tv All In With Chris Hayes MSNBC May 28, 2019 5:00pm-6:00pm PDT
5:00 pm
does he have what it takes? we will tackle the issues in california, a state that will have a big influence in 2020. at 10:00 p.m. eastern tonight, kamala harris joins lawrence o'donnell for a town hall in south carolina. that's "hardball" for now. all in with chris hayes starts right now. tonight on all in -- >> read any interesting tweets lately. >> the lone republican calling for impeachment of donald trump takes his argument to the people. >> it is a difficult process to remove fortune from office. >> how justin amash made his argument to the voters of michigan. >> it's important that we do our job as a congress. >> why there are not more in congress following him. >> that are we not allow misconduct to go undeterred and not just say someone can violate
5:01 pm
the public trust and that there are no consequences to it. >> then as a president pretends to go at joe biden from the left, lawrence o'donnell on how the media can avoid weaponizing donald trump's bat faith attacks. plus, as missouri moves to eliminate its last abortion clinic, how the supreme court sent ominous warnings on abortion rights today. meet the man the white house wants to lead their push to undermine climate science. >> the demonization of carbon dioxide is like the demonization of the yous under hitler. >> all in starts now. >> good evening from new york. something remarkable happened just a few hours ago. one of the most compelling arguments made for impeachment anywhere if the country is coming from a conservative republican tea party freedom caucus member named justin
5:02 pm
amash. you probably heard of him. what amash did was read the mueller report and after reading it with zero apparent political upside and obvious downside has been issuing extremely well argued tweet threads and statements calling for the impeachment of the president of the united states who also happens to be the leader of his party. just a little white ago, he did something no one else has done. he went into the lion's den to defend his position in a district that trump carried in 2016. they narrowly voted for trump and went by about 10 points. if you thought a republican congressman who called for the republican president to be impeached would be torn apart in his home district, you would be wrong. >> first i want to salute your courage. [ applause ]
5:03 pm
>> despite facing a mostly friendly audience, he did take questions from trump supporters who were not happy for calls for impeachment to say the least. >> you talk about the constitution and how important that is, but yet nothing that mueller came out with in his report, nothing that has been said about him and president trump and -- is constitutional. it has been a smear attack because that's how the democrats work. this is what mueller and the democrats have all tried to -- and the deep state. the bureaucrats. i don't know if you dealt with a bureaucrat, but it's mind boggling that we have to deal with them. >> you spent the last two years
5:04 pm
failing to do your job which is to directly represent the popular will of your constituents. >> that's not my job. >> i double checked online so it is your job. you further know impeachment would tear this country apart. it would cause a political upheaval in this country people in this generation have never seen. possible civil war. >> amash clearly laid out his case for why president trump should be impeached. he didn't hold back from criticizing republican leadership who tried to margi l marginalize him over the last week. >> if you read volume two, you will be appalled at much of the conduct. and i was appalled. to me, the conduct was impeachable. the question is, do you then move forward with impeachment proceedings. in the mueller report, he asked the white house counsel to create a false record.
