs. after this usaid shakeup. the reality of it is you look at catholic relief services basically receives about half of their $1.5 billion budget from this type of funding. >> exactly. >> talk about the impact across the board for humanitarian services. that soft power, that soft power, yes, is putting food in place, medicine in place for
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people. but that also translates as simone and alicia were talking about in other ways to secure the us presence on the ground locally. because here's the deal. when we pull out in west africa and china comes in, when that port goes in, folks, that port's not going away. china now has a beachhead on the atlantic ocean opposite the united states. >> exactly. exactly right. the usaid has about 5000 american employees around the world. they are actually monitoring the contracts with organizations like catholic relief services, world vision and others. they those programs, those ngos provide the services on the ground, specifically in the case of catholic relief, that's medical services and food services. there are other programs that are doing economic development, agricultural development, water systems,
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electrical systems and the like. so the usaid employees are working those cons, contractors working with those contractors. so it spreads out all around organizations, many of which are important here in the united states. the other part of it is that there are people from those countries that are working alongside the americans. so it's about 10,000 people total. you disband that. there's a vacuum. and as you said, somebody's going to come in. it'll be china for sure. we also know that russia would love to get in as they were before and as they want to be in the future. so in terms of international security issues, usaid provides not only the humanitarian, the economic development services, but it also provides an opportunity for america's presence. we're not there guarantee china will be there. and they have been and they will be in the future. >> i mean, they are and they are literally on the continent right
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now. right? okay. so waiting with bated breath. >> congressman john garamendi, thank you for reminding us that what is at stake is everything from our national security to our moral fiber. thank you sir. still ahead, trump trying to fire ellen weintraub, the chair of the federal election committee. she says the move is not legal. we're going to talk to her next hour. but first, trump promises to strip more security clearances from some of our nation's top attorneys and national security officials. one of the attorneys she is threatening is going to join us right after this break. stay right after this break. stay with us. (♪♪) when life spells heartburn... how do you spell relief? r-o-l-a-i-d-s rolaids' dual-active formula begins to neutralize acid on contact. r-o-l-a-i-d-s spells relief. eat right, but. >> there are. >> just some. >> areas i just. >> need to have tweaked.
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authenticated luxury resale. shop now with code tr20 for 20% off. terms apply. >> we do have major developments out of washington. have we already sort of crossed a rubicon in terms of who we are as a country and what the rule of law is? america is listening to you right now thinking about what might have been. people hearing you, talking about the pushback and the fight in that mattering. what does that mean in practical terms? what they're doing to immigrants is something they say they're going to do every day. what's the democratic strategy for trying to take that on? we've got a free press, a free people, and an organized political opposition that represents fully half the country. so here we go. it's on. >> breaking overnight, donald trump says he's revoking the security clearances of his perceived enemies. the decision comes one day after he made a similar performative move with president biden's access to intelligence briefings. biden's secretary of state, antony blinken, and new york attorney general letitia james are at the top of the list, which trump
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gave to the new york post. he also named attorney norm eisen, who sued the treasury department last week for sharing sensitive data with elon musk's dodge team. eisen scored a temporary victory yesterday when a judge overseeing a similar lawsuit temporarily blocked musk and doge from accessing that information. former special counsel and special assistant to president obama, norm eisen, joins us at the table. he's the executive chair of the state democracy defenders fund. welcome. good morning sir. >> norm, first of all, you're now on the president's list. he is targeting you. i have to imagine. >> that on the short list. >> you're on the short list? the work that you're doing. >> i'm just. >> number eight. you've gotten under his skin. look at the company. i mean, truly it is. first of all, did you anticipate that the work that you were doing could put you in the president's crosshairs in this way, that he would attempt to revoke your security clearance? and secondly, can you talk to us about the just the level of work
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that you all are doing? it's my understanding that you all are moving aggressively. you're having these hearings with judges. in some instances, judges are on the phone in real time with people in the agencies making sure that their orders are being carried out, like walk them out the building. i'm going to stay on the phone until they walk out. that is the level of detail and attention that you all are taking to the task at hand. thanks, symone. >> michael. alicia, i. >> did anticipate that there. >> would. >> be retaliation. >> because we. >> and the. >> wonderful community. >> of litigators that. >> we work. with scored two major. >> court successes this week. we got the very. first order. >> locking elon. musk out of treasury. he has. >> no business. pawing over. >> your or my. >> or. >> your or. >> anyone's data. >> in those. >> sensitive systems at treasury. >> and then we close. >> the week.
