>> it is time for tonight's moment of joy. this time courtesy of one of my favorite actors who gave the perfect answer when asked who he considers a hero. >> what do. >> you. >> think, hero? >> who do you think of? >> i don't know. >> an american hero. >> mandela was a hero to me. >> okay. oh. i. >> i do. >> think of. >> i think. >> of. the. >> capitol police, the guys, the. >> capitol police. >> the metropolitan police. >> and michael fanone. aquino, grenell. >> harry dunn. >> daniel hodges and everybody else who. >> was involved. >> and affected and hurt by that. >> they're heroes. >> and that is tonight's reidout inside with jen psaki starts now.

>> hi everyone i'm jen psaki. chris is off this week. i promise you he will be back next week. but in the meantime. >> there is a whole. >> lot to talk about. believe it or not, it has been exactly a month since the start of a new trump administration. does it feel like a month? does it feel like a year? somewhere in between. but a lot even happened today. i mean, this afternoon elon musk brought a. literal chainsaw to the stage of cpac and also seemed to have a bit of a hard time completing a coherent thought. a conspiracy theorist was confirmed as the director of the fbi. that guy, you know who i'm talking about, kathy hochul, said today she won't remove eric adams just yet, but she did propose giving him a babysitter of sorts. so clearly, a lot happened today. we're going to get into all of it over the next hour. but i want to start a 11 years ago this month, after ukraine's parliament voted unanimously to

remove the country's pro-russian president from office, vladimir putin's forces invaded eastern ukraine with a force known at the time as the little green men, and claimed that part of ukraine was actually a part of russia. you probably remember it, and i remember it well, because i was the spokesperson at the state department at the time. i also remember, well, republicans being quite united in their opposition to putin's aggression and vocal about it. they were also pretty united in their anger. they felt and vocalized toward democratic president obama for doing what they felt was not enough to help the ukrainians. and one of the republican senators who stood up at that time to make the case very passionately to americans about why they should care enough about aid to ukrainians to have it delivered, was someone you may recognize. >> we should always stand on the side of the. >> vulnerable and the oppressed. vladimir putin's recent invasion. >> of ukraine is. >> a clear. >> challenge to these

principles. some ask, why is this our problem? well, because we cannot allow the precedent to be. set that in order to engage the west in trade and. >> commerce. >> smaller nations. >> must first. >> seek the permission. >> of their more powerful neighbors. president obama talks. >> tough about vladimir putin, but his actions have not gone far enough to change putin's calculation that the benefits of his aggression outweigh the costs. >> and then a few years later, when senator rubio had concerns that donald trump's first choice for secretary of state was insufficiently outraged at vladimir putin's behavior, he let him have it to. >> mr. tillerson. do you believe that vladimir putin and his cronies. >> are responsible. >> for ordering the murder of countless dissidents, journalists and political opponents? >> i do not have sufficient information to make that claim. >> are you aware that people who. >> oppose vladimir.

>> putin wind up dead all over the world, poisoned, shot in the back of the head? and do you think that was coincidental, or do you think that it is quite possible or likely, as i believe, that they were part of an effort to murder his political opponents? >> that was then, not that long ago, senator marco rubio laying out the stakes pretty perfectly. i will hand it to him. americans stand up for the oppressed, not the oppressor. we don't reward the aggression of violent thugs like putin. of course we don't. we raise the cost of that aggression. or we should. if there was one running theme, actually to rubio's career in the senate, other than his desire for career advancement, it was his concern about russia and putin who he called a criminal, a murderer and an authoritarian thug who must be stopped. but then donald trump became president again, and he made rubio the secretary of state. and as a result, on tuesday, rubio, the former russia hawk, was sent to saudi arabia to do trump's bidding. sitting across from russia's

foreign minister after, by the way, his boss had already made clear he was more than happy to give putin all the ukrainian land they wanted, and rubio had to try to negotiate an end to putin's war in ukraine with putin, but not with the ukrainians. >> the only leader in the world who. >> can make this. >> happen, who can even bring. >> people together. >> to begin to talk about. >> it in a serious. >> way is president trump. he's the only one in the world that can do that right now. >> quite a claim. the only one in the world. but even as rubio was at that table, trump was making pretty clear where his allegiances actually were. i mean, he called ukrainian president zelensky a dictator without elections. falsely accusing zelensky of starting the war in which russia invaded his country. just wrap your head around that. he claims zelensky was suspending elections because his approval rating was only 4%, which, by the way, is so far off. a recent poll showed zelensky's approval rating was actually at 57%. so zelensky