5:05 pm
things like that to basically mislead people about a statement he made. things like that to me reflect incredible dishonesty and really harm the office of the presidency. you see countries around the world where people do not respect the rule of law and they don't care about the character of their leaders. they don't care about the ethics of their leaders. in these countries, all that matters is your person is in power and as long as your person is in power, that person is allowed to do whatever they want. you saw what happened to me from our so-called leader, kevin mccarthy. i read the mueller report and i'm sure he did not read it. i stated what it actually says and he resorted to attacks and other various attacks that have nothing to do with the mueller report. this is the kind of leadership in quotes that we have in congress. >> amash started with a twitter
5:06 pm
threat that hasn't slowed down. he caught everyone off guard clearly. he is going out on a limb, senate majority leader is reportedly already scheming on how he will shortcut his own congressional constitutional duties. several republicans told the hill that mcconnell will quash articles that make it out of the house. the chairman said i think it would be disposed of quickly. in other words, mitch mcconnell not for the first time taking a process that is in the constitution and mandated to do to use shameless will to power to destroy it. congressman david cicilline and chair of the house policy and communications committee. i am curious what goes through your head watching your republican colleague in that town hall in a republican district have this conversation. >> i admire justin amash very
5:07 pm
much. i don't agree with him on a lot of issues, but i respect his courage and respect the conclusion he has come to and there are a growing number of members of my caucus who think the time has come to open impeachment inquiry and consider whether or not it's appropriate to move for the. i like justin read the entire mueller report and it's hard to are the that report and not come to a conclusion that the president committed offenses that are impeachable. obstruction of justice is one of them. in addition to the president's behavior that is detailed in the mueller report, try to convince witnesses to lie and fire the special counsel and the list goes on and on. the president since the release of the report has engaged in an ongoing cover up to prevent congress from getting to the truth and acting as if he is above the law. nobody is above the law and the opening of an inquiry, the
5:08 pm
formal beginning of this process is important not only because of what's in the mueller report, but because of the behavior of the president engaging in an ongoing cover up from prevent congress from doing its work. >> i was thinking about this a lot over the weekend. the substantive principal question. do you think the president committed impeachable offenses and putting all politics aside, he should be impeached for that. the political ramifications where they don't have to take into account for 20 years. you probably wouldn't do it. that would be defensible. what do you think about the relationship? how do you think about the tracks? >> i think this is a moment, a grave moment for our country. we have to set aside political considerations for this reason. no one really knows how this will play out in the end. people who pretend that are making a mistake. you don't know how it will work out and there are risks on both
5:09 pm
sides and you ought to do the right thing. it's not just about this president, but upholding the rule of law and honoring the constitution and this is also about future presidents. people who are watching and thinking around the world, is this okay in the united states? this is a question of right and wrong. if we begin impeachment and lay out the evidence in hearings, gather all of the witnesses and the documents and let the american people see what the mueller report says, let that come to life, we will make the right judgment and so will the american people. it's like watching somebody rob a bank and saying oh, my god, he committed a crime. the jury may acquit him. if they did something wrong, they need to be held accountable. the president is not above the law. we were elected to held him accountable and that's our duty. it's a dangerous precedent if we don't fulfill that responsibility and allow this lawless president to continue to engage in misconduct.
5:10 pm
>> there are two arguments i hear. again, i don't think these are crazy arguments. they are persuasive and on the merits. the people just are not there. there is no point in pursuing this thing without popular support. what do you think of that? >> first of all, i think that's right which is the way you build public support for this action is you open an inquiry and tell the american people the story. when the nixon inquiry opened, 19% thought he should be impeached. by the time it conclude and articles were filed seven months later, the vast majority support it. today 38% think he should be removed. there is enough basis to start and begin to tell the story so the american people can see what conduct is at stake and if we build public support, that will necessitate moving forward. people have to know what happened.
5:11 pm
we have the responsible to bring witnesses in to tell them about the president's misconduct. >> the objections about walking and chewing gum. you feel confident that you can pass bills like the legislation you just passed for hr one. we will see. >> you have a lot of time on your hands right now. >> chris, it's really important to make this point. we passed 100 pieces of legislation that drove down the cost of prescription drugs and equal pay for equal work and universal background checks. we are getting the work done for the american people. we have to hold this administration accountable and we have do to do both things. >> no one said don't pass stuff in the house because mcconnell will kill it in the senate anyway. >> that's right. >> former reagan administration official and senior adviser and spokesperson for the house oversight committee.
5:12 pm
i thought the amash town hall was fascinating. i had no idea what that was going to be. was there going to be a ton of die-hards to scream at him. the 2010 tea party. it was going to be lots of liberals in the district or people who favor impeachment and how he dealt with it? it was remarkable to have the exchange? >> it was. i was pleasantly surprised by it. there were a couple of trump supporters. the first woman was inarticulate and the second made her points, but didn't want to hear the answers. they were irrelevant to the discussion. it was heartening to think that people came and listened and admire him for standing up and doing what's right. i served on the house judiciary staff during the time of watergate and watched as larry hogan, sr., the father of the current governor of the state
5:13 pm
was the one republican who voted for all three articles of impeachment. it has to start somewhere. >> it's also interesting to me just there is an idea that if you impeach the president, it will electrify his base. i was anticipating more of a folks in maga hats at this town hall for precisely that reason. it's the first real world test of the thesis. >> right. i think part of the issue is, this president for reasons i never will be able to wrap my arms around has a high approval rating with his base. there is nothing more to get from that. it also speaks to the old adage that people like congress, but like their congressman. how people might react in washington or on the media versus how people feel in their district with someone they see day in and day out in their shopping center and neighborhood and someone they are used to seeing. that's a different type of feeling on the ground versus here in washington or new york.
