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tv   The Reid Out  MSNBC  February 22, 2024 4:00pm-5:00pm PST

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i think he's having a midlife crisis i'm not. you got us t-mobile home internet lite. after a week of streaming they knocked us down... ...to dial up speeds. like from the 90s. great times. all i can do say is that my life is pre-- i like watching the puddles gather rain. -hey, your mom and i procreated to that song. oh, ew! i think you've said enough. why don't we just switch to xfinity like everyone else? then you would know what year it was. i know what year it is.
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tonight on "the reidout" -- >> and honestly, i'm surprised they have this high of a threshold for humiliation. it's so embarrassing. i think jamie raskin was spot on when he said that this impeachment inquiry really ended yesterday when we found out we have a russian asset that was foundational to this impeachment inquiry. >> fox's jessica tarloff is right, of course. but the republicans utter humiliation has not, will not stop them from carrying water for russia and trump. >> congressman jamie raskin joins me tonight, as the fbi
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informant who lied to the fbi, alexander smirnoff, is rearrested today. also tonight, how trump stole the republican party. his daughter-in-law says the party faithful would be happy to see their contributions used for trump's legal bills. but we begin tonight with a question. how do you deal with dictators? today, less than a week after the death of russian opposition leader alexei navalny while imprisoned by vladimir putin's regime, president biden met with navalny's widow, yulia, and daughter dasha during a trip to california, expressing his condolences and admiration for navalny's courage. he holds putin responsible for navalny's death. that's how a normal administration, democrat or republican, would typically respond to what russia has done. but not today's republican party. they are, how shall we say, a
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different kettle of vodka. take cpac, the conservative political action conference, that's become a right wing love fest for the man who became navalny's murder all about him, donald trump. while the republican party falls in line with trump's fondness for the russian dictator, a short time ago, attendees heard from a different autocrat. he was just re-elected in a curious landslide last month. he's also branded himself as the world's coolest dictator and a philosopher king. the cool part is debatable. the dictator part is real. but he is an elder millennial, a bro populist who loves bitcoin and tweeting, but he's suppressed rights in his country nad a state of emergency. he's cracked down on judicial independence, his war on gangs has jailed thousands of innocent people, he's bent on destroying democracy in el salvador. those are just some of the reasons human rights groups
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think he's a nightmare, but cpac think he's a model for america. they have long had a eurasian fetish. viktor orban is a favorite. this year, america's right wing is going all in on the latin americans strongman model. javier molay will speak on saturday. the maga crowd surmises that if these two dictator types are sort of likable, particularly to misogynistic male incel voters, why not sell trump as america's dictator. that started with the roll out of his gold high tops at sneaker con. after the limited edition $400 t is for treason sneakers sold out, the fox commentator named brandon arroyo boasted about how they were a great way to attract the blacks. >> this is connecting with black
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america. because they love sneakers. they're into sneakers. this is a big deal. certainly, in the inner city. when you have trump roll out his sneaker line, they're like, wait a minute, this is cool. he's reaching them on a level that defies and is above politics. the culture always trumps politics. and trump understands culture like no politician i have ever seen. >> huh. is that completely and cluelessly racist? why, yes, it is. but this self proclaimed expert on black voters based entirely on stereotypes he likely gleaned from old rap videos he binged on b.e.t. after dark, does have a point about the importance of the culture. republicans have long since lost the culture, not just when it comes to entertainment, fashion, comedy, gender expreshz, women's right to be anything other than incubators, civil rights, voting rights, and really anything about the world after 1930. so the ugly sneakers like recruiting tax cut loving rappers as trump's new besties
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are very intentional parts of the strategy to take back this country by pitching trump as a dictator who is fun and cool, the kids love it. because republicans know they will never get consent to drag women and people of color and lgbtq people back to the world, prethe world war two era through the ballot box. they're cruel and awful but they can count. so they intend to take the culture back by force and impose their brand of fascism on the majority over our objections. it's already happening in alabama. which threw open the doors to the theocratic future that maga fascists want this week when the state supreme court chief justice tom parker invoked god in deciding frozen embryos should be considered children. media matters reports parker is a big believer in christian nationalism and went on a qanon conspearest show to talk about it. parker indicated that he's a
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proponent of the seven mountain mandate. a theological approach that calls on christians to impose fundamentalist values on all aspects of american life. he also claimed that god created government and said it's heartbreaking that we have let it go into the possession of others. so chief justice parker's attempt at repossessing government means that the two largest ivt clinics in alabama have now paused activities because they don't know their legal risks. it will only be a matter of time before republicans impose the kind of christian nationalist gilead we already see in alabama and mississippi and florida and tennessee and missouri and oklahoma and iowa. on the rest of america. with a national 16-week abortion ban, the likely curtailment of women's access to contraception while forcing 12-year-olds to give birth after being raped, which is just this week, "the new york times" reported that trump is privately telling people he's on board with.
