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tv   The Rachel Maddow Show  MSNBC  October 6, 2010 12:00am-1:00am EDT

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campaign to discuss what happens in delaware doesn't stay in delaware. ladies and gentlemen, live in newark, here is rachel maddow. good evening, rachel. >> good evening, keith. a more serious look at what's going on here. when we arrived here in newark tonight, we were greeted by a lot of men in witch hats. so take that as seriously as you want toed. thanks a lot, keith. and thanks to you at home for sticking with us this hour. we are broadcasting live from newark, delaware. a very big thank you for putting us on what would have been a half-prized burger night into a very, very crowded half-priced burger night. the reason we are here -- the reason we are here is because we're trying to do the best job we can as a cable tv news show covering a senate race that was supposed to be one of the boring
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ones this year but it's one that has ended up riveting the entire country. >> i'm not a witch. i'm nothing you've heard. i'm you. >> me specifically? i'm not sure you mean me specifically. >> i'll go to washington and do what you'd do. i'm christine o'donnell and i approve this message. i'm you. >> you know, if you're me, republican senate candidate christine o'donnell, if you're me, i have some questions for me but which i mean you. should there be a federal minimum wage? why do you think privatizing the v.a. is a good idea? you said last week jim demint is the senator you most admire. the day after that senator demint said, again, gay people should not be allowed to be schoolteachers in america. do you agree with him on that? senator demint also said a pregnant, single woman should not be allowed to teach school in america. do you agree with him on that?
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how about a man who has had sex outside of marriage? could he teach school? how will you check on that? do you have a virginity it test in mind? one for men specifically. i came to delaware with a whole sheet of questions i would like to ask the republican senate candidate here. i did get an interview with the democratic senate candidate chris coons. that was fascinating. i'll have that for you in just a moment. in terms of equal time, we spent a very long time before we came down here and a very long, resourceful day here trying to arrange an interview with the candidate herself, the republican candidate or with any staffer from christine o'donnell's campaign, with any volunteer from christine o'donnell's campaign, with any random delaware voting supporter with anyone, anyone who lives and votes in delaware who would talk with us about why they were supporting christine o'donnell. we got zippo. less than zippo. we got zip. they will not talk.
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they will not allow anybody to talk which itself is fascinating to see and to report on in person. coming up, what happened when we took our ill-fated trip to christine o'donnell headquarters in wilmington today. it didn't go well. but even as everyone admits it is the idiosyncrasies of the republican candidate in the race that have drawn and now hold national attention here, the reason i'm glad we came, what we found since we've been here is the common wisdom about where democrats are at in this election, democratic voters, that appears to be wrong. today the democratic senate candidate telling older voters at a senior center in new castle county that delawareans do not care what the former governor of alaska, meaning sarah palin, and senator demint, have to say about delaware politics. he said this is a delaware race and that delawareans do not want, in his words, to be used as a ping-pong ball in these national fights. that is the common wisdom, right?
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and there's some support for that here among the tuna burger eating hoards at this tavern. the narrative is there's a national conservative resurgence that conservatives are mobilized nationally. they want to take their country back, as they say. the common wisdom is also democrats are thinking smaller. don't want any part of this national fight. the big picture ideological, what does it mean to be a democrat versus a republican fight. it is not what we are seeing from democratic voters. and we're not doing scientific polling here. this is just what we're seeing but it is what we're seeing. >> maybe you've already done it and i'm not aware thought to ask or even challenge your opponent or any other republicans to document their concern over deficit spending between 2001
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and 2009. >> if my opponent says over and over we're concerned about the deficit and that means we can't do any more deficit spending, we can't do any more investments to get the country back on track, aren't they just ignoring that for the previous eight years we moved from where we were in 2000 where we had a surplus to where we are today where we have a huge national debt? i agree that the national debt is a big problem that we need to address and i agree that we've got some folks who are venal forgetting that our previous administration took us to war in two countries, dramatically expanded medicare and gave a huge tax cut all at the same time and in a way that wasn't paid for and that put us in this problem. >> call them the hypocrites that they are.
