tv The Rachel Maddow Show MSNBC February 12, 2025 9:00pm-10:00pm PST
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our most powerful fat incinerator ever. absolutely free. >> i'm not even going to say goodbye to my guest because chris talked so long. so thank you from all of our colleagues across the network, nbc news. thanks for staying up late with me. i'll see you at the end of tomorrow. >> you know, if you want an electric pickup truck, you can buy one. there's a bunch of different kinds out there now. there is a ford f-150 lightning. there's an electric version, an ev version of the chevy silverado. there's an ev version of the gmc sierra. there is an ev version of the dodge ram. the
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company rivian has a cute electric pickup truck that's called the r1t even even the hummer. the hummer comes in a gigantic electric pickup configuration if you want to. if you want to drive a hummer so you know you have a bunch of choices. if you want to buy one of those vehicles, you will have all the convenience and capacity and sort of swag that a pickup truck gets you without ever having to go to the gas station. or you can buy a tesla cybertruck, which is meant to seem very different than all the other electric pickup truck options in the united states. and that is in large part because the tesla cybertruck is not supposed to be just tough, like a like a pickup truck is. it's supposed to be super duper, like, inhumanly tough. for example, the head of tesla, a
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man you may have heard of named elon musk. he unveiled the tesla cybertruck for the first time. the whole world is getting a look at it. he unveiled it by regaling this whole big room of assembled journalists and tesla superfans. they're all going crazy for everything, he said. he regaled them with this story that one of the most amazing and distinguishing and totally unique things about his electric truck was that it was basically indestructible. he explained that tesla, in its wisdom, had created an armored exoskeleton for the truck. what other truck has that? because it has this armored exoskeleton. basically, nothing can harm this truck. he said it was literally bulletproof. and then he said he would show everybody just how indestructible, how impermeable, how undeniable his magic truck was, how everything would just bounce off it no matter what you
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threw at it. that was the big unveiling of the tesla cybertruck. and here's how that went. >> from. >> can you try to break this glass, please? now. >> sure. >> yeah. oh my god. >> well. >> maybe that was a. >> little too hard. >> yeah. >> ha ha. oh my. oh, my effing god is what he says. maybe that was a little too hard. the guy who threw the thing at the window, that's the chief designer at tesla. this was the big rollout. the big armored glass rollout to show the whole world how nothing can break that glass. he throws the thing in the glass, just breaks. and then
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hype, especially the part about these trucks being unbreakable. and indestructible and having this impermeable armored glass demo tesla armor glass. well, now, as the top campaign donor to us president donald trump, elon musk has apparently somehow convinced the united states government, specifically the united states department of state, that the taxpayers of the united states of america should spend $400 million buying, quote, armored tesla production units. the line item here appears to be for a $400 million taxpayer purchase of production units of armored teslas. so since i think the only supposedly armored production vehicles tesla makes are these hilarious trucks, this really
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appears to be the state department announcing putting in writing that it's going to spend $400 million by buying these paperweights from elon musk. this is a line item in the latest procurement forecast for the us department of state. it started circulating online today as the rest of the government and the rest of the country continued to contend with elon musk and donald trump's claims. that, boy, they've sure found a lot of waste in the government. and isn't it great what they're doing? isn't it great? and definitely not at all illegal or profoundly corrupt for the president to put someone with billions of dollars in government contracts personally in charge of deciding what happens to government contracts? i mean, hopefully the state department isn't planning on parking its $400 million worth
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of armored tesla production units like under a walnut tree. >> or or like out in the. >> rain. but otherwise that's obviously a super kosher use of taxpayer funds, and not at all $400 million worth of self-dealing by the president's top campaign donor, to whom he has handed the keys to the kingdom. definitely not ripping us all off to pay themselves. right? this was the protest today outside the headquarters of the consumer financial protection bureau in washington, which donald trump and elon musk have not just insisted must die. they insist they have killed it themselves, just on their own, say so. they didn't go to congress to say, let's defund this agency. they didn't go to the courts to challenge the legality of the agency. they just announced it was closed. they announced that it was over.