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of course, subjugating women to become forced birth chattel isn't cool dictator to anyone other than disaffected incels so back to cpac where they're selling trump as the one true savior against the rest of our godless liberals. >> trump's only crime is representing the american people first. >> they know a lot of these people are going to go to jail when donald trump gets elected and i'm going to help him. >> president trump would declare them a tearest organization. he would take the cartels out. >> the maga faithful at cpac are also trying to up the cool dictator factor with this year's crop of trump merch, like the pinball game, j-6 insurrection, that plays videos of the insurrection wile you play the game. i'm sure the yucks are lost on the families of the law enforcement officers who died or were injured on january 6th. it's hard to think of anything more repulsive than to see the attempt to overthrow american democracy reduced to player
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mode, stop the steal. these people are telling you exactly who they are, folks. here's what maga pizza gate influencer said at one of the breakout sessions today. >> welcome to the end of democracy. we're here to overthrow it completely. we didn't get all the way there on january 6th, but we'll endeavor to replace it with this right here. we'll replace it with this right here. >> amen. >> that's right, because all glory is not to government. all glory to god. >> their attempt to mark a dictator to americans is successful, scaring is caring, we're in for a lot worse. as historian nancy mclean writes in the new republic, lurking behind the full frontal assault by donald trump and his enablers lies a more far-reaching threat. if republicans gain control of both houses of congress, expect a state authorized
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constitutional convention to eviscerate core rights and protections most americans hold dear. and nancy joins me now. she's the author of democracy in chains. the deep history of the radical right's stealth plan for america. also, former republican congressman and msnbc political analyst david jolly. nancy, i want to let you say more. what is this plan for america that is lurking behind the 2024 election? >> yes, thank you, joy. great to be with you again. so this is really serious stuff. we are talking about an incredibly radical vision of america that you just described, was on display at the cpac convention, but this time, it would be made permanent by a nuclear option that exists in the constitution's article 5, which talks about how we amend the constitution and that constitution has beenamended 27 times, mest of them good with lautsd of public discussion. many have thought the constitution is too hard to
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amend, but the constitution also has another measure in it that says that two-thirds of the states can convene, can demand that congress convene a constitutional convention if they so authorize. and as we have been transfixed by donald trump and other parts of the maga movement, in fact, the political right and the combination of big money donors like the koch network, et cetera, on the one hand and then this maga base that you have described so well on the other, sorry i'm having trouble with the lighting here, they have come together to push for this constitutional convention. they have been pushing it out to the states since 2013, through the american legislative exchange council. they now have 28 of the 34 authorizations needed. what's really frightening, though, over the last year or two is they have realized they will never get to 34 honestly.
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so they have come up with a new map that they call aggregation. they're going to take any authorization for a constitutional convention left on the books in america and use that in order to insist that a new congress call this convention. >> what is it that they want to do? what do they want to change about the constitution? >> they want to radically transform it. the leader of this effort, a man named mark mecler, formerly head of tea party patriots, now head of the convention of states efforts has said they seek to roll back 115 years of progressivism. now, that sounds like big talk for a guy in a bar or something, but the fact of the matter is they have been steadily doing this. our side has not been paying adequate attention. if the republicans manage to get hold of congress and mike johnson is the speaker of the house, he's a deep supporter. he unites both of those wings of the republican party, the fossil fuel billionaires with the theocrats and he will, i
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believe, and so does common cause and others who study this, convene such a convention. so this is something that would take away, has the potential in the various amendments they have proposed to undermine the fiscal basis of social security and medicare, to undermine long established civil rights protections, to take away our capacity to protect the environment, so it could not be more serious and it's something that needs much more attention from all of us. >> david jolly, i call it repeal the 20th century. >> i think that's perfect. >> the right has even joined people like me in disliking woodrow wilson. they dislike him because of the income tax. and not only would they like to get rid of the income tax, they would like to get rid of all regulation to allow complete drilling, medicare, medicaid, social security, the voting rights act. you name it, the ability of women to access abortion and contraception. they can do all of that if they got ahold of the constitution.