responded by saying that most of trump's claims are russian propaganda, adding, quote, unfortunately, president trump is living in this disinformation space and evergreen statement, but none of this shouldn't come as a big surprise because all of this the us russia summit, trump's rant against ukraine, all of it really comes just days after trump had his first phone call back in the white house, with none other than vladimir putin. now, trump did send his ukraine envoy, retired general keith kellogg, to kyiv to meet with zelensky today. but then their planned joint news conference after the meeting was abruptly canceled, with basically no clear reasons given at all. so it's clear what trump's idea for ending this war is reward the violent dictator who started it and demonized the democratically elected president of the country that was invaded. and it bears repeating. when the us faced a similar situation in 2014, after russia invaded eastern ukraine took crimea for

itself. there was a huge caucus in washington screaming at then president obama and the entire administration that they needed to provide lethal assistance weapons to the ukrainians and be tougher on putin. and it was dominated by republican russia hawks like rubio and senator lindsey graham. >> if we do not decisively. >> push back against. >> putin and make him. >> weaker. >> and all of our friends in the region stronger, the iranians are going to misunderstand yet again, we mean. >> it regarding their nuclear program. so much is at stake. >> putin is on the wrong. >> side of history. >> he's on the wrong. >> side of. >> the law. make him pay a price. the ukrainian. >> people are dying for their freedom. >> i hope we will stand with them. not this. not just in words, but in deeds. >> i mean, you heard him laid out clearly there, graham said. not helping ukraine would put the us on the wrong side of history, and it would send the wrong message to adversaries like iran, which is very different from what he is saying these days.

>> talking to. >> the russians separately, i'm actually okay with that. >> i think. >> there's one person that putin really is afraid of. >> and that's trump. >> if you ever get a good. >> deal on ukraine. >> it'll be because trump created a sense of dread. by russia. >> i mean, what are they dreading exactly? taking the land trump has offered them? i'm not totally sure about that analysis, but this is what republicans are doing now, going against all of their strongest convictions about america's role in the world, about the threat of russia, the threat of putin to bend the knee to trump. it reached a climax today when national security adviser michael waltz dodged some pretty straightforward questions from reporters about trump blaming zelensky for the war and about waltz's own past statements to the contrary. >> who does he think is more responsible for the russian invasion of ukraine? putin or zelensky? >> well, look, his his goal here

is to bring this war to an end period. and there has been ongoing fighting on both sides. >> you wrote in an op ed in the fall of 2023 that, quote, putin is to. >> blame. >> certainly like al qaeda was to blame for nine over 11. do you still feel that way now, or do you share the president's assessment, as he says, ukraine is to blame for the start of this war? >> well, it shouldn't surprise you that i share the president's assessment on all kinds of issues. what i wrote as a member of congress is, was, was as a former member of congress. look, what i share the president's assessment on is that the war has to end. this is a president of peace. and who here would argue against peace? >> turns out there's an op ed for everything. that's how republicans play the game. now, the game of basically how do i please our dear leader? the problem is this is not a game at all. i mean, trump is openly taking the side of a dictator against an oppressed american ally. millions of ukrainian lives are at stake. and that's

just the beginning. this is having a broader impact on the world. it could have one. it gives putin a green light to carve out a new empire. and he might decide that includes poland or latvia or estonia, nato allies, that america is still theoretically sworn to protect. but what are those promises worth now? i mean, that's the other question. it's also a bad sign for domestic politics. it's an indication of just how willing the republicans are to go against their own long held and publicly stated political convictions to back trump when he's at his most erratic and self-serving. and if they'll bend on this, what else are they going to be willing to bend on? democratic senator chris of delaware sits on the senate foreign relations committee, and he joins me now. senator, i just wanted to start by asking you, when you hear how secretary rubio and senator graham are talking about russia now, given what they've said in the past, what do you make of that? >> look. >> i think. >> you framed it well, jen.