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now, elon musk's social media company, what used to be called twitter, just announced that they're going to set up an online payment system on twitter with visa. an online payment operation like that is something that would be regulated by the consumer financial protection bureau. other online payment schemes have recently resulted in thousands of americans losing their entire life savings and never getting their money back. so yeah, that's the sort of thing that the cfpb exists to regulate and shut down when they're ripping people off. but you know what? if the cfpb doesn't exist, that presumably will make it easier for elon musk to do whatever he wants to people who he signs up for his new payment system on x twitter, he has announced the death of the cfpb. it is not up to him. americans today showed up there once again to defend it. honk for cfpb. hands off our cfpb.
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this was today in washington. people showing up in person to defend the consumer financial protection bureau on a very cold, very snowy day in washington, d.c. also today, another big protest outside the department of education, also in downtown d.c, the confirmation hearing for donald trump's nominee for education secretary, linda mcmahon, the wrestling executive. her confirmation executive is her confirmation hearing is tomorrow. there's been reporting that the trump administration's orders have already been drafted, directing linda mcmahon as education secretary to start to start shutting down the department to start the abolition of the education department as soon as she is sworn in. because of that reporting, i think in part, people were out there today in advance of her confirmation hearing tomorrow saying, no way we will defend the us department of education in this country.
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>> oh, i'm sick and tired of being sick and tired and i wish i was here under different circumstances, but i'm off. yeah, our public education in america is under attack. not by budget cuts, not by policy debates, but by the people who want to tear it down. >> i think that. elon musk needed better math teachers because he says he's looking for savings by going after the $4 a day we send to make sure students have lunch every day, instead of looking at the $8 million a day that go to elon musk and federal contracts. >> what we're fighting against. >> is elon. >> musk, an. >> unelected billionaire. >> and president donald trump. who we all know the. >> scam. >> the. >> scam that this. >> is. >> about, which is taking our. >> corporate tax. >> rate from 21% to. >> 15% and. >> and doing that.
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>> on the backs of our. >> children, on. >> the backs of educators, on the backs. >> of our public. >> school system. >> and we're. >> here to. >> say, hell no. >> we are not. >> going to let them to destroy the department of education. the department of education's provide funding for 26 million kids who are living in high poverty areas all over this country. and we have the radical idea that maybe poor kids deserve the same quality education that rich kids do. >> today, outside the headquarters of the u.s. department of education in washington, d.c, regular people and people who work at the education department. and as you saw, there are a whole ton of democratic members of congress and senators saying, hands off saying, hell no, we're going to defend this part of who we are as a country. we're going to defend this part of our government. it's not legal for
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you to declare it shut down, and we're not going to let you shut it down. more than 60% of the country says, do not shut down the department of education. trump and his top campaign donor, elon musk, say they're going to shut it down anyway. well, it looks like it is not going to happen without a fight. and, you know, we are seeing members of congress turn out at these protests, at these rallies and demonstrations. this hasn't had as much attention. but it's also worth noting that democratic members of congress and senators have also been convening town halls when they can get back to their districts, like this one in connecticut, convened by democratic senators chris murphy and richard blumenthal. look at this one. this is another town hall that was just convened in kentucky. look at this. louisville, kentucky, convened by the local democratic party. look at the kind of turnout they are getting of people who want to fight against what trump is doing. again, this is in kentucky just a few days ago in louisville.