5:14 pm
we didn't know what to expect. it could have been a free-for-all and something different. we saw a district that knows their congressman and respects someone coming forward and taking a position. a definitive stance even though it may cost them politically. what a refreshing idea to do the right thing and not worry about the next election. >> to me, there is big constitutional issues at stake that are not resolved. i obviously lean certain ways in how i see the president's conduct, but a democratic exchange of what the expectation is about someone with the full power of the american state can and can't get away with. a conversation that we haven't had in a formalized way as we watched this play out in the town hall. >> that's right. i agree with what the skngman said. running in the back of my mind were the wise words of my
5:15 pm
philosoph philosopher, omar little of the series, the wire. you come at the king. you best not miss. i do worry about that. >> elaborate on that. if he is impeach and acquitted in the senate, it strengthens or emboldens the president. >> i am afraid of that. i'm afraid it will make congress look impotent and further damage the institution. i'm not opposed to impeachment. we have to move forward with investigations and nancy pelosi is taking the right track. let's get all of the information out there and do the investigations. then we will see how to proceed. >> it's funny you bring that up and dealing with sanctions over the weekend. one of the points was the threat of reimposition proved to be bigger and way more heavily than actuality. one wonders whether the threat of impeachment that is always off stage can function in a similar way with respect to the president or whether he
5:16 pm
interprets the lack of forward motion that is a blank check. >> i think that's the president who more than anybody responds to force and strength. we city in his behavior and rhetoric. what he sees is a democratic congress that is reluctant to wield the power they have been given in the last mid-terms. he sees hesitancey and division and sees it as license to do what he has been doing, taking a wrench and taking a sledge hammer to checks and balances. there is a reason why he is not giving do you means. the attorney general didn't show up to a hearing he was subpoenaed, a lawful subpoena to show to. what could congress do to look impotent. they already are in his mind. >> you worked for darrell i sa who was in oversight who was a maximali maximalist. there is a case to be made that that cannot work out well either. there is lessons on success. what do you think about that?
5:17 pm
>> i would say this. issa issued more than 100 subpoena to the obama administration. when you look during this period of time, there was a conflict with the tea party and the only thing that united the establishment wing was the tea party wing and the investigations and things like fast and furious and benghazi and furthermore you look at the damage that they did, would hillary clinton be president if those e-mails never existed? >> fair point. thank you both very much. amidst a wave of aggressive abortions restrictions, what the surprising supreme court ruling signals about abortion and birth control fights to k. the future of roe vs. wade in two minutes. of roe vs. wade in two minutes
5:18 pm
etsy is the place to find new favorites. the belongings we hold on to. ♪ etsy knows that moments, big and small, deserve things that really matter. ♪ sold by real people and filled with things that last beyond the latest trends. ♪ belongings don't just show what we care about. they show who we are. shop etsy.com
5:19 pm
be go[ laughing ] gone. woo hoo. ♪ welcome to my house mmm, mmm, mmmmm. ball. ball. ball. awww, who's a good boy? it's me. me, me, me. yuck, that's gross. you got to get that under control. [ dogs howling ] seriously? embrace the mischief. say "get pets tickets" into your x1 voice remote to see it in theaters. >> just days after the governor of missouri signed a near total abortion ban, that state may be
5:20 pm
the first state without a single abortion clinic. the health department is threatening not to renew the license to offer abortions in st. louis which is the only place in missouri that provides the procedure. the license expires on a friday. waves of abortion plans including alabama, georgia, mississippi, kentucky and others. states are also and have been making it much harder year by year for the clinics to parade. in 2008, missouri had five and now they are down to one. soon that number might be zero. on a national level, the supreme court upheld part of indiana law regulating the disposal of fetal remains. while they side stepped the ban, perhaps this aspect was a 20-page concurrence by clarence thomas not just to abortion, but birth control as well. here with me now, richard
5:21 pm
blumenthal called for congress to pass abortion aspects and melissa murray from the school of law the coeditor from the new book reproductive rights and justice stories. let me start with you. clarence thomas concurrence is a strange document. it has no legal force because it's about things adjacent to what they ruled on, but what is he saying and what is it signalling about where he wants the court to go? >> it's a signal to take up the question of ugenics abortion. laws that prohibit abortions in situations where people want to terminate because of sex, race, or a fetal abnormality or disability. to be clear, i don't know that there are a lot of abortions being done because someone doesn't like the sex of their perspective child or doesn't like the race of their child. it's fetal abnormalities where the fetus will not survive for long after birth.