>> which is that president trump is. >> the one who has made a. >> dramatic departure from our previous positions. >> as a country. >> and by suggesting that zelensky. >> is. >> responsible for russia's invasion. >> of ukraine. >> by. denouncing zelensky. >> as supposedly. >> an illegitimate. >> dictator, president trump is. >> completely reversing. >> standing on. >> its. head the. >> positions that. >> my republican colleagues. have held for. >> years. >> with the additional. >> announcement this week. >> that secretary. >> hegseth is calling for 8% across. >> the board. >> cuts to defense spending for the. >> next five years. >> i'll be. >> interested to. >> see how they turn themselves into a pretzel, to somehow suggest that that advances. >> peace through strength. >> they certainly are becoming good at turning themselves into pretzels. i'll give them that. there seems to be this argument. you have said at the negotiating table i have been at the negotiating table. but they are making this argument that if you give putin the parts of ukraine

he wants and also pull back assistance to ukraine, that will put putin in a tougher point of negotiation. that does not make any sense. but explain to us what you make of that argument. >> so folks who. >> are working. >> for president. >> trump. >> who is allegedly a great dealmaker. >> i think he. >> wrote a book called the art. >> of the deal. >> ought to go look in that. book and see if there's anything in there that suggests the best way to. negotiate is by giving. away your major points right up front. obviously, this. >> isn't how trump and. >> hegseth and waltz. >> should be negotiating with putin. >> putin is a murderous thug. >> he's a gangster. >> and. >> a kgb agent, and. >> they all know it. and the only way to achieve. a just. and lasting peace for ukraine. worthy of the fierce. sacrifice of the many ukrainians. >> who have fought and died. >> to recover their. >> sovereign territory from russian aggression, is. >> to stand toe. >> to toe with. putin and

threaten. >> to. >> increase sanctions on russia, threaten to send more weapons. not less, to ukraine. >> and lock. >> arms with our european partners who. >> have already. >> spent more than we have on ukraine's defense and economy. if he did that, trump would show that he understands how to achieve peace through strength. instead, what he's doing so far is going to lead to chaos through weakness. and if he in fact abandons betrays ukraine, he will be the biggest loser of the 21st century. >> one of the concerns that i know our european allies have expressed, and you and others have expressed here, is that this could give putin a bit of a green light to take these actions in other countries in eastern europe. what do you think of that and what concerns you the most? >> so i. >> was at. >> the munich security conference, jen, with. >> a bipartisan. >> delegation from the senate and house, and we met with. >> heads of state. >> defense ministers, foreign ministers.

>> from throughout. eastern europe and. >> western europe. and all of them are alarmed, concerned that. giving putin a free pass to roll. over the rest of ukraine will send a signal that president. >> trump no longer respects. >> our commitment to nato and that putin will just keep going once he reconstitutes his full military. they believe that he will next threaten the baltic states, poland, the czech republic, that he will threaten all. >> of. >> our core allies in europe. >> i also have heard. >> repeatedly, and i believe this, that xi jinping, the leader of. >> the. >> prc, is watching closely and that if we give him the signal that. >> we're no. >> longer willing to defend ukraine, his inclination to seize taiwan will increase dramatically. jen, think about it. on one team, you've got russia, china, iran and north korea. on the other team, you've got ukraine, germany, italy, the united kingdom, france, belgium, netherlands, our longtime allies. why on earth would it

make us safer and stronger for our president to put in with this other team, this team of authoritarians who have undermined and fought against everything we stand for? >> senator, one of the arguments that trump folks make sometimes is that americans don't want to invest in ukraine. we've seen a little bit of this in polls in terms of spending money overseas and spending money in ukraine. why do you think you've named some of the reasons? but why should americans watching right now care about continuing to support ukraine? >> americans should care because the ukrainians are doing the fighting. they are fighting the. >> largest. >> most aggressive. army in europe. and if we don't stop putin in ukraine, he's. next going to be knocking on the door of our critical nato allies. it is pennies on the dollar for us to partner with europe in. providing the support that ukraine needs to continue its fight, rather than having to send american troops to defend our allies in poland and the