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congress has been in session in person for these first three weeks that trump has been in office. so in a lot of cases, that means individual senators and members of the house, they can't get home to their districts, yet they've only been able to convene town halls thus far by phone, tele town halls, or in some cases by zoom. but i want you to look at this. i don't know that this has been reported elsewhere, at least in in aggregate, but i was shocked by these numbers today and we started looking this up today. look at the numbers they're getting at these town halls. congressman jimmy gomez from california says nearly 10,000 people, more than 9800 people called in from his district for his telephone town hall. he called the town hall on the phone. and 9812 people from his district called in. wow. congressman brendan boyle from pennsylvania. he just convened what he called an emergency town hall for his district in pennsylvania. it had more than 10,000 people calling in. congressman greg stanton, democrat of arizona. he says he
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had more than 13,000 people call in to his town hall in arizona. kim schrier is a washington state congresswoman. her office says 14,000 people, 14,000 people in her district called in to her town hall. congresswoman terri sewell is from alabama. alabama not exactly a bleeding heart blue state, right. congresswoman sewell says that when she convened a town hall last night, they had more than 20,000 people on the line from her district. more than 20,000 people in alabama in one congressional district in alabama. alabama voted for trump by like a 30 point margin in the election in november. but you know what? the largest employer is in alabama? it's the redstone arsenal at huntsville, alabama. and every day that is where 30 or 40,000 federal employees of
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various stripes go to work, or people whose jobs are funded by the federal government and its appropriations. that's the largest employer in the state of alabama. you know what the second largest employer is in the state of alabama? it's the university of alabama at birmingham, which, like all large research universities, has just been shot in both proverbial kneecaps with trump and elon musk unilaterally asserting with no notice and against the law that research facilities like uab are about to have their funding dramatically and immediately cut with no warning. and, and those are like just the big cuts, like the existential cuts for a state like alabama and its economy. local news in places like huntsville, alabama this week are already reporting on smaller, lower profile cuts that are already sending local people just reeling. >> some huntsville. >> utilities customers have been notified that their accounts
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have been debited. all due to. >> one of the one. >> of president trump's executive orders. >> huntsville utilities tells fox 54 that some. >> customers who. >> receive grant money from the. >> federal government. >> through local. >> community action agencies. >> now need. >> to pay that money back. this is a direct result of president trump's executive. >> order to rescind. >> federal funding. and although a federal. >> judge did. >> block this order last month. today that judge found the trump administration did not fully follow his order. >> accounts have been debited. they're just taking money out of people's accounts as part of their utility bill. trump cut off all that money that's been helping pay your utility bill. alabama. and so now we're going to start taking all that money back. and by the way, you owe you owe you have to pay money more than you have been, not only for your additional bills. you have to pay back what trump is no longer allowing to be spent. and that, you know, alabama utility customers
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finding, you know, hundreds of dollars taking out, taken out, suddenly taken out of their their account in the middle of winter. right? i mean, i guess it's a small story in the grand scheme of things, given what's going on in our whole country. but for people in alabama, that's a real and immediate and hugely expensive thing. that is very obviously donald trump's fault in a state that really supported him. so what's the impact of that? right? i mean, republicans from alabama, like alabama senator katie britt, have started to freak out publicly about what trump and musk dismantling the government is doing to her state. specifically, quote, senator britt was one of the first republicans to raise concerns at home soon after the trump administration directed the nih to slash $4 billion in costs for medical research grantees. senator britt, whose state has received more than $518 million
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in nih grants just for projects that are currently active there, tells a local news outlet that she will press trump officials to take a, quote, smart, targeted approach to cuts so as to quote, not hinder lifesaving, groundbreaking research at high achieving institutions like the university of alabama at birmingham. what do you think the odds are that she's right? that there what did she call it, that they're going to take a smart, targeted approach because they're trying hard not to hinder lifesaving work. what do you think the odds are that she's right about that? did i mention that 20,000 people, 20,000 alabama residents, just phoned in to a town hall last night for their democratic congresswoman, terri sewell. who do you think's got a better grasp on the stakes here for alabama congresswoman sewell, dealing with 20,000 of her