5:22 pm
that's when it's invoked. he is laying out a trail of bread crumbs for the larger culture to take it up as a claim. he is pitching this as a racial justice wedge issue. he invokes the history of contraception and there is a likely history and he talks about it. margaret sanger, super racist. it's an incomplete history and would love to talk to him about this. he leaves out the fact that abortion restrictions are born of this movement. in the 19th century, the interest in criminalizing abortion was born of an interest and concern that native-born white women were using abortion and contra exception to sush fertility while immigrant women were having too many children. >> both sides of painted. >> this was not a pro or pro choice argument. >> you have the supreme court opening the door.
5:23 pm
a few votes that want to take the run and roe and the incremental questions that may be taking their side. you have states passing these restrictions. what do you view as the federal government's in terms of the legislating branches. >> what the federal government must do is to prevent all of these restrictions, not just the draconian and demagoguic laws, the fetal heartbeat laws of alabama and georgia and kentucky, but the restrictions in missouri, for example. on licensing requirements with the width of hallways in clinics and admitting prims. i introduced the women's health protection act in 2013 last week for the fourth time with strong support from the center for reproductive rights and planned parenthood who are part of a movement who is trying to stop the restrictions. >> democrats from generally not
5:24 pm
done this. the way they viewed this is that you have row and you have to preserve as much of roe as possible and the state legislatu legislatures. kamala harris came up with a policy that is a voting rights act for choice is abortion rights. the government should sign protections for people's right to access abortions. >> these states, all of them are playing a very dangerous game to overrule row versus wait. kamala harris's proposal which he has cosponsored with me and tammy baldwin and another leader is that there would be this preclearance process by the department of justice. i'm fine with that concept. keep in mind this department of justice is likely to clear a lot
5:25 pm
of restrictions. >> here's my question to you. is there a universe in which you have a court willing to throw out rroe, one of the most astonishing reverseals. wouldn't they just scrap that too? >> this goes back to the feet remains law. what are they doing. they are upholding the fetal remains law while side stepping the question of the larger issue of roe's viability. y fetal remains law has real concerns for access for women. this is a law that adds to the cost of abortion in indiana. clinics either have the option of passing the cost on to patients or alternatively absorbing it themselves which may drive many of them out of business. that's the point. >> i was trying to get clarity on the law. it's fetal remains not just for abortions and miscarriages?
5:26 pm
>> the language in justjustice is to elevate the status of the fetus. we are talking about a separate human. >> do you view these -- it seems like we are headed towards explosive conflict. this cannot hold. the agenda is clear. mitch mcconnell saying if we had an opening in 2020, we would confirm it. is that where you see this going? >> we are heading towards a very explosive moment. that's the right way to view it. right now the danger and the damage will be enduring because a lot of women feel that this right is criminalized. a lot of these women in those states where criminal penalties have been imposed on the providers feel maybe wrongly that it's imposed on them and that fear and intimidation is
5:27 pm
part of the playbook. >> the publicity has an effect over and above what the actual law is. people have been watching news reports about you can get 99 years or things like that. >> more point which is very, very important. the providers and the nurses and the clinic escorts are all subject to the fear and intimidati intimidation. they are really profiled. >> richard blumenthal, i thank you both. >> the critical test with the weaponizing of the media, next. weaponizing of the media, next pe match guarantee. and i can choose from their 14 different hotel brands, so i get the right hotel for every member of my family. like a doubletree for my cousins who love their warm chocolate chip cookies. a homewood suites for my uncle who likes a long stay. a hampton for my sister and her kids. that's a lot of syrup and the waldorf astoria beverly hills for me. but i thought your family vacation was in miami? it is. i hear they're having a great time. book at hilton.com and get the hilton price match guarantee. if you find a lower rate,
5:28 pm
5:29 pm
no matter what you trade, at fidelity is that for me? mhm aaaah! nooooo... quick, the quicker picker upper! bounty picks up messes quicker and is 2x more absorbent than the leading ordinary brand. [son loudly clears throat] [mom and dad laugh] bounty, the quicker picker upper. now with new prints featuring characters from disney/pixar's toy story 4 in theaters june 21.