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>> we're here at the mid county senior center in delaware and before this event broke up, i wanted to talk to dr. gilbert sloan who asked a rather impassioned question at this event. dr. sloan, thank you for your time. i appreciate it. >> it's a pleasure. >> you asked chris coons not just about the deficit but they keep talking about the deficit now. how come you guys aren't pressing them more on what they thought about the deficit between 2001 and 2009. why did you ask that question? >> because i want to see the dishonesty and the hypocrisy of the republicans generally and christine o'donnell in particular called out. they had every opportunity to say something about deficit spending between 2001 and 2009 when one of the major causes of deficit spending was the insanity in iraq.
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and so i put it to senator coons, future senator coons, to ask, to challenge o'donnell and the other republicans to document their vociferous opposition to spending then. >> the way that this race is getting talked about essentially is that christine o'donnell is running a national campaign. she is trying to talk to the country, talk about national issues, sort of not even really talking about how they get filtered through delaware. mr. coons is talking delaware, delaware, delaware. that's the frame everyone is approaching this. in there listening to you and the other questions chris coons was getting asked, i didn't feel that was true. i felt there was a lot of big picture questions about difference between democrats and republicans, national questions that you guys here in delaware really are concerned about. does that seem right? >> of course we are. chris coons is a deep thinker.
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he actually reads books. in contrast to his opponent who is as shallow as can be and is floating on a sea of notoriety and chris along with his predecessor, joe biden, who also reads books, has a view and a profound view of what the world ought to be like and what america's role in the changing world ought to be. >> do you believe that republicans are more excited for the election this is year? >> i keep reading that's the case and i find it hard to believe because i'm pretty excite body this election so i can only speak for myself and say that it's a critical election because it's really a choice between sanity and flat-out crazy. people are saying things -- the earth is flat. chris coons says he doesn't want to discuss with his opponent her personal attributes but they
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merit discussion. she says things that are flat-out looney. the mouse and human brain business which is of a piece with sarah palin's criticism of a grant for the study of fruit flies, totally unaware that fruit flies are a great vector for the study of genetics. these are people who just don't know about the real world. >> dr. gilbert sloan, thank you for coming out here and participating your civic life here in delaware and taking the time to talk to us. it was a real pleasure. thanks. the common wisdom is that democratic voters are not fired up this year. the common wisdom is that not only aren't democratic voters fired up they're fired up about being democrats, what democrats stand for, that they are fired up against what republicans stand for right now. democratic voters, senior citizens in new castle county today told me and told the democratic senate candidate they wanted to talk about their
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belief that the republican in this senate race is nuts, that they think what they are running on as a whole this year is nuts, that health reform is something to be proud of and that democrats ought to brag about it. that's the gi bill is something to be proud of and they ought to be bragging about the gi bill, that privatizing social security is an assault on why we pay taxes and why stuff the government does matters because it does. this is delaware. but democratic leaning voters here sound a lot more like the electorate who elected barack obama in a near landslide than they sound like the we don't care we're maybe republicans now electorate that we keep reading about every day. >> calling them the hypocrites that they are.
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>> i think one thing that the national media has to do for the populous in this country is explain what taxes are used for. people do not understand that you have to pay for the roads. you have to pay for the schools. you have to pay for the hospital. you have to pay those things. you want the results. these people that don't want to pay into health care, if anything happens to them, they want the best of care. if you want the best, you have to pay. in america you pay. >> and how do we have two wars, cut taxes and still continue to want to cut taxes? how are you going to run the country? >> the question about social security. we know it's different from medicare and medicaid. the question is i believe people are trying to eliminate it.
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for us it's not a problem because we're collecting or close to it but our children and so forth especially lower income need that guaranteed income. i guess the question is will you make a pledge or consider a pledge and call out your opponent to do the same thing to basically protect social security as it is today? >> so upset about is the overturn of the law where corporations can buy an election. okay? the supreme court overturned 100 years of law and now any corporation in america can buy an election. >> i think we have to thank government for that g.i. bill and for us to understand the place of government in the future of america. because the things it gave us permitted us to raise children who could go to college and
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their children could be contributors to our country and we are in a position now where those who are trying to dumb down our government are really making an incredible mistake for ordinary people in america. >> thank you. are common wisdom, meet delaware. delaware, meet common wisdom. ka boom. buckle up. we have some star local journalists. we have our disastrously failed trip to christine o'donnell headquarters. my interview with the democrat she is up against, chris coons. we are live in newark, delaware. a lot of people think car insurance is one-size fits all.