baltic states. you mentioned jen at the beginning of this show. what happened in 2008? and in 2014, when putin rolled in to georgia and moldova and then took crimea and then moved into the donbas. the lack of deterrence back then, in no small part, led to this additional aggression three years ago. and if we fail to deter and to stop putin here, i think there's no end to how much of the former soviet empire he will intend to take back. >> senator chris, thank you so much for joining us. i know it was loud there. appreciate you taking the time. and still ahead, the nation's top law enforcement position will be run by a staunch donald trump loyalist. senator sheldon whitehouse is here with a warning for republicans on their votes for kash patel. plus, how elon musk is now extending his reach into state politics and how the trump justice department is chilling the free speech of elected democrats. one of those democrats, congressman robert democrats, congressman robert garcia, ever feel like a spectator in your own life

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the. >> chainsaw for bureaucracy first saw. >> wood. >> that actually happened today. and in addition to wielding a chainsaw while wearing sunglasses at cpac earlier inside, of course, elon musk

also accused democrats of taking away freedom of speech and personal freedoms, which is pretty rich given the trump administration is up in arms about robert garcia exercising his own first amendment rights last week. >> what i think is really important. >> and what the american public. want is for us to bring actual weapons to this bar fight. >> this is. >> an actual. >> fight for democracy, for the future of this country. and it's important. it's also important to get the attention of the american public and call elon musk out for what he is. >> in response to those comments, the trump justice department engaged in what appears to be a bit of an unprecedented effort to scare or silence the congressman or both. acting u.s. attorney for washington, dc, ed martin, who i would note also was a defense lawyer for the january 6th. insurrectionists, sent a letter to garcia asking him to clarify his comments. but his former u.s. attorney, barbara mcquade, said, it seems like a fair inference that these letters are designed more to chill free speech than to seek

clarification, as they purport to do. and congressman, california congressman robert garcia joins me now. congressman, i find it quite rich that the free speech warriors at the trump justice department would be so worked up about a metaphor you used on cnn. obviously, there's no bar fight. no one is bringing weapons anywhere. but what do you think they are trying to do here? >> i mean, it's pretty. >> clear that they are trying to not just intimidate me, but intimidate other members of congress who are actively opposing. >> and criticizing. >> donald trump and elon musk from. >> actually speaking. and it's crazy. that they want to investigate me. >> for essentially using a metaphor and for taking on elon musk. and i think what's what's really disturbing. >> in. >> this moment. >> is that we know that we've. >> got to fight fire. >> with fire. we know we've got to bring the energy to this fight. as elon musk is raiding the federal treasury to give himself and his billionaire buddies a tax cut, and they.

>> want to police that language. >> they want to stop us from fighting back. and so, you know, look. >> we take this. >> threat seriously. >> at the same. >> time, we're not going to be silenced by elon musk or by donald trump. >> this feels to me, i just was talking about russia earlier propaganda. so it's a natural flow into that. i mean, this feels like a classic case of trying to flip the script, right? even ed martin suggesting democrats are trying to threaten those workers. how do you you're not going to stand stand down, as you said. but how do you stop them from getting away with this effort to flip the script? >> well, first of all, we got to call it out. i mean, it's crazy that this is a same us attorney who, of course, defended january 6th. insurrectionist donald trump wants to pardon january 6th, but then he wants to. police metaphors and figures of speech by members of congress who also have constitutional protections. this is clearly a clear, authoritarian move to

silence critics and people that are criticizing what elon musk is actually doing raiding and attacking medicare, attacking the department of education, trying to destroy any climate progress we've had in this country. and so i think at this moment. i understand that while they targeted me, it's not really about me. this is about silencing members of congress and silencing critics. and so we can't do is we can't retreat. we can't pull back. we've got to double down. we've got to fight hard. there is absolutely no way that this letter is going to silence me. he's giving me till tuesday to respond to his ridiculous demands. and so, you know, we'll we'll be responding appropriately, but it's not going to be by staying silent. >> how are you going to respond? >> well, we're talking, of course, to our to our house leadership, as well as some other folks that are been pushing back on some of these efforts by the us attorney. what we shouldn't be doing, of course, is not saying anything. and allowing this to continue. what i've said today, and we just got this letter yesterday. and by the way, they sent this