5:31 pm
big test as we head into 2020 and i'm worried we are not passing it. central issue whose sheer shamelessness means he will say anything at any time, but any opponent no matter how disingenuous it is. he called for the central park five to be executed. he pretended to be in criminal justice. he attacked hillary clinton's support despite supporting it himself. it is a genuine challenge how to cover criticisms that if offered by someone else have merit and legitimacy and from a troller in chief, our exercises in bad faith. joining me now, my colleague in spartanburg, south carolina hosting a live town hall with presidential candidate, kamala harris. i thought of you immediately as
5:32 pm
i was ruminating on it. >> it is complex and i'm glad we are acknowledging it's a difficult question. it's the president of the united states speaking and we are accustomed to taking everything the president of the united states says seriously and transmitting it to the american public to the world. one place we can begin are the insult nicknames. the attack nicknames insulting names and labels he comes up with for people. we don't have to deliver those. if we deliver those, we are functioning as a pure pipeline of the propaganda. you can tell the story and you can say he attacked joe biden. it's easy to report on the elements of it. without including his specific new name and candidate and a
5:33 pm
senator and i noticed that right away. the first time, the first time he came up with a name for elizabeth warren, the first time he did it, that's when i realized this couldn't go on in my hour of cable news. i did something that night, specifically about the name he was using for elizabeth warren and what it actually meant and the history of it which of course donald trump doesn't know. i started to realize then that we have to do this with all of these labels that he comes up with. he is counting on us to repeat the names. >> i couldn't agree enough with the insults. the easiest name. you will be having this town hall with kamala harris with a fascinating background who was a prosecutor and the attorney general in the state of california. there is this thing that trump will do that other people wouldn't. it is preposterous for donald
5:34 pm
trump to attack someone from the left on criminal justice. everyone knows it's ridiculous. he knows it's ridiculous. most politicians wouldn't do it because of the preposterousness of it and he will get ink out of it. >> the other part is donald trump has now proved to his own satisfaction that it actually works with his supporters. they get the gist of what he's doing. >> the cynicism. >> he is far to the right of joe biden on everything. including every criminal justice issue. he knows his supporters know he would be far more harsh on every issue you can think of except bank fraud or tax evasion. >> or obstruction for president. >> his supporters are part of the support system of yes, go ahead and mount the fake attack
5:35 pm
on joe biden and we'll clap for that. >> you have got a live town hall with kamala harris that i'm looking forward to watching. what are you looking for tonight? >> look, one of the big breaking news issues of the day obviously as you were covering is this new abortion decision by the supreme court. kamala harris is well positioned to discuss that. a lawyer herself from the district attorney of san francisco and attorney general of california and united states senator came out today with what she believes is a possible solution way for dealing with the cases at the supreme court. we are going to get into that in detail. there are challenges in how she would implement that. i will ask her about those challenges and how she would try to implement the idea that she offered just this afternoon. i don't know if it's a coincidence that she offered it on the same day that the u.s. supreme court enlivened this
5:36 pm
issue. >> kamala harris has sort of come out very strong in this race. she had a huge and amazingly impressive opening. she continued to raise money well. everything in the field changed after joe biden's enter. the name recognition he has. where do you see her right now? >> some of the things have changed in ways that are favorable to senator harris. in recent polling in south carolina, for example, she is polling third. to joe biden in the lead, bernie sanders in second and kamala har n is in solid third. they are not that wildly different from barack obama numbers versus front-runner hillary clinton. barack obama was way, way a distant second behind hillary clinton who seemed to be the
5:37 pm