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>> by getting an. >> order that. >> the trump administration. >> may not. >> release the names of. >> 6000 fbi. >> agents they're targeting. >> why are. >> they collecting. >> these names? because those. >> people did their. >> job to. investigate january 6th. so those. two orders, together with. our partners. >> like public. >> citizen mark. >> zaid, who's. >> also on. >> that list, many others, those. >> two orders were part of. a wave. >> donald trump's. >> flood the. >> zone meet rule of law and democracy. >> shock and awe. >> and we got the. >> best of him. >> this week. >> so he's sitting there. >> stewing. and he came. >> up, according. >> to the post. >> with this plan. >> but we're not stopping. we're going to. double down. >> we're going to go to court more. >> this coming week. >> norm, i am tickled thinking about how in january you requested your appointment to be a member of doge. i'm not sure if that is like a horror movie or a sitcom in the making. had they actually taken you up on
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your offer? i want to just set the stakes for our viewers of what it is that is happening here, and why the work you're doing matters so much. so this week you had a us district judge barring doj officials to, as needed, read only access to those treasury materials, among other things. that means they can't make changes to the payment systems. can you just lay out for us the worst case scenario? had this emergency order not gone into effect. >> we got the very first order. >> and. >> there since has. >> been another outstanding order. >> so there's belt. >> and suspenders now, alicia. but what we. >> have is a. >> situation where. >> the court. >> has ordered. that donald trump cannot get in. >> there. >> and neither can elon musk and the doge people in the white house, nobody. >> outside of treasury. >> can get into. >> these sensitive. >> systems that have payment. >> information. >> that have personal. >> details. >> that. >> have tax returns.
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>> of americans. >> if they. >> got in. >> there and mucked about and. >> messed up, they. >> could send our country into. >> a. >> collapse. >> if they. >> broke those. >> systems. >> they could remove. >> that sensitive personal data. and potentially target. >> their adversaries. like donald trump. >> targeted me. and the colleagues who are on that list. >> last night. >> so we can't have that. we locked them out with our order, and. >> a new. york judge. >> did the. >> same thing and. >> went even. >> further building. >> on that. >> at the end of. >> the. >> week. >> the. >> wonderful state. >> attorneys general. including my. >> friend ag. tish james, who's. >> on that. >> enemies list. >> with me, higher ranking and deservedly so. she's she's really. >> fought for the. >> rule of law. the attorneys general. >> secured that second order. >> we got the first. >> one with the. >> good folks at public citizen. >> labor. >> american retirees and. >> others know we know that both
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donald trump and elon musk are petty little men. they're, you know, they're little bullies on the playground who are throwing their weight around as much as they can. but there are real consequences here for what they're doing to federal, to federal employees, to men and women in law enforcement in particular. the work you're doing is incredibly important, but help us get to the other side of it. what happens? are we looking for to try to create a permanent state of? no, you do not and will not have access to treasury? or is there some point where this breaks down and we're going to be right back at this again, meaning that you're you're looking at lawsuit after lawsuit to keep that going? i mean, because there's a sense from these, these petty little boys that they're going to keep throwing their rocks like little boys do until they get smacked
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upside the head, until their mama brings them home and whips their behind. that's us, the american people, by the way, just in case y'all were. he's fully right. metaphorically. metaphorically, no. but a spanking is a spanking. and what the judges are doing is a spanking is a form of a spanking. so i'm i'm what i'm trying to figure out is how do we get to the other side of that? >> here's what. >> the. >> other side. >> looks like. >> we are not the. only nation that has had an autocratic takeover. >> it happened. >> in poland. >> it happened. >> in brazil. >> it happened. >> when i was. >> ambassador, czech republic. >> all three of those countries. >> got to the other side. they ousted autocratic regimes. >> like trump. >> and musk. you know, there's always an oligarch. >> whenever you've got a dictator. >> you've. >> got an oligarch. >> by his side, got a money man, money bags. >> and how. >> can we get. >> to. >> the. >> other side. >> like those countries did, and not. >> go the way. >> of hungary. >> or turkey, where they. >> never got them out? there's 1001. >> things you can.
