and vanita gupta. who has an op-ed in "the washington post" titled "congress must intervene to make sure trump doesn't sabotage the census". and vanita, let me start with you on this question. so, you know, the census happens every ten years. there is a lot of planning. i have interacted with people at the census and they're some of the most knowledgeable, incredible civil servants who know what they're talking about and will, like, just get on the phone with you and explain things to you. they're real professionals. does it scan to you that it's possible this is a good-faith announcement to cut this by a month? >> you won't be surprised to hear, chris, that, no, i do not think this is a good-faith decision. i think the professionals at the census bureau are probably deeply unhappy and distressed by this decision. this is a clearly partisan and political move by the trump administration. in fact, last week, the census bureau director stephen dillingham testified he learned about the trump administratio

joining us now is vanita gupta. she is president and ceo of the leadership conference on civil and human rights. as i mentioned, she was head of the civil rights division in the obama justice department. it's great to see you. thanks for being here. >> it's great to be here. i'm still tearing up, so i'm sorry, rachel. but i feel emotional tonight. >> well, tell me about your emotions. it's okay if you're emotional about it. talk to me about why you feel that way. >> it's a historic day in so many ways. i mean, you know, to think that the daughter of indian immigrants, jamaican immigrants, on the ticket. this is a woman who has been a fighter her whole life. she has been a trailblazer, a blazer of firsts. she's had to take a lot of hits from a lot of people. in all of the roles that she's played, she's one of the most progressive u.s. senators that we have. so today for this announcement, for her to be a first, the first black woman, the first south asian-american woman, it's really a statement. and you know this, ra

dale ho and vanita gupta, thank you so much, both of you. that was great. that was "all in" on this tuesday night. i have great news for you. "the rachel maddow show" starts right now with the one and only rachel maddow. great to have you back, rachel. >>> thank you very much. it was really nice to be away. it both felt like a visit to another planet and also like i was only gone for 30 seconds. >> yes, exactly. >>> anyway, thank you, my friend. appreciate it. and thanks to you at home for being with us this hour. it was great to have a few days off. i want to say thanks in particular to my dear friends, my very beloved and respected colleagues ali velshi and nicolle wallace for pinch hitting for me. i want to thank my staff for keeping "the rachel maddow show" going with all cylinders firing while i was away and those guest hosts were here in my seat. and that's to all of you guys for not minding too much for when i need to go turn off my brain for six days and not be here. so it was really, really nice and a real privilege to have that time. i am grateful

at vanita gupta points out she was just on with chris hayes on msnbc. she points out that the census is calling it quits early, even as their response right now is the lowest its ever been. at this point in the process, they have counted fewer than us than ever before in the process. so why would they cut off the count early? they would not only need that extension, they would need to scale up what they're doing? why would they be cutting it back? on the surface it makes no sense, if you actually want to count everyone in the country, you need the extra time. and they should not only be taking the extension, they certainly shouldn't be stopping work early. i mean, the census is supposed to count everyone in the country. if that's what you want to do, what the trump administration is doing right now makes no sense. if, however, they're not really counting the whole country and if specifically, they're not interested in counting the people who are hardest to count. poor people, minorities, marginalized populations. people who move a lot. people in homeles

joining me now, vanita gupta, president and ceo on the leaders conference of human and civil rights.ayapal. thank you both for joining me this morning. you sent out a tweet about a hearing that the congressional caucus had last week about the postal service. you wrote, our hearing on the sabotage of usps was stunning. it revealed the blatant corruption of this administration and their complete disregard for our democracy. it demonstrated that they'll always put their power and profits over the ingwithbeing of people. there will be accountability. what question do you want the postmaster general dejoy to answer? >> this included a hearing of david williams, who is the former inspector general of the usps also on the board of governors. i believe he was the vice chair of the board of governors of the postal service. he was appointed by trump, and he has served multiple administrations over the past couple decades. what he said was, number one, he was in the room for dejoy's job interview. he could not understand how this job could have been given to dejoy who did not have the experienc