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we are live at the deer park tavern because we can. just ahead, what happened when we tried to interview someone, anyone, from the christine o'donnell campaign today. as self-esteem building projects go, this could have gone better. please stay with us. to do that so well. ♪ ♪ where'd you learn to do that so well. ♪ the new cadillac srx. the cadillac of crossovers. cadillac. the new standard of the world. of lick racing, starting with you, dsrl.
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hello from the del in delmarva, from the first state, newark, take that, new jersey. we are live at the deer park tavern trying to get a bead on the interesting, surprising, and most entertaining political races in this year's election. chris coons versus christine o'donnell. we did interview chris coons today. we were hoping to interview christine o'donnell. but, as you can see -- she is not here. and so tonight we turn to two star delaware journalist who is are on the christine o'donnell beat such as that it is. joining us from the wilmington news journal are ron williams, a political columnist and reporter ginger gibson. ron and ginger, thank you for being here. neither of you have been to this bar before, right? ron, let me start with you. we are hearing reports tonight that christine o'donnell has scheduled an event that will be open to the public in newark tomorrow.
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that, as far as we can tell, marks a real change of pace for her since the primary. she hasn't been publicly campaigning, has she? >> no, she hasn't. >> is there a cost to that? >> i think there will be eventually if she doesn't get off the dime and get out. i'm not sure what her reasoning is because she went on national television and said that she was going to do the local -- she was going to quit the national campaigning, the national news media and go local and we haven't seen her. >> ginger, i know you had access as she was trying to cover the campaign both during the primary and since. what's that been like and can you -- is there any precedent for it in your career in terms of covering campaigns in the state? >> i've not encountered a campaign where it is as difficult as at this point to talk to the candidate who had access to information from the campaign. in terms of covering it over the
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primary and into the general election, i listened to her speak in a loft places in order to convey to our readers what she is doing and saying on the campaign trail. >> in terms of getting access to her the way you would get access to other candidates in previous delaware elections this is unusual. >> this is unusual. >> does the campaign make a strategic argument to you when they are excluding you and telling you no about why they're doing it or is it just a flat slap of the hand? >> they've made several arguments, she has been busy and unable to hold interviews. in the pastimes she was busy, unhappy with coverage was another argument they made and sometimes it's just been that no answer at all. >> ron, in terms of the evidence of her campaign beyond just her, are you seeing a big republican get out the vote effort, are you seeing other evidence of a campaign that's happening aside from sort of national media? >> no, i'm not, and i'm
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beginning to think that there's some voters remorse here among the republicans that maybe they didn't think she was going to win and then when she did, oops, what have we done here? >> do you think she could win? >> i think there would have to be a lot of different circumstances. it's always possible. who knows with what's going on this year with the mood of the electorate but, no, i don't think she can can as of right now. but if things were to dramatically change against the democrats, there's always a chance. >> you've been writing chris coons needs to take her more seriously. >> yes. i'm thinking that no one has been taking her seriously. certainly not mike castle. people were thinking that she was a fringe candidate and not worth any attention. >> ginger, one of the things i
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found frustrating and strange and also fascinating is the relationship of the sort of republican powers that be in delaware to this campaign. obviously the republican party did not want her as their candidate. they campaigned against her. there seems to be lingering har feelings. does her success thus far raising this much money, being the nominee, do you think it changes the republican party in this state? >> we've asked that question, what it's doing to the party and there seems to be a sort of battle going on within the republican party. one person called it a civil war to be. a group of establishment gop members who have been there for a long time who work for candidates who feel like a group of outsiders is taking over. and it's not clear yet, this election will determine some of that, who will win out in that battle. >> ginger and ron, a reporter and ron a political columnist, thank you for helping us sort
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this out. you have a hell of a challenge covering the campaign to be covered. good luck to both of you. so we have been paul and christine o'donnell headquarters if anyone would consent to an interview about the campaign. we told them we'd be in town. advanced notice. the whole bit. nothing. then we went to o'donnell headquarters to ask politely and totally not ambushy if we could please interview someone, anyone, since now we were here in town. it really did not go well, that part of our day here in delaware is coming up. please stay tuned. back in the 80's, it was really tough for me and my family.