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>> do, but. we've done a. >> big study. >> and. >> we. >> know the seven. >> things you must. >> do. >> and that's. >> what. >> we're working on. >> number one, defend the rule. >> of law. >> that's always what. >> these dictators. >> go for. number two. >> protect elections because that's. >> how you kick them out. >> number three, you have to fight corruption. >> number four. >> protect pluralism. and on and on. there's a set of. seven things. >> and the. >> lawsuits we're bringing i'm. >> planning 100. >> this year. >> 100. >> the lawsuits. >> we're bringing. >> are designed. >> as part of that. and they're starting. >> it's starting. >> to work. >> because you. >> can't do it in the courts of law alone. >> you need the court of public opinion. >> and what did we see this. >> week in parallel. >> with our. >> treasury lawsuit? >> that first. >> treasury case, peaceful protesters. for the first time, starting. >> to show up. >> at the. >> treasury building around the country, members of congress for. >> the first time starting. >> to come. >> to protest. >> so you need that. >> and even the.
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>> press. >> so many. >> others have. >> bent the knee. >> too many corporate owners. >> of press have bent the knee, kissed the ring kowtowed. >> but the. >> press is waking up. >> i saw some tougher. >> confrontations this week. >> right. >> so you. >> trigger that. >> immune response of the body politic. >> wake up. democracy, right. >> and that's. >> what's on. >> the other. >> side is an awakened democracy. >> donald trump. >> and elon. >> musk peaceful. >> donald trump and. elon musk can't resist that, right? a democracy, if we can keep it and we only keep it if we fight for it. norm. isaac. >> i'm. >> awake very, very much for your time and your work. next, the trump administration plans to reopen family detention facilities for immigrants. yes, you heard that correctly. you you heard that correctly. you are watching the weekend. you'll love this! centrum silver is clinically proven to support memory in older adults. so you can keep saying, you mastered it! you fixed it! you nailed it! you did it!
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house is moving forward with restarting the detention of migrant families, including those with young children. what's more, ice is preparing to publish in the coming days a request for proposal that will ask private prison companies to bid for contracts to restart detention facilities intended specifically for families. here we are. >> locking up families. hey, there we go. republicans. yeah, this is going to this is such a good brand for you. >> apparently donald trump is mad that the numbers are so low. the numbers are low because the biden administration was enforcing the rules in the country. they were doing it humanely, as humanely as possible. they had the cbp, one app where people had had reservations and made appointments. there was some order to the system and i the crisis that he wants so desperately to be there did not
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exist at the start of his administration. are there still issues within the system? yes. but at this point, we're talking about detaining families and rounding up people that that can be american citizens. that's literally what's going to end up happening here. and it's already happened. >> well, let's listen to the words of the man who's overseeing all this. mr. homan, on family deportations, because i think america just needs to get the full breadth of their thinking here. >> is there a way. >> to carry. >> out. >> mass deportation without separating families? >> of course there's families can be deported together. >> cold as ice baby. >> and talking about american citizens, i want to be very clear that what we're talking about is the fact, as you both know very well, there are lots of mixed status families in this country. meaning, you know, maybe mom is undocumented, but the two kids are u.s. citizens. maybe there's an aunt who's here on a visa. his idea is, well, if
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i have to take the folks who are undocumented and send them back, don't worry, you can go with them. that is devastating for families, for communities, and for the u.s. economy. >> and you know what? according to this administration and the white house press secretary said in her first press briefing, they consider being undocumented in america a crime. they consider it being a crime. and so when they say they're going after the criminals, they literally mean everyone who is undocumented. and in this country, they're not distinguishing between people who are paying their taxes, working their jobs, and the people and the small group of individuals who may have committed unlawful acts. no, no, no, no, no, it's everybody. okay. this is why it's very important. people listen to what people are telling you that they were going to do, because now they are executing it. >> yeah. i guess for me, part of it is how much will americans actually care this time around? we know the last time people, you know were upset by the
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images, but when you hear the coldness of homan, how many americans are in that vibe? you know, that's where i think for me, it's going to be important to see how we express the ideal of america. do we just give up on it or do we fully express it as we did once before and say, this is not who we are. we do not separate families. and your alternative is we're just not going to lock up kids because you want to get rid of them. but this is going to be this is a test of the character of the country as it is anything else in my view, so i don't know. alicia. >> you right. >> you nailed it. you nailed it. >> right. and if people don't try to make money off of this, the private prison. >> the private prison. >> okay, like i'm wondering how many trump allies have stake in the private prison business. >> as jose antonio vargas said to the three of us, follow the money. follow up next, maryland senator angela alsobrooks is here to preview a busy week of confirmation votes and hearings. confirmation votes and hearings. we're watching the weekend. can neuriva support