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i want to read to you what the seven mounts mandate is. there's nothing wrong with believing in christianity. this is a manifesto for ooenlical christians to conquer what proponents see as the seven key facets of life. education, religion, family, business, government, entertainment, and media. they could sure do that if they had complete power over the government, couldn't they. >> they could, joy. this is where the irony and hypocrisy is really so rich. you know, in terms of rolling back the history of progressivism over the last 150 years, as its core, progressivism has been about advancing human liberty and individual rights and individual freedom. that includes the basic freedoms that are already in the constitution, from speech to religion to assembly and so forth. so the irony and hypocrisy of this theocratic movement within the republican party is this. at its core, they are actually trying to empower government. not empower a free church and faith based institutions.
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not empower evangelical america and the synagogues and the mosques to practice and celebrate their religious tenants. they're actually trying to empower the construct of the state, which if you ask any conservative or republican they would say, no, no, that's not what we're doing. that's exactly what they're doing. they're trying to empower the state to control the lives of individuals including on the basic teachings of religious tenets. and one of the disconnects i had with the republican movement all along, whether it be marriage equality or questions of reproductive freedom or get to some hard questions of cultural equity and race, the role of the state is to create equity. and the result of that is an empowered church. and so this entire conservative movement could celebrate the church today and say we don't need the government. all we need is the government to level the playing field. they're trying to use the government as a tool of religion. it's not only hypocrisy and wrong, but it's very dangerous
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and it's a theocratic movement now in the party. >> nancy, it is a specific vein of their version of christianity. it's not all christian churches. it's one specific far right wing christian church that just so happens to disagree with the red letter christians, the jesus christians on things like, i don't know, should there be unions, should they be allowed to organize, should women have rights, they think no, they want the government to impose their version of a christian state. that is gilead. >> this is coming from, yes, the white evangelical a form of christianity that is unrecognizable to those of us who have studied the teachings of jesus. compassion, mercy, doing unto the least of these as you would do unto me. all of these are gone and it's the idolatry of the nation and of this absolute power, this violence, this vengeance. it's foreign to, you know,
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believing christians, many of whom i know and respect. and yet it has swept white evangelical denominations. this has been going on now for decades, we know, but also it really took off between the trump presidency, the covid epidemic when they reacted after being told the government was going to hurt them for all these years, seeing their churches closed in order to protect their faithful. but many of the faithful were angry about that and went off to much more radical religious leaders. so there's been that hemorrhaging within denominations in the faith, but i have read some things that are encouraging on this front, and one is they're losing their own children. young people are walking in large numbers. they have lost about a third of their youth with this stuff because they can see it has nothing to do with the jesus they were told about. >> that is why they're trying to ban books, because they are losing their children. i have one more note for you,
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david. it's about florida. i can't bring you on and not talk about florida. explain to me ron desantis. ron desantis has come out and he's led with the racism. he said we have a diverse republican party. i want everyone in the fold, but i want people -- don't want people representing 10%, 15% of the party in the driver' seat. he is essentially saying don't put a black or a brown or a woman as the vp. then after that, he said trump might be, you know, he might have too much power to control things and do things that aren't so great if he becomes president, which is basically what ron desantis did in florida. your thoughts on that? >> governor desantis has used florida as a mixing bowl to advance white christian traditional orthodox white evangelical religious orthodoxy by using the powers of the state. if donald trump had figured that out first, he would do it at the federal level. what ron desantis is doing is telegraphing what donald trump can do to keep his coalition in