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panicked constituents last night, or katie britt, who says, i'm sure they don't want to actually hurt us. in kansas. kansas republicans are now trying to salvage pieces of usaid, which was shut by donald trump and his top campaign donor, elon musk. they're trying to salvage pieces of usaid by moving those pieces into the agriculture department or someplace else that might survive. since kansas farmers are taking the hit for millions and millions and millions of dollars worth of those usaid cuts already, and north carolina republican senator ted budd has decided to put his fingers in his ears and pretend it's not happening. quote, senator ted budd of north carolina, whose state includes two of the largest recipients of nih grants in duke university and unc chapel hill, said, quote, there's great research being done by all of our institutions. we need to protect that quote. i think the white house wants to
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protect that. do they do you think they want that? do you think that's why they just ordered devastating existential level cuts across the board immediately with no warning to all research institutions? it's because they want to protect that great research. do you think that's why they did it, senator, but actually went so far as to say on the record that he, quote, agrees with trump's cuts to universities and medical and scientific research. he agrees with it, and he is telling his constituents he agrees with these cuts. but, you know, he's also sure, sure that the trump white house really, in their heart of hearts, wants to protect the universities and research facilities. and like unc and duke are going to be fine. right. and all the other huge employers in his state that got that kind of funding that provide, i don't know, the whole foundation for his state's economy. he's just told his
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constituents he agrees with these cuts that are likely to put thousands of people out of work in north carolina and destroy the foundation of that state's economy. he says he agrees with those cuts, but he also thinks, you know, probably it's going to be fine. after all, they're good people. i'm sure their hearts are in the right place. imagine being a republican senator or member of congress and trying to sell that cybertruck full of horse hockey to your constituents. i'm sure it'll be fine. they're good people. do you notice it's only democratic members of congress and democratic senators who are holding these huge town halls? i wonder why republicans don't want to talk to their constituents right now. i mean, i got to say, it's not that talking to the constituents has been an easy thing for democrats in these past three weeks. i mean, the democrats are getting pushed by their constituents, too. they're getting pushed to do as much as possible to do
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anything possible to stop trump. and what he's doing with elon musk here, for example, are colorado residents turning up at the offices of democrats john hickenlooper and michael bennet, telling them, number one, vote no on all trump cabinet appointments. number two, deny unanimous consent to slow down the senate. number three publicly oppose musk's dismantling of the executive branch, pushing these democratic senators to push harder, to fight harder. that said, i said they're being tough. they did also bring cookies. here's virginia residents turning up at senator mark warner's office telling him, fight back, fight back, senator warner. fight harder. here's georgia residents turning up at jon ossoff's office in georgia, telling him, ossoff, fight back. here's new jersey residents at senator cory booker's office telling him, senator booker, the time to fight is now. fight like hell. here's california voters at the
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office of senator alex padilla. block. delay, obstruct. no excuses. here's hawaii voters at the offices of their senators, brian schatz and mazie hirono, senate democrats blanket opposition. what's happening right now in politics and politics is the way we get out of this disaster, right? what happens right now, what's happening right now in american politics is that republicans are hiding from their constituents. republican elected officials are hiding from their constituents. and when they do have to address them, they're trying to tell them that they're sure everything is going to be fine. they have read only access to the treasury payment system, i was told. i'm sure they want to protect our universities and our life saving work and research. i'm sure of it. republicans are hiding from their constituents and when they have to talk to them, they are telling them, la
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la la la la. i'm sure it's going to be fine when clearly it is not going to be fine. democrats are not hiding from their constituents. democrats are being inundated with not just feedback from their constituents, but also with their constituents, pushing them to do more, to fight harder. and this is a story that is all. therefore, heading in one direction. i got to tell you, we are expecting another big protest tomorrow in washington, dc at the headquarters of the va. we are hearing rumblings of big protests that are being planned targeting elon musk's companies, including not just tesla like we have already seen, but also his other companies. we've reached out to the state department and to tesla for comment tonight on those $400 million. the state department is planning on spending on armored tesla production units. if we hear back from them on that, we'll we'll be sure to let you know. but, you know, watch what's happening in the country
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>> now ended usaid programs reportedly out of concern. they interfere with elections. >> by aiding. >> opposition groups. >> that was 2012. in 2012, 13 years ago, the vladimir putin government kremlin expelled usaid from russia. now, here we are 13 years later, and donald trump and elon musk's shut down of usaid, shut down of that entire agency that is being celebrated by authoritarians everywhere. russia called it a, quote, smart move. hungary's dictatorial leader, viktor orban hailed the shutdown. his allies saying they, quote, couldn't be happier. here's how the guardian headlined it. quote, authoritarian regimes around the world cheer on dismantling of usaid. nicaragua's state media, controlled by the family of the president, declared that trump turned off the faucet for what they labeled terrorists.