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in average finance savings. ♪♪ the night. reading executive orders. >> for this defining. >> time in the second trump presidency. stay with msnbc. >> there's a major stress test in the senate tomorrow as two of donald trump's unqualified nominees for cabinet posts face procedural votes. first on the agenda is tulsi gabbard, donald trump's pick for director of national intelligence. then rfk jr, who trump nominated to be
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health and human services secretary. if both nominees get a simple majority vote, which is expected, they'll have cleared another hurdle on their way to getting confirmed. then later this week, trump's choices to lead the departments of education and labor will go before the senate health committee for their confirmation hearings. joining us now is senator angela alsobrooks of maryland. she sits on the health, education, labor and pensions committee. that's help. and she joins us now. >> welcome, senator. it's good to have you. >> thank you. >> good to. >> be here. yes. thank you. good to be here already. >> so you you've had quite an eye opening few weeks in the united states senate with these confirmation hearings. and specifically, i do want to focus on the work that you're finding you have to do there to get these nominees to actually lay out what their impact is going to be on, on our citizens, on the government itself. i want to start with the exchange you had
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with rfk jr, which for me was priceless because it exposed so much about what what we're in for here. let's take a quick listen to the senator with rfk jr. >> you said the following. >> and i. >> quote, we should not. >> be giving. >> black people the same vaccine. >> schedule that's. >> given to. whites because their immune system. >> is better than ours. >> can you please explain what. >> you meant? >> there's a. >> series. >> of studies. >> i think most of them. >> by poland. >> that show. >> that the. >> particular antigens. that blacks have a much stronger reaction. there's differences. >> in reaction. >> to different products. >> by different races. >> so i. >> have 17 seconds. >> let me just ask you then, so what different vaccine. >> schedule would you say. >> i should. >> have received that. >> what different. >> vaccine schedule. should i have received?
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>> i mean, the. >> parliament article suggests that blacks need. fewer antigens. >> what what does the prospects of our health care look like under this man's leadership? >> let me just tell you how ridiculous. first of all, the study that he cited from poland, the author of the study refuted what rfk jr. said. said he twisted the data and arrived at a conclusion that was inconsistent with his own study. he refuted it, and he still espoused this. >> very ignorant. >> view that he had that would be dangerous for families who might rely on him. and that's the point here, is having a person who is wholly unqualified, as rfk jr is. he was unable to answer even basic questions in that hearing about the difference between medicare and medicaid, for example. but families would be required to rely on his advice. and if families listened to him and did not vaccinate their children, and we see vaccination rates, for example, are lower in
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african-american children, you think about how dangerous it is to have a person who, even after being shown different information, refused to say what was true. >> and the threat, as you know, senator, is not just forthcoming, it is already here. we have seen cuts to nih funding. how are those cuts playing out in a state like yours. >> do you think? it's horrifying. first of all, we think about the scientists and medical researchers who were involved in very important life saving research. we're talking about cures to cancer, talking about other research. and all of that research will be jeopardized. and you know, who will be harmed? the american people. this will literally cost lives. the cuts that we are seeing to nih, the cuts that we're seeing to other agencies, people who are responsible for the health care of americans, for the safety of americans, who make sure that our water is clean, the individuals, the civil servants and professionals who make sure that we are not poisoned by our foods. all of these things will have a direct impact and hit on the american
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people. but this research is critical research that will literally cost lives. >> senator, can you just take us inside some of the conversations you and your colleagues are having? democrats across the board just have been widely criticized since donald trump came back into office because of the response. some people say democrats have not responded quick enough. some people don't like the responses that have happened. others say, okay, great. now we're seeing a little bit of pushback. i've been you lies. he's been some of the some of the loudest critics out here. i'm just wondering what is the strategy because you have the executive branch is literally thumbing their nose and giving the proverbial middle finger to congress, to the senate, the greatest deliberative body on the planet, supposedly. and what is your recourse for the president ignoring the laws that you all have passed? >> so these are very this is a very, very serious situation. we