prohibitive lead at this point in 2007. joe biden occupies that space. what we are looking at is who, if anyone, can close that space. what might happen in the biden campaign that sends it sliding lower in those numbers anyway. we don't know. it's all so new and fresh. the campaign is new. it's an odd thing to say for someone who has been around as long as he has. the longer running dynamics are now that it's under way. >> i'm looking forward to the town hall. thanks for making time. geographic point. we are in spartanburg county who went 60% for donald trump in the last election. we are in the heart of trump country in south carolina tonight. >> can't wait to watch it. lawrence o'donnell at 10:00 tonight. coming up, the trump administration is taking climate
5:38 pm
denialism to new and cat troughic levels and the move to undermine climate science ahead. that's tonight's thing one, thing two next. at's tonight's t thing two next allergies with sinus congestion and pressure? go to the pharmacy counter for powerful... claritin-d. while the leading allergy spray is indicated for 6 symptoms... claritin-d is indicated for 8... including sinus congestion and pressure. claritin-d. get more. last year, the department of veteran's affairs partnered with t-mobile for business. with va video connect, powered by t-mobile,
5:39 pm
vets can speak to their doctors from virtually anywhere, and get the care they deserve, without it counting against their data, so they can return to their most important post. soulmate, best friend, or just dad. the va provides the care, t-mobile provides the coverage. (gasp) (singsong) budget meeting! sweet. if you compare last quarter to this quarter... various: mmm. it's no wonder everything seems a little better with the creamy taste of philly, made with fresh milk and real cream. noso let's promote ourke summer travel deal on choicehotels.com like this: surf's up. earn a fifty-dollar gift card when you stay just twice this summer. or.. badda book. badda boom. book now at choicehotels.com welcome to fowler, indiana. one of the windiest places in america.
5:40 pm
5:41 pm
5:42 pm
protected by strict tra traditional rules guiding nearly every aspect. they live and train together and everything from what they wear to when they eat and sleep is minutely controlled. only the elite few will ever be a grand champion. and now they get the trump trophy. >> they got that beautiful trophy which they will have hopefully for many hundreds of years and will be there for the sumo championships. >> donald trump with sumo is there in 60 seconds. there in 60 seconds. is what you've always wanted. no compromise. twice the results. guaranteed. miracle-gro performance organics.
5:43 pm
5:44 pm
the floor cross legged on a cushion. trump sat in a chair. a tradition that excited fans that throw the cushions. for security reasons that, tradition was suspend, prompting this headline. mr. trump to watch the final matches. the big moment came after the matches when the president presented the wind winner with a-foot tall trophy that he brought from him from home. >> a contract of commemoration. in honor of your outstanding achievement as sumo grand champion, i here by reward you the united states president's cup, may 26, donald j. trump, president of the united states. thank you.
5:45 pm
>> sumo wrestling has its own stanley cup to be handed to the new champion. not sure how the japanese people felt about that. but he enjoyed himself. that was an incredible evening at sumo. sumo wrestling. evening at sumo. sumo wrestling fidelity is redefining value. introducing zero account fees for brokerage accounts. and zero minimums to open an account. at fidelity, those zeros really add up. ♪ maybe i'll win, saved by zero ♪ at fidelity, those zeros really add up. patients that i see about dry mouth. they feel that they have to drink a lot of water. medications seem to be the number one cause for dry mouth. i like to recommend biotene. it replenishes the moisture in your mouth. biotene definitely works. [heartbeat] it's kind of unfair that safe drivers have to pay as much for insurance... as not safe drivers! ah! that was a stunt driver. that's why esurance has this drivesense® app. the safer you drive,
5:46 pm
the more you save. don't worry, i'm not using my phone and talking to a camera while driving... i'm being towed. by the way, i'm actually a safe driver. i'm just pretending to be a not safe driver. cool. bye dennis quaid! when insurance is affordable, it's surprisingly painless. if you have moderate to thsevere rheumatoid arthritis, month after month, the clock is ticking on irreversible joint damage. ongoing pain and stiffness are signs of joint erosion. humira can help stop the clock. prescribed for 15 years, humira targets and blocks a source of inflammation that contributes to joint pain and irreversible damage. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections
5:47 pm
including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. help stop the clock on further irreversible joint damage. talk to your rheumatologist. right here. right now. humira. you might or joints.hing for your heart... but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originally discovered in jellyfish, prevagen has been shown in clinical trials to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life.