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venezuela's interior minister announced plans to investigate the agency, saying the government's opposition was paid by usaid. but it's not just that authoritarian leaders around the world and dictators around the world are celebrating this move by donald trump. the damage done by shutting this agency is turning out to be an ongoing and now newly serious disaster. when elon musk posted to his hundreds of millions of followers online quote, usaid is a criminal organization that turns out to have had consequences. you know who's been more than happy to pick that up and run with it? check this out. this is from the guardian newspaper's andrew roth today. quote, right wing and autocratic governments have their knives out for usaid, demanding data on grant recipients from elon musk and threatening employees and grant
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recipients with investigations and prison. usaid has long been a thorn in the side of governments in the region who have railed against u.s. support for pro-democracy and civil society movements. well, now local leaders for the first time see an ally in washington that will back a crackdown on usaid and its beneficiaries as if they are criminals. in georgia, the government, not the state of georgia, the country of georgia, the government there has opened a mysterious case after the prime minister accused the u.s. embassy, usaid and other american backed organizations of, quote, acting in a coordinated manner against the georgian people and the georgian state. in slovakia, the prime minister there published a letter to elon musk in which he asked elon musk to share information about ngos and the media, and individual journalists who have worked in his country. in russia, the state duma speaker said the
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government should request a list of people who received funding from usaid and that they should be made to quote, publicly confess and repent on red square. quote. if they've declared usaid an enemy organization, let them provide the names. congress will send us the list, and we'll hand it over to the fsb. one current usaid employee tells the guardian, quote, this is trump's afghanistan withdrawal, cutting and running and leaving people who have faithfully and consistently worked for the usa and our interests being left behind to be jailed or worse. joining us now is congressman jim himes of connecticut. he's a ranking member on the house intelligence committee, the top democrat on that committee. congressman himes, i really appreciate you making time tonight. thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me, rachel. >> i confess that i worried a lot about the legality of what it meant to be shutting down usaid. i worried about the false information and lies and the
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impact of that in terms of the ways they were describing what usaid is. i worried about the material impact of shutting down usaid programs that do good work and keep people alive. i before today had not yet let my brain go there, that we are inviting dictators and tyrannical regimes around the world to arrest and imprison people who are associated with usaid for the crime of working with the united states of america. the guardian reporting today on this scale has put a real chill through me, and i wanted to get your reaction to it. >> yeah, yeah. you know, i. >> mean. >> in in inside dc circles, there's hard power. that's the military, the battleships, the f-35s, the weapons and their soft power. now, soft power is a little harder to understand. soft power is persuasion. it's winning hearts and minds. but but let me tell you a story to best illustrate how important soft power is. and the usaid is all about soft power. when i was