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held the floor this week. we're using every procedural tool we can in the senate to make sure that we are blocking and slowing down some of the proceedings. so we held it for 30 hours. you saw it overnight. i participated in that. we're also holding these republicans and basic procedural votes, making sure that they cross every t and cross every i. and we're holding making sure that we elongate and slow down the process. that's part of what we're doing. i am personally voting no to all of these upcoming cabinet level nominees, because marylanders have been so severely impacted by the witch hunt that this administration has put forward against these civil servants, many of my colleagues have taken the same stance. it is an absolute no on everyone going forward. but you also see the legal system working. there were, as of friday, at least 37 lawsuits that have been filed. many of them have been successful. all of them so far have been successful. afge, the association of federal
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government employees sued over this ridiculous offer that was given for employees to retire early without any guarantees, essentially. but so the lawsuits have been successful. we see also communications. we are working to make sure that we are communicating more readily and rapidly with the american people, because there's so much to challenge. and i have also been demanding answers, demanding answers that we get clarification from this administration regarding many of the orders. also, just really standing up and saying how what an impact this will have. and important to note, and i've said this already, but the actions we're seeing will directly harm the american people. it is not the civil servants and many of them are suffering. it's not just them, it's the people that they serve who are also going to see the rising prices, who will be seeing the reduction in services, the veterans who will need their benefits, the seniors who will go to get their benefits. and we're seeing this administration is directly
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attacking the american people. why? to make sure these billionaires are able to benefit, that they will have the tax cuts that they desire and that they will. we see the billionaires have run amok, have taken over, essentially our government. >> how do you assess the going forward? i asked norm eisen this question from the legal standpoint that he's bringing these lawsuits that are effectively slowing down and stopping, in some cases, at least pausing what the trump administration is doing. how how do you see, as a us senator, using the power of your office to deal with the fact that institutions like johns hopkins university are going to be directly impacted on the health care side by what we see coming out of the craziness of this administration? and now even on the education side, with the takeover of the department of
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education, you have members of the doj's efficiency team having obtained administrative emails at the department of education. as trump is now announcing that the billionaire will soon be examining the agency closely for the purposes of shutting it down. so you're sitting here watching the dismantling of the educational system in this country, the health care system of this country. our position in, in, on the global stage, because we're going to build a hotel now in gaza. apparently that's the goal. how do you put out that clarion call as a member of the senate, to use the authority and power of that position? because, to be honest, at this table, you know, we've talked about the fact that a lot of the elected leadership in the house and the senate are just ceding power to the executive, that that's why the founders created three co-equal branches. how do you step into that new
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space and deal with these issues, like health and education and foreign policy? >> you know, i mean, i think, you know, it is, first of all, we have the power of the pulpit, the bully pulpit to speak out, to let the american people know what is happening. we are also, as i mentioned, i'm voting no to all of these nominees who are coming forward at this point. we are also making sure that we're slowing down things, but we need our colleagues on the other side. they have the majority. that is a reality that has to be spoken, right. they have the majority. and for these cabinet level nominations, it only requires a simple majority. and so the democrats, we have voted together to block a number of these nominees. it is going to be that we need some people also who have good conscience on the other side, who see how wrong most of this is to also join us. and if we won't, this will be a long process. we will also see, when it comes to legislation, that we will have the opportunity through cloture to block some of what is happening
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here, but we're going to continue fighting. the thing we will not do is back down. we are in at every hand and our efforts have worked. you saw that much of what the federal freezes the memo that came out, it was only because the democrats stood up and said, these freezes in maryland in particular, will stop funding for the chesapeake bay, will harm firefighters and police officers and head start. they shut down portals, this administration for medicare. they shut down the portal for head start. and when we spoke up, you saw they came back online. so it does work for the democrats to get out and to speak loudly against what this president and these unelected billionaires are doing. but nobody elected elon musk to go through and to rifle through our personal and private information. nobody elected him to do any of that. and the american people, i believe, are speaking up as well. and we're going to continue to fight all the way through.