letter to the press before they even sent it to me, which goes to show how political this actually is. we're going to be very clear that we have a constitutional right to push back against the administration, and that members of congress should not be silenced through fear, through some type of intimidation tactics that donald trump and elon musk want to use. elon musk is the richest man on the planet. he's out there destroying federal agencies and institutions. we have a responsibility to fight fire with fire. and the american public are demanding us as elected officials, as the representatives, to also be tough and fight in a way that is fearless. and that's what we have to do at this moment. >> i think fearlessness is so important, and i know elon musk would probably love it if we only talked about this letter. but the whole point here is to talk about what he's doing. so let's talk about that, because as you mentioned, he's engaged in a mass firing of our federal government. but importantly, a lot of what he's doing is

massively disrupting services to millions of americans who rely on them while wielding a chainsaw at cpac. so what what do you wish was getting more attention that's impacting people in your district from the doge team? that from actions from the doge team? >> i'll just i'll give you one example. i mean, there's they're doing horrible things in every department. i have parents reaching out that have kids and children in our school system here that are depending on special services. these are children with disabilities, students with disabilities, some of the largest funding in my home state of california and across the country come from the department of education to assist classroom school districts, teachers to help our students with disabilities. and they are wondering what their future is going to be like, what the future of their school is going to be like, where their funding is going to be stripped away from public schools and sent to private schools that oftentimes don't want to support children with disabilities. we have terrified parents and families right now, as well as

seniors who worry about their social security, families that worry about medicaid. so there are real impacts, and we're hearing from them and people that are literally being fired from their jobs, folks that have overperformed at their jobs, that have been promoted, that are now in these probationary positions because they've actually been doing an excellent job that are seeing their jobs being eliminated because. elon musk wants to collect as much, quote unquote, savings as possible so he can, himself and his billionaire buddies, a huge tax break. we've got to be very strong in our opposition to what's actually happening right now. and real lives are being impacted. >> congressman, thank you for really bringing to life some of the impacts here, which i think is so important for people to hear about. i really appreciate you joining me and taking the time and continuing to stand up out there. coming up next, the warning for republicans after they put kash patel and his enemies list into the fbi for a ten year term. and later, there's finally been a decision

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sycophantic suck up. kash patel mark my words will cause evil in this building behind us, and republicans who vote for him will rue that day. >> just hours after senator sheldon whitehouse issued that warning outside fbi headquarters, the senate confirmed kash patel as fbi director, with only two republicans dissenting. patel, who has published an enemies list of government officials and children's books in which donald trump is the king, will now head the country's premier law enforcement agency with all of its broad powers of surveillance and investigation. he takes over as the fbi is also in turmoil, with the trump administration already forcing out several senior fbi executives and multiple heads of field offices and demanding a list of all the thousands of fbi agents across the country who worked on january 6th investigations, and senator sheldon whitehouse of rhode island and senior member of the judiciary committee joins

me now. senator whitehouse, you have been fighting like hell. i think i can say, to prevent kash patel from getting confirmed, you had some strong words today outside of the fbi by fbi headquarters. he's going to be the director tomorrow. what? what are you preparing for him to potentially get started in the next couple of days? >> i think lots of oversight, because there is no. way that this does not end badly with this guy over at the fbi. i mean, you can go. >> on and. >> on about his problems. he has foreign entanglements through cayman island, corporations. >> with chinese interests. >> he asserted the fifth amendment, and. republicans in the judiciary. >> committee wouldn't even. >> make him explain. what crimes he legitimately thought he was in jeopardy for. he has gotten a complete pass because of the

power of trump and the roughness, the thuggery of the application of political force to republican senators. he's not qualified for trump. colleagues of his in the first administration have gone on. >> and. >> on publicly about how unqualified he is. they wouldn't have been there. office over my dead body forced on me. ludicrous individual. that's the kind of stuff that this. >> guy brings. >> to a very, very serious job. and so now it's time for accountability for those votes. >> what does that look like? i mean, you said earlier today that republicans will regret and many of them may everything you outlined and more is, i think, valid concerns. the political enemies list is one thing he could start with. but yes. what do you think that looks like? what will they regret? >> the fbi has a very distinct