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so among the various pillars is that republicans are part of some national level conservative revolution. well, democrats are only worried about the stuff in their own zip codes and consequently republicans are into it it right now and democrats really aren't. maybe that's true. i guess. but i went to a chris coons' campaign event, a democratic campaign event on this raw, drizzly tuesday morning before 9:00 a.m. today and not only chls the crowd there described to me by a political reporter bigger than normal, the democrats i met were totally into it. and totally into big national what does it all mean democrat
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versus republican issues. here is a little evidence to hold up against this year's dumb common wisdom. chris coons' campaign has a decision to make about, frankly, how much they're going to talk about christine o'donnell. christine o'donnell, the reason she's a national celebrity is not just because conservatives like her but everybody in the country is dying to know what the next thing that's going to be unearthed. >> minimize her. it seems the media made sarah palin bigger than life. they're getting ready to do the same thing to christine o'donnell. i think you give them too much airtime. i cannot watch a show on television without seeing sarah palin or something she said. >> put yourself in my shoes, though, i have secret information -- i'm just going to file that away? major party candidate for united states senator. who declassified it to you. you can't say don't cover it.
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>> without christine o'donnell we wouldn't have so much fun watching you at night. >> is it irresponsible to voters or strategically? if you have an opponent who says i have access to secret, classified information that china is trying to invade the united states and i can't tell you -- is it irresponsible either to the voters or is it irresponsible strategically to not go after your opponent when they say things like that? it's one thing to say don't give christine o'donnell drn don't give all the craziness too much attention but when the craziness is really crazy, do you have to talk about it? >> that's a good point. >> she hasn't done a darned thing. i think that, you know, speaking for myself, if chris coons were dismembered and in a body bag, i would vote for him over christine o'donnell because he would do more for the state of delaware than christine o'donnell. >> i would like to see delaware be different from the rest of
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the nation, a state we didn't have to literally go out and knock on doors and beg people to participate by going to the polls on november the 2nd. >> you're saying you do have to beg people here? >> absolutely. absolutely. our turnout -- and i just said i'd like to be able to distinguish us against the rest of the nation by having a community that really cares beyond the small percentage of people who showed up here today. >> i have a robo call. >> you would like delaware to be more enthused. >> look at the turnout we had when president obama was elected. oh, but gosh, darn, that turnout never happened before because for the first time in delaware history we had african-americans register to vote and them got out and voted and if they don't vote this time we could lose it all again. >> that's right. it took george bush eight years to run the economy into the ground. they want president obama to fix it in 18 months. unheard of.
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he's not a magician. okay? you can't do it. we have to support him f. you went out in 2008 and helped elect him, you have to help him get his policies through. if you don't, if you sit at home, you're angry, wait until the republicans get in. >> holding the door right now and you're knocking on it. so the democrats of new castle county, delaware, are not consenting to or participating in any enthusiasm this year, thank you very much. and then there is the very famous well-funded republican here in the senate race, christine o'donnell. we really, truly wanted to interview miss o'donnell or anyone from delaware affiliated with her campaign today. oh, how we tried. the results of that bit of shoe leather reporting is coming up. we are live in newark, delaware. please do stick around. don't worry, lucky, these new wheat thins crunch stix
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consequences would have been disastrous. we would have lost trillions of dollars and then the taxpayers had to refund that. i am opposed to privatizing social security. and i am opposed to changing the structure for folks who have paid into it, earned it, and are relying on it. >> that was democratic senate candidate from here in delaware, chris coons, committing politics today after one of his would-be constituents at the mid county senior center near wilmington told mr. coons he thought republicans were laying siege to social security. he said he wanted mr. coons to pledge to defend it. here's my interview with chris coons. mr. coons, thanks very much for your time. i appreciate it. we're at the mid county senior center. tell me about the decision to campaign here. when you decide how best to use your time, why come here? >> this is a great senior center. i've been coming here for years since i've been in community service.