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>> they haven't reclassified the rebuilding of the key bridge as a d project yet, have they? i mean, just, you know, because it's in baltimore. >> so and you know what? and you know, you you you say that jokingly, but let me just say this also, this administration is harming people who voted for them. people some people who didn't vote for them and some people who didn't vote at all. and when we think about these civil servants, these are people who served many presidents, both democrats and republicans. and to target these people is really unconscionable. it is outrageous and it's callous. it's callous. >> senator angela alsobrooks, thank you so much for joining our table. next hour, we're going to talk with congressman ro khanna and jamie raskin, and be sure to follow our show on social media. our handle everywhere is at the weekend. everywhere is at the weekend. msnbc. here's to getting better with age. here's to beating these two every thursday. help fuel today with boost high protein,
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>> democrats are not voting for them. as you just heard, senator alsobrooks, she and other senators, democratic senators have said, given everything that's happening, they are not voting for any future nominees from the trump administration. >> hold up. i'm a little bit confused this early on a sunday morning. so you mean to tell me these republicans are prepared to level up absolute incompetence, like tulsi gabbard and kash patel and their concern about the labor secretary that's been nominated by donald trump? she was nominated by trump, right. >> who's a republican? she's a republican. >> he's he's still a republican, right. >> and so is she. >> so is she. so they're going to lose 15 republicans due to her union aligned views. but wait a minute, republicans. i thought we were now pro-worker. i thought we were for the working man and woman. you know, they're part of unions. but, you know, we know what the game is
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here. so the lady who's competent and can actually do the kind of bridge building that republicans always bragged they are doing into the labor market, into working families, y'all don't want her because of her so-called union aligned views. i don't even know what the hell that means since she was nominated by donald trump. >> it's about her voting record. it's about the fact that in the past she has supported pro-union legislation. >> y'all are so full of it, you can't even stand up straight. that's why you walk the way you walk and talk the way you talk. get your act together. >> well, how do you feel about linda? linda linda mcmahon? linda mcmahon? >> i don't even know why they nominated her. she won't have a department to go to. >> that's what i'm saying. so should they even hold the hearing? >> no, they don't need no damn hearing for education. you're going to abolish the department next week anyway. so why are you having a hearing for. that's a fool's errand. why are you setting her up? poor lady. up like that. y'all need to get
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your act together now. the country is watching. >> you know what, michael steele? i just i just think they all think it's a. it feels like the twilight zone. >> it's a game. >> and they think it's a game. it's a game. except real people's lives and livelihoods are on the line here. maybe they just think we're stupid and no one's going to notice. you think anybody's going to ask like, do you are you going to have a agency to lead if they're going to abolish education? like, why are you here? >> yeah, that's the question. that is the question, simone, you nailed it. why are you here? >> why are you here? why are you here? why are we doing this? i yield my time. >> well, don't. don't y'all yield yours. because there is actually another massive hour ahead. we're going to speak with congressman ro khanna and jamie raskin and the chair of the federal election commission, ellen weintraub. that's all ellen weintraub. that's all coming up on the weekend. with fatigue and light-headedness, i knew something was wrong. then i saw my doctor and found out i have afib, and that means there's about a 5 times greater
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>> welcome back to the weekend. with donald trump's approval, unelected billionaire elon musk is taking a sledgehammer to the federal government. nbc news reports that secrecy is becoming a defining trait of musk's doge, another defining trait. its trail of destruction with sensitive government data
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