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place can keep desantis supporters. it's dangerous. it marginalizes communities and it's why it's got to be shut down. >> he said pick a white guy or else. >> up next on "the reidout," maga republicans shift gears saying the so-called informant that was feeding them russian lies about the bidens was not key to their efforts. and that they're plowing ahead with this impeachment inquiry anyway. jamie rakin joins me next. add . preservision areds2 contains the exact nei recommended, clinically proven nutrient formula to help reduce the risk of moderate to advanced amd progression. thanks to preservision, i feel better that i'm doing something about it like millions of others. ya know, if you were cashbacking you could earn
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humiliation if for no other reason. not these maga republicans. they would rather blame everybody else. >> we never knew who the informant was. all we knew is what christopher wray said. now the fbi arrested him for lying. it doesn't make sense. it's not the same treatment we saw had the fbi figured out that steele dossier. >> maybe he lied, maybe they're right. but i just see a pattern it seems to be developing here over the last three presidential elections. >> it is absolutely wild to listen to these grown men refuse to acknowledge their obvious failure. with this republican party, telling the truth is asking too much. what you get instead is peak gaslighting. they're angry the fbi even talked to the informant. they blamed the department of justice for arresting him, for lying about the dates where he supposedly had contact with joe and hunter biden because those dates are the whole case, and they're doubling down because
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the lie rings true in their heads and on fox tv. and they blame the democrats because this is russia collusion 2.0 and they still can't admit russia collusion 1.0 happened. when you model your party on a narcissist who lies all the time and takes zero responsibility, it's not all that shocking, except facts for facts. republicans did rely on this supposedly credible informant until two days ago, eight days after smirnoff was arrested for lying. his claims were very much central to all of their talking points, which they repeated over and over again on fox and newsmax, and the worst part, they rushed, they rushed to promote this 1023 affidavit even though the fbi warned chuck grassley and house oversight chairman james comer it should not be treated as fact. on may 22nd of last year, when the fbi agreed to show them smirnoff's claims, according to an fbi memo about that meeting,
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the deputy assistant director made it abundantly clear smirnoff's testimony remained, quote, raw unverified reporting from confidential human sources and that recording this information does not validate it, establish its credibility, or weigh it against other information. the deputy assistant director makes a point of noting that grassley and comer were cautioned that raw, unverified source reporting may lack that important context. what does that mean? it means that these men knew that this material was not verified, and they chose to amplify it anyway. don't believe me, just listen to outgoing republican congressman ken buck. >> we were warned at the time that we received the document outlining this witness's testimony. we were warned that the credibility of this statement was not known. and yet, people, my colleagues, went out and talked to the
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public about how this was credible and how it was damning and how it proved president biden's at the time, vice president biden's complicity in receiving bribes. it appears to absolutely be false. and to really undercut the nature of the charges. >> late this afternoon, a california judge who was asked by the department of justice to revisit a nevada judge's decision to release smirnoff granded a warrant for his rearrest. he was taken into custody while he was meeting with his lawyers in las vegas. joining me is congressman jamie raskin of maryland. a member of the house judiciary and oversight committees. the way it normally works is you get information, you verify it, and then you publicize it and act on it. they did the opposite. i first want to get you to react to the fact this man has been rearrested. >> well, look, there's obviously a lot there in terms of his connection with foreign intelligence. he said he had less than
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$15,000. he had $6 million to his name. and so the special counsel in the case obviously had some serious reasons for saying that an ankle bracelet was not enough and he convinced the court, but i'm just learning that from you right now. i'm glad that he's not going to be able to abscond and disappear because he's obviously now a crucial witness in terms of his figuring out how exactly they executed this plot of disinformation and propaganda against president biden. >> you know, the thing that is even more disturbing than the fact that this man made up an entire story upon which an impeachment inquiry was launched is that it does seem to me that senior republicans knew that this was not credible information. you yourself, sir, were allowed on june 5th of last year to view along with mr. grassley, chuck grassley, a verz of this document. this document called a 1023.