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it's a community i know well and there's a lot of questions, a lot of tough questions and concerns about social security, about the veterans administration, about health care, the direction of the country and one of the things i find very good is to keep listening to and responding to the real concerns of delawareans. i've gone to civic associations up and down the state of delaware. this just happened to be a good day for the senator in me to be here. >> being here reminds me of every local event i ever went to as a kid, my dad being on the commission and seeing my dad do that sort of stuff, this is timeless retail politics. i have to ask, are you running into your opponent on the campaign trail? part of the reason a lot of national media is here is no one can find her. >> i've seen her once at the primary. she came to a public debate. other than that i have not run into her at all. >> does that seem politically important to you or is that just a tactical decision? >> how she's running her campaign really doesn't concern
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me. i'm interested in trying to connect with as many delawareans as i possibly can. my concern is that she thinks that this is a state that will respond well to lots and lots of paid media, the it tv ads and the negative. i don't think it will and i'm looking forward to having debates with her and to being at community events with her. i hope delawareans will get a chance to listen to both ideas and to compare our experience, our values, our background and where we want to take the country. i think she speaks for a wide group of folks who are angry and very concerned and upset about what's going on in washington and i keep hearing from folks of those groups that they want to take their country back. and my view is i want to take our country forward. i look forward to the chance. >> it's not just a difference in orientation in terms of who your opponent is listening to, who she is getting advice from and who she is directing her message to, it's a difference in money. one thing about the fact that you are running unexpectedly
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against national -- [ inaudible ] -- conservative celebrity, it's a huge tide of money from outside the state. >> weeks ago she had $20,000. in her account today if you believe her website she has $2.7 million in pledges. that is a real concern that this tide of money would come to our little state to try to influence the outcome. outside money did have a big influence in the primary. my strategy is to do what i've been doing since i started in county service, go up and down the state, talking to people, listening to them and addressing their concerns. at the end of the day, this is delaware. people want to meet their candidate. they want to know what you're going to do for them and what you will do for their concerns. >> how do you avoid the martha coakley phenomenon? that special election in that case, you know, i don't mean you're not martha coakley and she is not scott brown but the dynamic in some ways is the
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same. out-of-state funded conservative against someone who has been a lifelong public servant of the state? >> i've been eight years and i don't take anything for granted. this is an election. to me, as you heard me say, this is a job interview and i'm going to keep working my hardest up until election day and then afterwards and i think delawareans respect that. they want to see you're working hard. if i were devising my opponent's campaign, delawareans haven't got ann chance to meet her to understand what she is going to do. i think they will respond to engagement and respect. i don't know what happened in the massachusetts race but my impression was martha coakley didn't work really hard. she took it for granted. you can't take anything for granted. >> democrats across the country are paying attention to this race now because mike castle is expected to be the republican nominee, a very strong favorite.
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now that he's not, christine o'donnell is, you are expected to have a very good shot. you are up in the polls by double digits. you were the founder of the college republicans at your college. you cut the living hell out of the budget as county executive. should democrats around the country, people who don't know you for your service in delaware think of you as a progressive? >> they should look at me, how i've spent my time, at my values and my service. i am progressive on issues i think are critical. to the folks who have driven and inspired and supported the progressive, i resist easy labels on one thing or the other. i have very important issues i'm a solid and reliable democrat. >> on the issue of your service in new castle county, your opponent and some other people in the state are suggesting that your campaign is interfering
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with your performance as county executive, that you should resign, what's your response to that? >> i'm working as hard today as county executive as the whole six years i've been county executive. i have a great team. the county is doing very well. i have in my office daily and i am on top of all the issues in the county. we have 28 days to the election. i think i put up my record of public service and of leading and managing and running government against my opponent's record. >> let me ask you one last question. i know you have tried to run your campaign in a way that avoids making it all about christine o'donnell but i have to ask you, she's an unusual campaign who has taken unusual circumstances. in 2006 she said she had access to classified information that she couldn't discuss but that indicated china was trying to take over the united states of america. she has talked about being around satanic altars in her past. she has talked about her fear that people are hiding in the
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bushes at her campaign headquarters, out to get her. are there issues about not just her policy views but her world view, her connection to reality that you feel like are relevant that you need to talk about? >> i think that's a decision delaware's voters will make november 2nd. i'm grateful for a chance to get out and meet and listen to average delawareans up and down the state. that's what i've been doing since the campaign began. delawareans are very common sense, levelheaded people. i think they'll make their own judgment about all the other issues that the national media has done a great job of piloting in the campaign but what i hear from delawareans, none of them. >> yeah. >> they ask me how are you going to get us back to work, fix the deficit, fix the environment, that's what they care about. at the end of the day that's what this campaign is about. >> do you have access to any secret information about china, china trying to take over the united states? i'm going to ask anybody in delaware thinking somebody will let me know why she might know.
