and dick durbin from illinois. and the arizona senator. reporter: he's a republican, >> reporter: and there's is jackie robinson's widow and her daughter. so sasha, malia, and michelle obama. we're waiting and moments away from air force one arriving here. everyone is talking about the beast, the transvortation for the president, we've talked about that. fascinated. >> reporter: and so are we. we were on our way here at 2:45 or some of the and i have to say that was one of of the most scariest experiences coming over here now a half dozen times for both of us. i have to tell you, coming here, havana has turned int a police state. >> reporter: i don't a ghost town, nobody is out. >> police are everywhere. >> reporter: yes. you won't see a lot of cubans i massive security along the routes that we think the president is going to take t old havana. >> reporter: one of the reasons it was so scary, the fact that we knew if we stepped out of bounds in anyway, we could have been arrested. so clearly, clearly, this place is getting ready for the pr

senator dick durbin, thanks for taking the time to come on the show.reciate it. >> thanks, chris. >> that is "all in" for this evening. "the rachel maddow show" begins "the rachel maddow show" begins right now. good evening, rachel. >> good evening, chris. thanks, my friend. >> you bet. >>> thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. we knew this day would come. we didn't not know exactly when. as recently as yesterday there are people paid to talk for a living that were assuring us this day would definitely not come today but it's come today. the time has, in fact, arrived. and my friends, we must now gather together to poof marco rubio. we started with 17, 17. 17 people all got in over the course of last spring and summer. nobody got out until september 11th when the first one we got to poof was rick perry. ten days later we got to poof scott walker. then we went almost another two months without being able to poof anyone until finally

.& nancy pelosi, dick durbin, patrick leahy. it was a rainy day and continues to be. there they are with their umbrellas. and there they are shaking the hands with rodriguez who is there. raul castro, the cuban leader was not on hand to meet with them, which is standard. >> anchor: yes, that is standard protocol. and meantime, away from the airport, the cuban government cracking down on dissidents ahead of the president's visit. our crews were able to capture this video. several members of the well known ladies in white were arrested and taken away by cuban police. >> anchor: they generally protest and march on sunday. this was their day to do it. this was a rather large protest. there was chanting, "castro no". you'll see they've been handcuffed and taken away. protest it is south florida. this was acene in little havana. some groups coming out thehe. and our glenna keeping a watch on the reactions. we're joined on our sets b our wonderful team of political reporters. michael, who knows cuba and dr. frank, who is the director of the latin and american caribbean cente

president ama is there with a delegation of dignitaries, nancy pelosisi dick durbin. and there they are on this rainy day in havana. arriving at jose' marti' airport. >> anchor: hohefully, they have an extra half hour and maybe reets of old havana, where our own victor is standing by live in the rain drops we face. but victor, do you think a lot of people, oh, dear it's really coming down, is that going to change the crowds? >> r%porter: well, i can tell you both, since we've been up here reporting live, the streets were packed when we started. once the rain relevant staeed coming down, we watched the streets empty. but no doubt, the people will still be up whatting the president's motorcade, the beast as it's known. one thing you guys mentioned before we took the break, that younger people and engaging the cuban people. i can tell you right now, they are -- while connecting to the internet, all of that is still a big issue. they are engaged right now in what's happening. before i was able to bring anything up with speaking with people, they were updating me on they w

i want to thank your senator tick did yo dick durbin who is here. i've worked with dick in the senate. i look forward to working with him if i'm so fortunate enough to be your president to continue to make progress. i want to thank your members of congress. congressman davis and congressman rush and congressman foster and congresswoman kelly. thank you. and your attorney general lisa ha madigan, thank you. well, tomorrow is the big day, my friends. and we are going to work until the polls close to try to persuade as many folks across illinois to turn out and or course vote as we can. and their future is at stake because it is at stake. i don't think the stakes have ever been higher or the rhetoric on the other side ever been lower. it is time for us as a country to unite. because we have work to do. and it's really important work. i want to make sure we knock down all the economic barriers that stand in the way of every person getting ahead and staying ahead. i'm the only candidate who has laid out comprehensive ideas and plans to make sure we invest

presidential year it seems that everything is harder during this silly season but i was working with dick durbin one of the great leaders of criminal-justice reform in the senate along with people like leahy who has been working on this issue for a long time reword discussing the coalition. can we get across the finish line? at the same time of the supreme court battle. use the the house is making slow but steady progress so i am hoping this is one of the great things to achieve this legislation to reverse the for the first time to a turn back around all the state's are lowering their prison population by lowering their crime rate to demonstrate this actually creates more violence and more crime any hope that they can provide for their family if you come out of prison it cannot get a job you can get loans he can get the pilgrims you can get food stamps so to strip that away from people surprise surprise we now know that i work with the manhattan institute attachment to work it dramatically lowers your race and don't do these things and we found out it new work announcing the murder victims 84% w

senator dick durbin, thanks for taking the time to come on the show. appreciate it. >> thanks, chris. >> that is "all in" for this evening. "the rachel maddow show" begins "the rachel maddow show" begins right now. good evening, rachel. >> good evening, chris. thanks, my friend. >> you bet. >>> thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. we knew this day would come. we didn't not know exactly when. as recently as yesterday there are people paid to talk for a living that were assuring us this day would definitely not come today but it's come today. the time has, in fact, arrived. and my friends, we must now gather together to poof marco rubio. we started with 17, 17. 17 people all got in over the course of last spring and summer. nobody got out until september 11th when the first one we got to poof was rick perry. ten days later we got to poof scott walker. then we went almost another two months without being able to poof anyone until finally bye-bye, bobby jindal. we got to poof lindsey graham. then between christmas and new year's, we were suppose