ethos. there's a lot of pride in the organization, and there are a lot of people who dedicated their lives to. really important things and have done really significant work, some of it not even known. >> to. >> the american people. so this is a very proud group into which donald trump is sending this guy, and he brings the worst of a record that he could, and they're already doing damage to senior and respected people. they're doing random firings. they're trying to. humiliate members of the fbi who other people respect. it's the worst possible way to come in. and so there will be a reaction. there will be whistleblowers who are willing to call out whatever it is that he starts to get up to, whether it's refusing to prosecute trump cronies or whether it's cutting deals with china, or whether it's following in the trump russia stuff by shutting down intel operations against russia, whether it's

finding ways to feather his own nest, it's hard to predict because he's so bad across so many sectors of life. but there will be stuff that we will find out about it. >> i want to ask you about the china piece, because you brought this up a couple times, and i think as people are trying to understand what to watch out for, it's important for them to understand this. you raised concerns about patel's financial stake in a china linked company, and the wall street journal reported today that he stands to make millions from this investment. explain to us more about your concerns and what we should really be watching for here. >> well. >> first of all, this wasn't well disclosed in his fbi background investigation. so this took further digging by the press to bring this out. so there's a whole separate question about whether the fbi. really took a full on professional look at this guy who was who was coming in. he has an interest in this chinese

company that is held in a cayman islands corporation, and it's worth somewhere between 1 to $5 million, which is a big amount of money for anyone. and it vests its shares. it vests during the period that he will be in the fbi. well, chinese corporations tend to be under the thumb of the chinese communist party. and if the fbi is working against chinese intelligence interests, which it is every day, they now have huge leverage over this guy in terms of what they can do to either enhance or diminish the value of his chinese communist party controlled asset in this cayman islands shell corporation. >> it's pretty unbelievable. thank you for explaining it to everybody watching. >> go wrong. right. >> what could possibly go wrong? let me ask you. i mean, he literally published a political enemies list in his book. there are a lot of people on there who are well known. some of them worked for trump in the first administration. some of them didn't. what can be done, if

anything, to prevent them at this point from moving forward in pursuing actions against these individuals? >> well. >> the first thing that will happen is if anyone is charged with an offense or sent a notice that there's a subject of a grand jury investigation, they now have his whole background to take into court and say, hey, this has to stop. and they have rights in court to discovery. they can find out probably more than we even know about his motives and his animus towards individual people. so the process of trying to come after people actually will give them a big opportunity to dig into his background and show why the prosecution against him is a malicious prosecution, which not only gives rise to release from the prosecution, but also gives rise to civil liability against the individual who used his office or misused his office to

try to do harm to somebody who, for personal reasons, he did not like. >> senator sheldon whitehouse. so much to watch here. thank you so much for explaining a lot of it to us and really pushing back as hard as you could to try to prevent him from being confirmed. really appreciate your time tonight. and still ahead, elon musk expanding his reach. and he seeks to influence yet another election in america. not making it up. that's coming not making it up. that's coming up. tracey from lillie's of charleston will watch 60 contestants eat 60 hot wings all covered in lillie's hot sauce oh honey, don't touch your face will be in this ad 60% of the time great job, bob! i used to leak urine when i coughed, laughed or exercised.

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to use the legal jeopardy facing our mayor as leverage. >> to. >> squeeze and. >> punish our city. i call it the trump revenge tour. and i have to stand in its way. >> okay. >> so for over a week now, new york governor kathy hochul has been under pressure to remove new york city mayor eric adams after he struck a bit of a deal with the trump administration to get the charges dropped against him in exchange for doing donald trump's bidding on immigration. now, no governor has actually ever removed a mayor of new york using this authority, though back in 1932, then new york governor franklin delano roosevelt started the process. but the mayor quit before he could be removed. point is, there is the power. governor hochul, though, has been pretty cautious. she hasn't exactly been following in father's footsteps. first avoiding the question, then going a few steps further in an interview with my