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>> i wish you the best of luck. >> thank you very much for giving us the time. i really appreciate it. thanks. the man that you heard in the background while i was interviewing chris coons was delaware's senior senator tom carpenter who was talking to people, spent the whole morning there meeting with constituents. chris coons has public events on his campaign calendar that you can actually find and go to. his republican opponent christine o'donnell, a whole other story, which you will see in just a moment. "the rachel maddow show" is live at a barn in delaware. please stay with us. miss dimitra, when will you marry me? - be my wife. - miss dimitra, marry me. - marry me. - marry me. - marry me. - be my wife, please. ( bells tolling )
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we are in newark, delaware, at the deer park tavern in the middle of a riveting u.s. senate race here. democratic candidate chris coons making himself as available as possible. he wants to be found. we had an interview with him today versus republican candidate christine o'donnell who actively does not want to be found. we're not booing but i will say that her representative told us loudly and angrily today how much they wanted us to leave them alone.
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so before we came down here to delaware today, we tried with all our might to get somebody from the christine o'donnell campaign or christine o'donnell herself to talk with us because we knew we were going to be talking with her democratic opponent chris coons. we were not able to arrange anything in advance. we left lots of messages. couldn't get anybody to call us back. we tried a lot of different means. we came down here anyway and decided we'd stop by christine o'donnell campaign headquarters. this is it. and we didn't want to be jerks, so we didn't go in with a camera crew, hey, we're here to ambush you and make you feel bad about us trying to get in. so you guys went in.
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>> we went in. >> there's no sign when you go in. there's no sign that says the office is on this floor, this suite or whatever. but there was a guy coming out that had on a christine o'donnell. so bill asked him. >> are you with the christine o'donnell campaign. yes, i am. is the office around here? yes. it's on the second floor. but you didn't hear that from me. i swear. didn't hear that from me. so that was odd. we walked in. someone was coming in. we walked in. nobody at the reception desk. anyway, we talked to a fellow and said we're from the "rachel maddow" show. wait a second. he went and retrieved two guys from the communications department. they came out, very friendly. we said, we're here, we'd love to speak with miss o'donnell or any representative of the campaign. they said, well, hang on just a second. then over came a third gentleman who was less happy to see us. >> oh. >> a little like getting bounced from a bar. >> really? >> he said, what is your
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purpose? i said we're down here covering the senate campaign, obviously. it's a big deal. and we went to a coons event at a senior center and we were hoping to also tell the story of the o'donnell campaign. he said, what show are you representing? "the rachel maddow show" and he said, "that's unacceptable." >> that's unacceptable is his response to you saying the name of the show. >> so i was getting the feeling it wasn't going to happen. then he said that you had been classless, that you had -- i can't remember the word, the verb he used to talk about what you had done to christine. slammed her, ripped her. >> trashing, something like that. >> but i remember classless for sure. and i said, okay, so i'm not to be obnoxious, but just to be clear, so no one's available to us? and then a very -- i would say -- some scorn, visual scorn from him to me. he said, that's unacceptable. >> wait. act out the visual scorn. >> i say, i say, so no one's
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available? anyone from the campaign, any communications person, whatever. that's what you're saying? and he said -- >> like eddie the eagle? >> sort of. then he said, no. it's unacceptable, blah, blah, blah. he was unhappy that we would suggest that you would do this. okay, well, i accept that. i think i said, we accept that. thank you. and have a nice day. >> and as we left, they asked the young man who was -- who had let us in, to position himself outside the door so that no one else would get in that way. >> it was as though they felt like we will stormed in, when we really hadn't stormed in. one of the points you made was we hadn't gone there with cameras. part of the point, at least i was very conscious of, don't be unfair, don't ambush. we're not trying to make anybody look bad. so we hadn't sneaked in. we hadn't gone -- >> we were calling trying to see