. >> raul, meanwhile, senator dick durbin, senator from illinois, on saturday sent out a fund-raising which he said no senate has ever denied a hearing to a presidential nominee to fill a supreme court vacancy. the senate republican majority must do their job, give garland a timely hearing. that one-two punch, barack obama saying it and then the senator saying it essentially stoking this idea that this is disrespect for the president. does that help democrats in these swing senate states? >> yes, i believe it does. it was very smart of the obama administration to get this nomination out before this senate recess that we're entering this week. it was very smart of them to get this nomination out there, because we're seeing senators obviously mark kirk, kelly ayotte, other senators under increasing pressure. think about this. democrats often have trull distilling their message into a very easy to understand, you know, like a hashtag, for lack of a better word, as republicans are so successful. this time, we're using th the #dojourjob. they're well positions to make their case to the pub

who were aboard air force one, house minority leader nancy pelosi, senator patrick leahy, senator dick durbin, senator jeff blake. you see it is a bipartisan group traveling with the president. they are the ones who have power over some of the other things we talked about like the embargo, who will continue to debate the future of guantanamo bay, but if i can take you from the policy back to the moment, allen, you know the cuban-american community. you said your parents came here 50 years ago. what does this mean to them? >> i'm dying to get back home and talk to my mother because i asked her a couple days -- just a few days ago before i was coming, understand, that's been somewhat supportive of all this. she embraces it, she's happy, she thinks anything that can possibly help the cuban people is a good thing. at the same time that means dealing with somebody who they fled, somebody who ended up taking their properties, whon d who did a lot of damage to a lot of their relatives. for so many of them, this is such a hard thing, i asked her pointblank, what do you think about the president going

dianne feinstein just sat down next to dick durbin.ve harry reid, head of the democrats in the senate, taking his seat on the aisle center. president obama is going to count on all of them and all of the friends they have ever met and more to go in to a bruising fight over this nomination. it's been said had he appointed the late mother teresa, he would have gone into a bruising fight over this nomination. because mitch mcconnell, head of the republicans in the senate, has said they won't take the meeting. they won't consider this nomination. so the president's gearing up for an election year fight. tom goldstein is with us. and we're awfully happy about that. he writes the suburb scotusblog, the acronym for supreme court of the united states. he's an msnbc supreme court analyst, and for his part, he has argued 38 cases before the u.s. supreme court. tom, i read your voluminous report on all of the opinions of judge srinivasan. we were ready. we were in position. and here we are talking about merrick garland, who i should add, you rank

. >> we see the democratic leader harry reid sitting there with patrick leahy and dick durbin. republicans in the rose garden watching this right now. my suspicion is no republican senators but we'll take a closer look. >> let's bring in cnn political reporter manu raju live on capitol hill. manu, let's be frank, president obama was under a lot of pressure to appoint someone or nominate someone who was representative of a minority group, an african-american, latino, somebody around who liberals could find a cause and they could help get voters to the polls. merrick garland, a relatively moderate middle-aged -- or 63-year-old, i should say, white guy is not a nakedly political pick. >> yeah, it is surprising in that sense. whoever is chosen will be part of the presidential debate going forward. it will be interesting to see the extent to which a number of nominees may uphold themselves out of consideration given the fact that the senate looks like they are not going to move forward on anybody. now, as we've been talking about, merrick garland was overwhelmingly confirmed in 1997

this is happening in illinois and one of the senators at the hearing, dick durbin sent a letter to thee rethink his plan to retain hundreds of i.t. workers in illinois, his home state. stuart: you now support donald trump. tell us why. >> trump has been the most vocal about this. they should hire everybody back it is replaced by the foreign worker. he is the most vocal about it. ted cruz is also brought it up as well. this is an issue come into the presidential level and getting more attention. americans are starting to see what is happening inside back at this issue. stuart: real fast, are you organizing with the other local people forced out of a job? >> yes, we have an organization. my attorney called u.s. workers.work. we have people from all over the country contacting her and letting her know what is going on. she's there to help them legally. she is also there to contact senators because they are starting to reach out to the ceos. stuart: thanks for joining us. you can come back again. republicans have showed up to the polls in record numbers this year. not so for the democrats.

host: senator dick durbin as part of this delegation. 20 members of congress joining the president ons trip to cuba. schakowsky,n jan sherry brewster of illinois also there. barbara lee has been tweeting pictures from her trip as well. i will show you one of her pictures and a second. we will go to juan in miami, florida on the line for cuban-americans. caller: the cuban embargo has not been enforced properly. look at all these direct flights that come from miami. they are now flying from fort lauderdale and tampa. it has prevented me from eating my uncles. i lost 11 uncles over there because of this direct flight to cuba. there's a time for everything and the time for cuba to the free was in the 1990's when fidel that we are not going to give any more money. that is when we should have gone over there and gave money. send $50 to a resident in cuba, they are not going to overthrow the regime over there. embargo with coastal flights, you're supposed to go to a third country to get to people. that is what they did with my grandma when she left puerto rico to go back to cuba because she