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there had been a lot of fighting with christopher wray, the head of the fbi, over whether they could be seen at all because he was warning this isn't final information, but republicans demanded it be shown. there was some question in their mind about whether you should see it because i'm sure they knew you would ask questions. do you believe james comer and chuck grassley knew this information was false as they were peddling it on fox and on other right wing news outlets? >> well, i can't say that they knew. i don't know whether or not they knew, but they had every reason to be suspicious of it, and we were repeatedly warned by the fbi that these fd-1023 forms are something taken by an fbi agent, interviewing someone, it could be a narco trafficker, it could be a terrorist. it could be an insurrectionist. who knows who is giving the information? so we were warned that there was no vouching for the credibility of the information that was reported. but they just took the football
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and they ran with it like 150 football fields worth to say oh, we know that joe biden took $5 million from burisma and you know there's all of this corruption and they built this wild goose change. they have gotten egg all over their fice ever since because it's been a comedy of errors because nobody has been able to verify or authenticate those statements and multiple individuals have completely debunked them, including lev parnas, who is rudy giuliani's right-hand man, who wrote a letter to chairman comer and to me beseeching the committee to call it off, saying there's absolutely nothing there. he spent a large part of his life trying to find something to document it, and there's nothing there, and the whole thing was a political setup job from the beginning. now we know that the russians were involved. >> and we spoke with him yesterday on this very show. he said exactly that. he took it all back and said don't believe any of it. i want to allowia to comment on what do appear to be very strong sanctions that the biden
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administration is about to lay on russia, some of the most -- i believe the strongest sanctions that we have seen since they invaded -- since russia invaded ukraine. your thoughts. >> well, look, putin and his team are killers. they have staged this bloody, fascist invasion of ukraine in order to overthrow democracy there and to deny people their national independence and sovereignty. and they're working to destabilize and undermine political democracies all over the world. the death of navalny is a tragedy for humanity because he was a great champion of freedom and democracy in russia. and for human rights there. and we can hope that his wife yulia and his daughter dasha and the rest of the family can carry on the work that navalny was engaged in but america needs do whatever we can do to exact sanctions against putin. they have figured some ways out
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to work around it. what we really need to do at this point is to get those $60 billion to people in ukraine who are under the gun of these militarized drones and bombing attacks against civilian installations and so on. we have got to allow the bipartisan majority in the house and senate to get the money over there. >> and we will see if that can be allowed to happen with this particular house of representatives. congressman jamie raskin, always a pleasure. thank you very much. still ahead, how trump stole the rnc. trump's daughter-in-law thinks republicans want to help pay donald trump's soaring legal penalties and fees. but do they? i don't know. maybe if she threw in a pair of nasty old gold high tops. we'll be right back.
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. donald trump has a big money problem. and i'm not just talking a half a billion plus he owes for various legal cases. i'm talking about his fund-raising numbers. the latest campaign finance reports show not only did trump's campaign raise less than both joe biden and nikki haley last month, he also spent millions more than he took in. so it should come as no surprise his daughter-in-law lara trump, when he's attempting to install at number two in the rnc is suggesting voters would totally be on board with the already cash strapped committee footing
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trump's legal bills. >> do you think paying for president trump's legal bills is something that is of interest to republican voters? >> absolutely. that's why you have seen a gofundme get started. people are furious when they see the attacks against him. they feel like it's an attack on this country. >> joining me now is the former chair of south carolina's republican party and surrogate for presidential candidate nikki haley. how are you doing, my friend? i shouldn't say my friend. i don't want to get you in trouble with your folks. >> joy, they all know that. we don't agree on much, but we sure like each other. >> good. i'm glad they know. we have disclosed that we're pals. let's talk about this. is it true that republican voters would be all too happy to pay donald trump's legal bills? >> no. there are several things going on here. you have to remember, donald trump was the president of the united states, and we were for him. then he lost. so donald trump promised us one
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thing. remember, he said you're going to get tired of all the winning. i'm with nikki haley because i'm tired of all the losing. we lost 2018. we lost 2020. we lost 2022. the republican national committee should have replaced rana a long time ago, but i talked to some republican national committee members today. and this isn't a slam dunk in march. they call the meeting in march in houston. it's not done yet. it probably will be done, but donald trump last month took $8 million of $11 million raised and put it on legal fees. so i think nikki haley is right about a lot of things, and i'm for her and as excited about her candidacy and her success as i was excited about you getting your own show, joy. i just am. >> go ahead. >> well, i want to ask you this. this is the thing, republicans have always had a way out. if people are tired of all the losing, it's not like there's no other choice.