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a freshman, i think it was 2009, 2010, a four star marine corps general, james jones, walks into my office in a cloud of lethality and testosterone because he is a united states marine to his corps. and he says to me, i need you to support the foreign aid budget and usaid. and let me tell you why. because i used to have the most unbelievable weaponry you can imagine floating off the course of the coast of lebanon. and hezbollah was beating me. why? because they were building hospitals for people. because they were running newspapers. because they were providing food. and he said, if you don't fully fund soft power, usaid hearts and minds stuff, i'm going to lose a lot more marines. so you couldn't have said it better, you know, if nothing else, when the worst people on the planet are giving you a standing ovation, it's worth asking exactly why that's true. >> i'm worried also about the
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immediate danger to people who, again, their grave crime is having worked with the united states on programs that the us congress agreed to and the american people funded. i mean, the guardian's reporting that some of these, you know, tyrannical governments around the world are now asking elon musk personally for information from usaid files, grant recipients, non-governmental organizations, individual journalists that have been operating in their country because they had some connection to usaid. i have to ask you, does does elon musk have access to that kind of information? does he have any authority to share it with other governments? is there anything that can be done to prevent that eventuality? >> well. >> you know, given the impunity and the illegality with which elon musk and his merry band of 20 year olds have been operating in d.c. with i, the honest answer is, i don't know, but i would certainly assume that they've got access to what they want. now, a judge has said you don't get access to the payment system and, you know, all kinds of judges, you know, a dozen
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plus of them are pushing back. but these are not people. certainly not elon musk, who respect the law or the truth. so yeah, that is a very real danger. and, you know, it's not an accident, rachel, that they went after usaid. if you ask most americans, what's the one part of the foreign of the federal budget you would cut, they say, foreign aid, because maybe they don't know that story about jim jones and how important it is to keeping security. maybe preservation of democracy and decency abroad is an abstraction relative to the price of eggs. but what they are, what they are, what they are seeing right now is their country, their country whose grandparents fought the nazis, whose parents fought the soviets, cutting and running from those people who were risking their lives to try to promote democracy in various places around the world, by the way, including ukraine. you saw what i did with today with president trump and the secretary of defense basically saying, oh, man, ukrainians shouldn't have wandered into this war anyway. they were always going to lose it. you know, the united states is
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cutting and running from the role that we have always played in the world, which was to stand for democracy and a better future for the world's people. >> congressman jim himes, ranking member of the house intelligence committee. because of the intelligence committee and its remit, i know that a lot of what you know, you can't talk about. but i'm going to keep asking you about this stuff because i'm really worried about some of these folks around the world and some of the hardest places to live in the world who are in real grave danger tonight because of because of what our government is doing. thanks for being here tonight, sir, i appreciate it. >> thank you. >> if you're looking for a >> al medicare supplement insurance plan that's smart now... i'm 65. and really smart later i'm 70-ish. consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan from unitedhealthcare. with this type of plan, you'll know upfront about how much your care costs. which makes planning your financial future easier. so call unitedhealthcare today to learn more about the only plans of their kind with the aarp name. and set yourself and your future self up with an aarp medicare supplement plan from unitedhealthcare.