5:48 pm
we all know the president lies about a lot of stuff, big and small and the sheer quantity and scope can make it hard to keep track of them. one of the most pernicious laws is about alleged voter fraud. after the election he lied again to gaen to try to obscure the fact that he lost the popular vote claiming without evidence that somehow to five million votes were fraudulent, a claim about as plausible as his golf handicap. >> the same person votes many
5:49 pm
times. you probably heard about that. they like to say it's a experience theory. 23409 a conspiracy. millions and millions of people. >> no, absolutely a conspiracy theory that you would have to be detached from reality to believe. in this case a straight up lie. even more ominously, the president of the united states tried to use his power to bolster that very lie. he put together a panel run to look into the surge of voter fraud which came up with nothing. then it was unceremoniously disbanded. the texas version was when the secretary of state david whitley announced out of nowhere that nearly 100,000 noncitizens have potentially registered to vote and 58,000 voted in at least one election in the past 18 years, which of course the president seized on, claiming the numbers were just the tip of the iceberg. whitley's claim was as
5:50 pm
preposterous as trump's had been. nearly a quarter were actually naturalized citizens who received disturbing letters threatening to cancel registration. citizenship. and the ridiculous claim of 58,000 illegal votes fell apart almost immediately. after civil rights groups sued and congress opened an investigation into all this, texas ended the voter citizenship review in april and rescinded its list of flagged voters and said it would pay $450,000 in legal fees resulting from the entire sad dangerous debacle. though not before gop officials likely succeeded in intimidating some marginal set of new citizens from registering to vote. so mission accomplished for them in that respect. now, however, some tiny measure of justice. the acting secretary of state who engineered this entire abuse of power, david whitley, resigned yesterday after he could not get enough votes in the texas state senate to become the confirmed secretary of state
5:51 pm
5:52 pm
earn a fifty-dollar gift card when you stay just twice this summer. or.. badda book. badda boom. book now at choicehotels.com etsy is the place to the things we hold on to. sold by real people and made for all of life's moments. our belongings don't just show what we care about. they show who we are. shop etsy.com each day justin at work... walk. and after work.
5:53 pm
he does it all with dr. scholl's. only dr. scholl's has massaging gel insoles that provide all-day comfort. to keep him feeling more energized. dr. scholl's. born to move. roxana: when i got into teaching, it was this idea of really transforming our schools. marisa: one of my biggest responsibilities as a teacher is to serve as an advocate for my kids. newscaster: hundreds of teachers are hitting the picket lines. newscaster: thousands gathered here. rosanne: we need smaller class sizes. angelia: more counselors and more nurses. roxana: we have to be able to invest in our young people. angelia: every student has a right to quality education. ever: no matter what neighborhood you live in. roxana: our students don't have part-time needs,
5:54 pm
so they can't have part-time solutions. rodney: because we know quality public schools... roxana: make a better california... marisa: for all of us. amid a ceaseless barrage of disaster news across the country particularly the midwest and news that for the second day a republican member of congress single-handedly blocked $19 billion in disaster relief comes this new report that the trump administration is about to undertake a new push to destroy the scientific underpinnings of climate policy within the u.s. government itself. among the ideas convening a new climate review panel filled with hand-picked cronies and cranks to issue denialist assessments with the full authority of the government. and if you think crank is too strong a word, consider that one of those people is william happer, currently serving on the national security council as the president's deputy assistant of emerging technologies. happer once said this about carbon dioxide.