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nikki haley has now competed in two primaries, one caucus and one primary with donald trump. she's going to compete in her home state of south carolina. what do you think makes people still choose him when he does keep making them lose. they get her, they would get a lot of the same policies some. >> republican primary voters especially in the south have never looked downstream to concern themselves about winning the general election. they don't. they look and see, you know, you run elections off host, aspirations or fear. trump does a good job with the word fear. and intimidation. and it works. and there are a lot of folks in my party that think donald trump is standing in the gap between them and the federal government. and we have polled and found out 72% of most of our population no longer trust the federal government. and hell, i don't blame them. and that's on both sides of the aisle, not just republicans. they don't trust the federal government. and there is a malaise out
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there. there's fear out there. and when you start running elections on that, donald trump needs a smaller republican party. nikki haley needs a bigger republican party. you know, i love the fact that they have been labeling my friend nikki haley as a moderate. boy, will they be disappointed with that. so we'll see. there's still a race going on. donald trump wants us out of the way so he can control all of the money. he wants the rnc to be completely controlled. i don't know lara trump. i know donald trump, but she's probably never been to a republican party meeting. i mean, these are members from all over the country, that institution is damaged. and i'm not -- she will probably get what she wants. the chairman will probably be the chairman and use the money to pay his legal bills. >> and then there won't be money for down ticket candidates. >> how about the senate and the house? you can win the presidency, and
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you can get yourself a week's worth of executive orders. i got it. you can't get anything else if you don't have the house and the senate. what we do know on my friend nikki haley's campaign is we don't get anything but donald trump if he wins. and living proof is we lost two united states senate seats in georgia, joy, in georgia. that was when the alarm bell went off with me. >> before we have to go, how is nikki haley going to do in her home state? give us a prediction. >> i can't do that yet. i can tell you we're working our butts off. nikki has done everything shy can do. we have money pouring in, we have message, we have hope and aspirations. my 9-year-old granddaughter went this morning and put up yard signs in her neighborhood with a nikki haley shirt on. you know what she told me? i asked her, and she said tell me why you're doing this, and she said because girls rule. and i said that's all i got to
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know. if nikki haley is getting my 9-year-old granddaughter out and maybe my 3-year-old granddaughter poppy can grow up one day, i think this is the 1919 race where women got the right to vote. that's what we need. >> do me a favor, tell your candidate we would like to have her on "the reidout." we would love to have her on and tell her it's a great place to be. thank you very much. i appreciate you. best of luck. still ahead, kemba smith, whose live story inspired the new film kemba, along with the film's director and actress june carroll, who happens to be my real life sister join me next to talk about their remarkable new film. we'll be right back.
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we're travelling all across america, talking to people about their hearts. ooh, take this exit. -how's the heart? -i feel like it's good. -you feel like it's good?
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how do you know when it's time to check in on your heart? how do you know? let me show you something. it looks like a credit card, but it is the kardiamobile card. -that is a medical-grade ekg. want to see how it works? -yeah. -put both thumbs on there. that is your heart coming from the kardiamobile card. -wow! with kardiamobile card, you can take a medical-grade ekg in just 30 seconds, from anywhere. kardiamobile card is proven to detect atrial fibrillation, one of the leading causes of stroke. and it's the only personal ekg that's fda-cleared to detect normal heart rhythm, bradycardia and tachycardia. -how much do you think that costs? -probably $500. -$99. -oh, really? -you could carry that in your wallet. -of course you could carry it in your wallet, right? -yes, yes. kardiamobile card is just $79 during heart health month. don't wait. get kardiamobile card at kardia.com or amazon.
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since the 1970s, millions of americans mostly black and brown have been railroaded into prison to serve decades-long, sometimes life sentences for minor or nonviolent drug offenses. ala all the result of the u.s. war on drugs that was the case for kemba smith, a black woman who in 1994 received a nearly 25-year sentence while pregnant for the crimes of her drug dealing boyfriend. now, a new film is shining a light on kemba's story and how she with the help of the naacp legal defense fund fought for clemency and justice. >> this is a college girl from my hometown.