colleague rachel maddow. >> i cannot, as the governor of this state, have a knee jerk, politically motivated reaction like a lot of. >> other people are saying right now. >> i have. >> to do it. >> smart. >> what's right. >> and i'm consulting with other. >> leaders in. government at. >> this time. >> we've got to have one. >> sane person. >> in this state. >> who can. >> cut through all the. crap and say, what is my responsibility? guide me to do. >> now, today, the governor took a few more baby steps forward. no, she didn't announce she was using her authority to remove adams. at least not yet. instead, she announced she was planning to add an inspector general over city affairs, give other city officials more power to sue the federal government, and provide more funding for city oversight. that'll show em, i guess. look, unless you are steeped in the local politics of new york, it's maybe pretty hard to understand why she wouldn't use her authority to remove a mayor who so openly made a corrupt deal with the trump administration. but i guess administration. but i guess to ever feel like a spectator in your own life

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five nights a week. >> now is the time. so we're going to do it. >> settle in. >> the rachel maddow. >> show weeknights at nine on msnbc. president trump's first 100 days. watch. >> i'm going. >> to be here five days a. >> week again. >> read and listen. >> staying up. >> half the night. >> reading executive. >> orders for. >> this defining time in the second trump presidency. stay with msnbc. >> i know it feels like the election season just ended. you may still be ready to lay on your couch in the fetal position, but there are actually a bunch of really important races playing out across the country this year. important ones to pay attention to. in wisconsin, for example, ideological control of the state supreme court will be on the ballot this april. susan crawford, a liberal state judge aligned with the democrats, is running against a guy named brad

schimel, who is a hard right maga conservative and also an ally of donald trump. now, the winner of this race will determine the ideological majority on wisconsin supreme court for years to come, which a lot of things will be impacted by that. both sides see it as a must win. and after spending a quarter of $1 billion to get trump elected in november, the richest man on earth is trying to buy this election as well. one elon musk backed group has already poured more than a million and a half dollars into this wisconsin state supreme court race, flooding the airwaves with tv ads that will run across the state's major media markets. now, for her part, susan crawford, accused of being bought and paid for by right wing extremists, which i feel like is something we should prepare ourselves to hear a lot of over the next few years. ben wikler is the chair of the wisconsin democratic party. few people know more about wisconsin politics. ari berman is the national voting rights correspondent for mother jones, where he's been writing about how elon musk is trying to buy the wisconsin supreme court. and

they join me now. all right. let me let me start with you. this is maybe hard for people to wrap their heads around. why is elon musk involved in this? but he's he's this group building america's future. it's funding the ads. how is it linked to elon musk? >> well, jen, thank you for having me. and great to be here with. ben as well. elon musk is this dark money group's biggest donor. and the fact that they are. now running ads in the wisconsin supreme court race underscores the. stakes of this contest and shows how the maga plan for oligarchy goes well beyond washington. and they realize that so many of these. >> important issues. >> whether it's. voting rights, abortion. union rights, so many key rights and freedoms that are at stake in. washington will actually be decided at the state level. and in many cases, they will be ruled on by state courts. and that's why the ideological balance of power on the wisconsin supreme court is so important. democrats have won a lot of close elections on the court. and so what the right

wing is doing is they are doubling down on their efforts to try to take the court back by following trump's playbook in 2024. >> ben, you've been sounding the alarm about this race. i think you texted me many weeks ago about it and something that i was something to pay attention to. i just laid out a very good rundown of why it's important, but you're living in the state. why is it so important? what should people understand, and why do you think elon musk cares about it? >> well. >> everything is. >> on. the line with this race. >> in the state. >> that's the closest. >> state in. >> the country, wisconsin. >> and elon. >> musk is. >> trying. >> to. >> pay to. >> bankroll his campaign. >> to send him to. cast the deciding vote in the state supreme court. because if you look. >> back. wisconsin is the only. >> state where the presidential election was almost overturned by a single vote. that was the that was the. margin of safety in 2020. it's a state where voting rights over and over have come before the state supreme court. elon musk tweeted a month