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i don't ever see anyone coming out to maintenance anything, so it's very scary for me because i have everything i love in this home. so, we've now implemented drone technology. how is that safe for me? it enhances the inspection, so it allows us to see things faster. your safety is the most important, and if you're feeling unsafe, that's not okay. it doesn't feel like that in our hearts. i mean, it's worrisome. [dog barks]
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works like a dream. >> why didn't someone think of this sooner? >> in the. >> first week of this new trump administration, cnn reported that federal immigration agents were being told explicitly to be, quote, camera ready for their jobs. they weren't just supposed to carry out their responsibilities as immigration officials. they were supposed to make sure they looked the part. they were going to be making a big show of it. so they wanted them to dress right for the cameras. nobody has embodied that ethos more than trump's homeland security secretary, kristi noem. here she is wearing what appears to be a bulletproof vest in new york city. sure. here she is in at a meeting. who doesn't need to wear a bulletproof vest to a meeting? here she is in full customs and border patrol uniform on set at fox news. she is not a customs and border patrol agent, but she had them, i guess, make her a uniform. here she is in a cowboy hat. because sure. why not? here
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she is at the southern border on a horse. because sure. what's a cowboy hat without a horse? it's the same kind of theatrical propaganda that the administration has been using for the most expensive parts of this operation thus far. things like using military aircraft to carry out deportation flights, which they are still doing. yes, using military aircraft makes the deportations look military ish, makes them look very tough and dramatic. but it also reportedly costs taxpayers like more than triple what it would cost to just put them on a normal flight. but while that sort of thing is all being done for its propaganda impact and frankly, to instill maximum fear in immigrant communities, that kind of propaganda also has a different kind of cost, including some really bad outcomes already. we have already, for example, seen a surge of people impersonating immigration officials, saying
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that their immigration officers pretending to be immigration officers, basically just to be able to more effectively harass and terrorize people who aren't white. late last month, for example, a man was arrested in raleigh, north carolina, for allegedly impersonating an ice officer threatening to deport a woman if she didn't have sex with him and then allegedly sexually assaulting her. about a week later, it was a man in south carolina arrested for alleged kidnaping, larceny, assault and battery for impersonating an ice officer, detaining a spanish speaking driver against his will. today, it's the new york police department asking for the public's help in tracking down a man who they say posed as an ice agent in brooklyn. he then punched and robbed and nearly raped a 51 year old hispanic woman. people pretending to be immigration officers because that will instill maximum terror. maybe that'll help them
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commit their crimes. while the trump administration is continuing to demonize immigrants every way they can to pump out as militaristic a propaganda effort as they can, there is a rising effort not just to defend immigrants individually, but to fight back at once against what trump is doing. yesterday, 27 different religious groups across the country filed a lawsuit to prevent immigration arrests in houses of worship. today, the aclu sued the administration over its new practice of sending immigrants to guantanamo, which the aclu says, among other things, denies them their legally required access to their legally required access to their lawyers. in that case from [dog whimpering] sorry bud, not while i weed. [loud splash] ♪ who let the dogs out? ♪ ♪ spruce! spruce, spruce, spruce, spruce! ♪ ♪♪ hey, who let the dogs out?! spruce - a new weed and grass killer that's safe for use around people and pets! does it actually work?
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iberogast bloating iberogast thanks to a unique combination of herbs, iberogast helps relieve six digestive symptoms to help you feel better. six digestive symptoms. the power of nature. iberogast. the u.s. government from texas to cuba to the u.s. naval base in guantanamo bay. did they have anything to do with nine over 11 or the war on terror? no, they did not. according to the lawsuit, quote, on february 5th, 2025, miss gomez lugo saw photographs of immigrant detainees transported to guantanamo. she immediately recognized her brother. also in one of the photographs. the lawsuit goes on to say that miss gomez lugo tried to contact her brother, both herself and through legal representatives. she has not been able to contact her brother. federal law requires that lawyers are able
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to communicate with their clients. the aclu says that at guantanamo, that thus far isn't happening for people who are being shipped there from the united states. so they filed this suit. joining us now is lee gelernt. he is the lead attorney on that lawsuit. he's deputy director of the immigrant rights project at aclu. lee, it's nice to see you. thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> why do you think the u.s. government is sending immigrants to guantanamo? >> yeah, i think that's a good question. i think part of it is exactly what you hit on in your introductory piece, that it's a lot of theater, right? it's more expensive to send them to guantanamo. there's no reason to do it yet. they're doing it and they're taking pictures of the men. right. and. >> you know. >> for three decades, we have always asked the government for information about immigrants, and they've always said, no, there's privacy concerns. we can't give you any information. now all of a sudden we see these pictures splashed everywhere of these men on the tarmac in guantanamo. so there's no question there's theater going