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if we could talk to anybody. >> they said stand here and we stood there. we didn't go anywhere or take any pictures or anything that wasn't sanctioned. we assumed nothing was sanctioned and we stood there literally like this hands folded, then they came over and said unacceptable and you're trashing her and you're classless and so here we are in the rain outside. >> the thing that's frustrated is she doesn't have any public events so we can't compare public events with chris coons like we saw today with public events for christine o'donnell. she's not campaigning. i don't know if she's doing any events anywhere else. >> that's certainly the way that we can tell by reading the newspaper, by reading her site, she may be, but it's impossible tore us to tell by any publication. maybe she is secretly. but we haven't been able to figure out where she's going to be. >> not only no to the candidate but no to anybody from the campaign. >> that's correct. >> and nobody who supports her
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will talk to us either? >> not yet. >> not yet. we can always go to the train station. >> i have all these questions. >> well, 11,000 people voted for her. so they exist. >> in this county. >> in this county. >> yep. >> 444 in wilmington. >> is that right? >> yes. >> that's right, actually, in the city of wilmington. we can't find the o'donnell campaign. and when we did find them, they insulted us and told us to leave. that's hard to cover. it's hard to cover both sides. everybody says, why didn't you talk to republicans. this is what it's like. sulking in the rain outside their campaign headquarters after they've insulted us and told us to leave. that's what it's like trying to talk to republican candidates. top of the ticket in this year's elections. so we spent the whole day in delaware. we got great access to the chris coons campaign, met the candidate himself, saw him talking with would-be constituents at a rally. he was there with tom carper.
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talked with a bunch of people who had gone tout see chris coons at that event. and since then we've essentially been all over everywhere we can possibly think of to try to find somebody to speak to us about the other side of this campaign b the christine o'donnell side. so after spending a lot of time online contacting people, after writing to different groups of people who had supported christine o'donnell, contacting, for example, tea party groups, of course, contacting the campaign itself, we even went to the campaign headquarters. they kicked us out and didn't let us talk to anybody and insulted us and said we should leave and never come back. that was very unpleasant. while we were over there in wilmington getting insulted and thrown out of the christine o'donnell campaign headquarters we got a line, a lead, a bead that there was somebody willing to talk to us from the republican side about this campaign. finally. it was the president of the college republicans here at the university of delaware, which is in newark, delaware. it's beautiful.
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we're here on the college green right now. his name is dan miceli. i'm going to go talk to him. i'm very excited. we finally found a real live republican. dan miceli. >> great to have you here, rachel. >> thanks for doing this. it's been strange to -- it's not that weird, i think, that christine o'donnell doesn't want to talk to us. she's had a constrained media strategy. but it's hard to figure out why nobody who supports her wants to talk to the media. do you have any insight about that? >> what i think personally, she wants to focus on the voters of delaware and she wants to reach out to them. as for the party, i think they ought to let the candidate speak for herself. >> dan, i got to say the one thing i'm wored about, is when tried to find christine o'donnell supporters, we kept hearing from people, i'm a christine o'donnell supporter, i'd love to talk to you. every single supporter was from out of state. you just told me you're a pennsylvania resident. >> i'm happy to help you out
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here in your moment of need. >> this way? >> yes. >> i've been practicing newark, newark. where are you from? >> i'm actually pennsylvania. >> pennsylvania resident. >> but don't worry. don't worry. i've been involved in delaware politics. let's make a left. >> oh, man. >> i am the president of the university of delaware college republican. if you saw a poll 40% of voters do support her according to rasmussen. i'm essentially delaware resident. >> but you don't vote in delaware. >> that's right. i don't vote here. >> so we've still -- we're still 100% strikeout in terms of finding a delaware voter who says they're going to vote for christine o'donnell. i don't -- like -- we failed. totally failed.