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she got caught up. if it can happen to her, it can happen to anyone. >> okay, i get it, but as a nonprofit funded by donations, you know we have limited resources. will this case even make a big enough impact to make a difference? >> impact? ted, if every woman who ever fell in love with the wrong guy got 24 1/2 years in prison, you wouldn't have ever met me. there wouldn't be any women of any color on the streets. >> joining me now is kemba smith, human rights and social justice activist, along with kelly cali, director of the new film kemba, and actress june carroll, who plays the role of attorney elaine jones and who also happens to be my real life sister. thank you all for being here. great to see all of you. i want to start with you, kemba. talk to me about why you wanted this story to be a film so that
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people could relive unfortunately some of the most unfortunate things that happened to you? >> well, actually took the president of the united states and a huge movement to free me. and a lot of people don't have the legal defense fund or two parents out there on the speaking circuit speaking about the ordeal, so when i walked out of the prison garden, they weren't able to capture everything. there were women, the whole prison was locked down, and they were wishing me well. there was a moment, like i was mourning inside because i felt as if other women deserved a second chance too. so it was important for me once i walked out of the prison
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but also from the prison pipeline. i'm very transparent about the choices that were made. >> we will look at your audio to see if we can get it to be improve just a little bit. i will go to june, it next. talk to me about playing this role of elaine jones, president of the ncaa, one of the most important agencies that existed in the u.s.. what was it like to play this role, what do you think importance of this film is? >> playing the role was daunting. elaine is phenomenal. she is an incredible personality, formidable, and it was just such an honor to be a part of the film metal. in any way, shape, or form. i think something the film does incredibly well's capture the psychology that sucks someone into victimhood. and how the system plays on that victim hood.
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and re-victimizes people who have already suffered. i think that kemba's story is shared by so many people if it can happen to her, it can happen to anyone. >> indeed. kelly, i heard to talk about this in other interviews. there is another woman named michelle west, to whom this is still happening. this is an ongoing story. we know statistically in terms of imprison and race by race and ethnicity, -- out of 800,000 residents are black and native american, indigenous, 763 out of 100,000. latinx, -- out of 100,000. this is an ongoing issue that is race determinative in many ways. >> 100%. this happened to my family.
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that is the thing. when it comes to our black communities and people of color we know of these issues. this is why we are grateful for you to get this word out on platforms that crossover. because this affects america. it is an american issue. it is a bipartisan issue. so, to know that one kemba was put into the disparity, crack cocaine to cocaine was 100 to 1 although it is the same drug, just process differently. we see who they are targeting. yes, it was reduced to 18 to 1 but it needs to be 1 to 1. if there is any quality all throughout with mandatory or minimum sentencing laws, not taking into consideration the individuals, circumstances, taking away the judges rights to be able to have their own ability to determine whether or not this person should get those minimum. it is a big, big issue and i am so happy that you are able to tell her story in a film format
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that can get into people's homes. because we need to rally behind people like kemba, and michelle west, who is currently incarcerated, has been there for over 30 years on a first offense. and has to life sentences, plus 50 years. >> and kemba, what do you want to see change in this system? >> there is this impact, just about -- so -- [inaudible] [inaudible] this issue of women who are in abusive situations, relationships, basically being criminalized as survivors.
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>> we are hoping, the audio was a little bit tight to hear. i'm going to ask kelly to reiterate that. the social impact campaign, tell us a bit about that in the last few minutes. >> the social impact campaign of this film, using kemba's story to help bring awareness to someone who helped her when she was incarcerated, michelle west, she is -- we are pushing for clemency this year. we are pushing for president biden to grant her clemency. we are using this film to be able to rally an amount of support, as kemba got. it takes a community, it takes all of us to step up. >> indeed. kemba smith, kelly calle, june carroll, thank you very much. it is an important film. you can stream kemba right now. maybe not right now, because there is still more readout ahead, stay with us. with us. l,
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>> before we go, be sure to check out the reconstruction on the readout blog. this new project highlights experts who are rebuilding the nation's historical memory. we spoke with the family of madam c.j. walker, the extraordinary millionaire on their fight against republican whitewashing, and each friday stay tuned for more interviews with our friend, bishop barbara, and more surprised guests at msnbc.com slash readout. blogged is tonight's reidout. all in with chris hayes

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