5:55 pm
>> the demonization of carbon dioxide is just like the demonization of the poor you yous uyo jews under hitler. carbon dioxide is actually a benefit to the world and so were the jews. >> okay. joining me now, nicole davenport who broke this story about the trump administration's latest assault on climate science in the "new york times." and dan kenneman who worked as the white house liaison to the epa in the obama administration and has dealt with the government as cessment of climate firsthand. let me start with you. there was a bunch of of sort of early announcement in regulatory fashion the trump administration both on paris and some of the stuff happening in the epa. the way you write about this it seems like they're setting up a kind of new front. like a 2.0 run at this. how should we understand it? >> so since day one president trump has been very clear that he is interested in rolling back climate change regulations. that work has -- that's been happening at the epa at least for the last year and a half. work to roll back regulations on
5:56 pm
planet warming, greenhouse gas emissions from cars, from power plants. the president obviously said he was going to withdraw the u.s. from the paris climate accord. the president himself also often mocks the science of climate change. that's all been in place, you know, since the beginning of the administration. what's new is in that time we've actually written a lot of stories that even though they're rolling back regulations and making all these policy moves they still haven't messed with the guts of climate science. we've written stories that despite all of this, sort of the federal agencies that have always put out these standard reports on where climate science -- have been continuing to do that. and so what is different now is that the administration -- the trump appointees in the administration in some of these science agencies are saying -- have already started to change some of the methodologies and say we're going leave out key information about the impacts of climate change, we're going to
5:57 pm
change the way these reports are presented so it doesn't look like climate change is such a bad thing. that is what is significantly new here. >> you know, dan, to coral's point, the u.s. government provides a huge amount of just the basic science underpinnings and sort of agglomeration of data that underlie all of this, right? a lot of it's coming from the federal government. >> it's a clearinghouse. and there's a public service here, chris. when i was working with the epa under lisa jackson the first thing she did as the new incoming administrator was issue a memo to the entire staff saying the science and the law will govern everything. and we understood that the career staff of the agency had a responsibility to follow the science and the law. and one of the first things coral mentioned some of the attacks of the agency from a regulatory or rhetorical perspective. early on there were symbolic moves they made. they took science out of the names of some of the boards at the agency. really more of a poke i think at the agency than something really meaningful substantively.
5:58 pm
but coral is right. going after the endangerment finding which is the legal underpinning of the clean air and climate program at the epa is a big deal. but the thing i think viewers should know is it is not just an ability of epa and the agency to regulate and protect unclean air and climate and regulate carbon. they actually are required tounder the law. the clean air act requires them to do this because pollutants are found to be harmful to human health and the environment. >> one of the sort of things i really took away that was shocking to me, coral, here is changing the timeline. so projections out really matter how far you project out into mid-century and beyond. things get really hairy and they can go a lot of different ways. you say that the white house appointed director of the united states geological survey is mandating that only projections go through 2040. >> right. this seems like sort of a wonky distinction, but it's very important. the united states, the u.s. geological survey is a major scientific agency. it does a lot of important reports.
5:59 pm
and it includes under guidance given by the obama administration, it's required to include the impact of climate change in all of the reporting it does, future impacts on public lands, on water use, on infrastructure. it does its own climate science reports. and now under orders from the new director of usgs, a trump appointee, these reports, which have typically included climate science going out to the end of the century, climate projections going out to the end of the century, will end. the impact of climate science -- global warming will end after 2040 in these reports. why is that significant? because right now if you look at the impact of the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the projected future impacts, no matter how much greenhouse gases recommend-itted into the atmosphere the trajectory kind of stays the same after about 2050. after 2050 that's when you start to see these really different impacts depending on what
6:00 pm
happens. so under business as usual lots of greenhouse gases. you get very severe impacts. lots of warming. severe drought, rising sea levels. and that's what they're proposing essentially to eliminate, to just not show. >> just make us blind out into the future past that when everything really, really bad may start happening. coral davenport and dan kanninen, thank you both so much. that is "all in" for this evening. "the rachel maddow show" starts right now. good evening, rachel. >> good evening, chris. thanks, my friend. much appreciate. thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. just back from the long weekend, from the memorial day holiday. you can see where i missed my sunscreen right there. it's like a smiley face right here. can't do anything about it. makeup only has its limits really. we're just back from the long holiday weekend. already the news cycle is cranked right back up again like it never happened. today planned parenthood sounded the alarm that they think for the first time since roe versus wade an american state is about to go to zero
126 Views
IN COLLECTIONS
MSNBC WestUploaded by TV Archive on