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on. i also think that they're trying to, you know, keep them isolated, not let them assert their rights, keep them away from counsel. and so that's why we filed this lawsuit. you know, we the first lawsuit we needed to file was just to get access to these men. who are they? what's their situation? do they want attorneys and do they want to assert their rights? i think there will be follow up lawsuits trying to prevent people from being sent there in the first place. but right now, we just need to reach these men. >> you know? cbs news reported today, lee, that among the men who have been sent so far to guantanamo, despite the fact that this was only going to be the worst of the worst and the most dangerous criminals among the people who've been sent so far are nonviolent, quote, low risk men who lack serious criminal records don't appear to match at all the government description of why they needed this facility to be used in the first place. do you actually know enough about who's there thus far to be able to comment at all on that cbs reporting, or do you know anything else about who how they've been deciding
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which people actually go there? >> we don't. and that's one of the problems. i mean, i have no reason to doubt the cbs report. it's consistent with the way the trump administration has always acted, a lot of hyperbole about who these immigrants are, casting all immigrants with a criminal net. and it turns out, of course, not to be true almost consistently. and so i have no doubt that the cbs report is accurate, but we don't have any independent confirmation. that's exactly why we need to get down there and see who these people are. and even if they have criminal histories, they have rights that they can assert. we don't send people back even if they have a criminal history to torture. but we have no doubt that not everyone there is going to have a serious criminal history. >> lee, i know that you have been gearing up for and getting ready for and you've been very clear eyed about what the trump campaign said they wanted to do on this issue. you've been getting ready. you've been getting ready for this stuff since before the november election. what do you see as
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your most potent weapons? people who are watching this right now, who want to help, who want to help, say no to what the administration is doing? what can normal people do? >> yeah, i'm glad you asked that, rachel. you know, we are, as you said, clear eyed about how much we can get done in the courts. we think the courts will stand up and will push back on certain things, but not everything can get done in the courts. i think any civil rights lawyer will tell you it needs to come more from the people. so, as you know, from covering family separation so closely, it was the people who were taking to the streets and saying, not in our name. and i think that's what people need to do, is they need to say, look, we wanted more immigration enforcement, but this is not what we wanted. we don't want you going after families. we don't want you sending people to guantanamo. people let their voices be heard about this. i also would say to young lawyers, just take one case, do one thing, help one family. don't be overwhelmed by the fact that these problems are so big. i think every family you help, they will be so grateful
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and you will feel very good about what you've done, you know? but i think people's voices need to speak out. i get so many people calling and saying, wait, we didn't think this is what they meant by mass deportation, going after families, going after sending people to guantanamo, separating families. so i do think people need to let their voices be heard. my own feeling is that when they ask the question during the campaign, do you want extra immigration enforcement, mass deportations? that question was too abstract, too vague. people didn't really know what they were voting for. i think when people see what's happening in practice, i'm hopeful they'll push back and say, just like they did with family separation. look, there's a point at which we don't want to cross. and i think guantanamo is one of those situations. this is the first time in history that we've taken people off u.s. soil and sent them to a remote island. i never thought i would see the day when that happened in the united states. that would be sending people from the united states to a remote island, denying them access to the outside world. and
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presumably, who knows what's happening with the conditions, but they can't be good. >> presumably the aclu trying to stop it right now, in part with this lawsuit, legal deputy director of the aclu, immigrant rights project, lead attorney on this case. lee, thank you very much for your time tonight. keep us apprized. us apprized. >> thanks (husband) we just want to have enough money for retirement. (wife) and travel to visit our grandchildren. (fisher investments) i understand. that's why at fisher investments we start by getting to know each other. so i can learn about your family, lifestyle, goals and needs, allowing us to tailor your portfolio. (wife) what about commission- based products? (fisher investments) we don't sell those. we're a fiduciary, obligated to act in your best interest. (husband) so how do your management fees work? (fisher investments) we have a transparent fee, structured so we do better when you do better. at fisher investments, we're clearly different. tap into etsy for home and style finds like custom shelving for less than 50 dollars to make more space. or linen robes under 75 to get you cozy. for affordable pieces to help you welcome big changes,
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