ago that people needed to vote republican in the state supreme court race to support brad schimel to prevent, quote unquote, voter fraud, which is a code word for to support voter suppression. he was mad that the court had reinstated drop boxes. he is now pulling messages about trying to lock in the conservative house majority in order to make sure that it can pass donald. >> trump's agenda. >> he knows that his power to erode and undermine and gut our constitution, and the whole country runs through control of state court systems like wisconsin. and that's why we're asking everyone to help support susan crawford, who actually believes in democracy in the wisconsin supreme court race and asking folks to volunteer and donate and do everything they can. >> but, ari, it seems like this is such an enormous amount of money that is being spent here by this group. i can't even emphasize that enough relative to what it is. as i understand it from your piece, the ads and other reporting are scheduled to run through early march. now, do you have any assume they're going to continue until the race at this point?

>> yeah. and what happened is when elon musk got involved, that sent a signal to other donors to get involved. so you have some of the biggest funders of election denial. people that bankrolled the insurrection, the state's largest business groups. >> they're. >> getting involved now. so there's a lot of outside money coming in behind the conservative candidate, brad schimel. he is actually openly said he wants dark money groups to get involved in the race, which is very alarming for a supreme court justice candidate to say that because he could be hearing cases involving many of these interests, and i imagine the money musk is spending is just the beginning of what the trump involvement will be in this race, because they understand that. >> you. >> can get a lot more bang for your buck on the state level. elon musk is not going to have to spend $288 million like he did in 2024, to influence the wisconsin supreme court race. $1 million, $2 million that goes a long way in a race like this. and unfortunately, not enough people are paying attention because they're obviously so

consumed by what's happening in washington. for good reason. but as i said earlier, jen, so many of the issues that are at stake in democracy, whether it's voting rights, abortion rights, labor rights, they are going to be decided at the state level. and that's where democrats can actually make a tangible difference to fight back against the trump agenda right now. >> it's exactly why we're talking about it, ari. it is so important for people to pay attention to. let me ask you about, i mean, this amount of money being spent, the number of people who turn out in a race like this, what is the pool of voters here? >> so typically. >> turnout is less than. >> half in the spring supreme court election like this. >> then what you see in a presidential election like we had last year, 3.4 million last year, if we get to 1.5, 1.6 million, that would be explosive turnout in this race. what that means is that. this is an election where if someone, wherever you might be in the country, if you go to volunteer and sign up for a phone bank, you'll call voters who don't know this election is happening. it's on april 1st, susan

crawford versus brad schimel. you tell people about it. >> you. >> tell them elon musk is supporting brad schimel that that susan crawford actually represented planned parenthood. >> in a case called. >> planned parenthood versus brad schimel when he was the republican attorney general of the state. they will clock in and they will vote. you can you can turn voters on to this election, and we can organize our way to victory, because this is not a presidential race. this is something where even with all of his might, and i should add, elon musk added another million dollars just in the last few hours with his group america pac. so the torrent of money is just begun. but we can. >> fight back. >> by doing the on the ground organizing, by chipping in a few bucks with a whole bunch of people doing it, and actually beat elon musk for the first time in this dark, modern moment. and if we do that, it sends a shockwave of energy through the whole country by showing that he's not invulnerable, that that is the stakes in this race. it is the question of whether he can just buy every level of government, or whether we still have a democracy where people have the final say. >> such an important race to

follow. what? just before i let you go, ari, let me ask you, is there another race like this that you're watching around the country that you expect? elon musk and his group only have about 30s left here to get involved in. what else should we be watching? >> well, i'm watching an unprecedented attempt by republicans in north carolina to try to overturn a state supreme court election right now. and that just shows how important these state supreme court races here. maga republicans will go to any lengths to try to win these races, even when they're flying under the radar. >> ari, thank you so much for bringing light to these races. they're so important to pay attention to and focus on. ben wikler, thank you for educating us all, always on wisconsin and everything we need to pay attention to. thank you both so much for joining me. that does it for me tonight. the rachel maddow show starts right now. hey, rachel. >> hey, jen. >> thank you. >> my friend. >> much appreciated. >> thank you. >> thanks to. >> you at home. >> for. >> joining us. >> this hour. >> so the data is in. it's been a month. >> officially as. >> of today, for. >> this new presidential term.