Musk's influence on Trump: A national security mess at best, a global power realignment at worst AI transcript and summary - episode of podcast The Rachel Maddow Show

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Episode: Musk's influence on Trump: A national security mess at best, a global power realignment at worst

Author: Rachel Maddow, MSNBC
Duration: 00:47:04

Episode Shownotes

Rachel Maddow looks at Elon Musk's influence in Donald Trump's campaign and his relationship with American adversaries and figures either Kamala Harris will have a national security mess to deal with or, if Trump wins, the U.S. will shift alliances toward Russia, China, and North Korea. Also, on the eve

of Election Day, Rachel wonders if the prosecutions of Donald Trump's foot soldiers from the last insurrection will deter more violence this time.

Summary

In this episode of The Rachel Maddow Show, host Rachel Maddow analyzes the complex intertwining of Elon Musk's influence on Donald Trump's campaign and its potential repercussions on U.S. national security. As Vice President Kamala Harris intensifies her campaign engagement in key swing states, tensions rise with North Korea's involvement in Ukraine, raising alarm about geopolitical shifts. The conversation extends to concerns about Musk's role in potentially aligning U.S. foreign policy with adversaries like Russia and China, particularly if Trump regains office. Maddow warns of the ongoing threat of electoral interference and violence from pro-Trump groups as the election approaches, highlighting the urgent need for accountability within the legal framework.

Go to PodExtra AI's episode page (Musk's influence on Trump: A national security mess at best, a global power realignment at worst) to play and view complete AI-processed content: summary, mindmap, topics, takeaways, transcript, keywords and highlights.

Full Transcript

00:00:00 Speaker_01
This is kind of the first time you've been on one of these particular roller coasters with us, Jen. Yes. You have been through campaigns in a lot of different ways, in a lot of different capacities.

00:00:10 Speaker_01
You've never been through one with the crazy town clown car of work that is doing it at MSNBC.

00:00:19 Speaker_00
I have not. Watching you eat jerky and Nicole Wallace eat pellets and Steve Kornacki run around, this is my first presidential journey of that sort. What should I know?

00:00:31 Speaker_01
You know, you're better at all. You're better at this than all the rest of us just arriving, just getting here this year. I mean, every election is different.

00:00:39 Speaker_01
I'm going to hold you here while we wait for this, because I think we're expecting Kamala Harris to speak momentarily. Any moment. Yeah. In Pittsburgh. This is the—forgive me, Jen, but this is the rally.

00:00:48 Speaker_01
We've got Katy Perry, who's going to be performing as well. Senator Fetterman spoke earlier at this rally. Looks like Kamala Harris is due here any second. I'm watching monitors trying to figure out what we're looking at here.

00:01:02 Speaker_01
And then, but this, am I right that this isn't the last rally of the night that even after this one, which she's, she hasn't yet started speaking at nine o'clock. Yeah. We're still expecting a second, yet another rally from her later on tonight.

00:01:15 Speaker_00
This is the night before the election. As Tim Walz says, you'll all sleep when you're dead. And she certainly hasn't been sleeping a lot.

00:01:23 Speaker_00
They're also doing seven other kind of remote rallies across the country Which I haven't actually seen done before as many of these as I've I've done To really reach people in all sorts of states outside of Pennsylvania, too. Yeah

00:01:35 Speaker_01
I mean, it's been, I will say, the discipline of the Harris campaign in terms of the way they have just absolutely run to every single corner of every one of the seven swing states. We've got Colin Allred on the show this hour tonight.

00:01:49 Speaker_01
And in prepping to talk to him tonight about his Senate race against Ted Cruz in Texas, I realized, like, all right, Kamala Harris went to Texas to do a call already event recently.

00:02:00 Speaker_01
But that's kind of the only time other than Saturday Night Live that anybody was able to pry her out of the seven states. They've been so disciplined on this stuff. And so today she was in she was in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

00:02:16 Speaker_01
She was in Reading, Pennsylvania at a Puerto Rican restaurant. She's in Pittsburgh right now. We're seeing Cedric, the entertainer, who's about to introduce her. Then she's going to be in Philly tonight on the the art museum steps, the Rocky

00:02:27 Speaker_01
steps, which is going to be a blowout rally. I've got friends who are actually at the Philly rally right now. It seems like that's just going to be sort of an epic finale for this campaign as the story.

00:02:38 Speaker_00
We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. We'll be sitting on the set together talking about it. But a part of this is, as you said, her discipline in going back again and again and again and again to the States. That's what you have to do.

00:02:51 Speaker_00
You have to shake voters' hands, you have to make them feel like they know you, they're meeting you, and she did it in 107 days. So we'll see what happens, but that is a big story of her, how she ran the campaign.

00:03:01 Speaker_01
Yeah, a very, very, very disciplined campaign. Certainly, if she doesn't win, it's not going to be for lack of trying, right? This has been an incredible amount of shoe leather and heart and effort. that we've been watching.

00:03:12 Speaker_01
All right, Jen, I will see you tomorrow. Cedric the Entertainer wrapping up his introduction of Vice President Kamala Harris at her penultimate campaign rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Let's go right to it.

00:03:49 Speaker_03
Can we hear it for Cedric the Entertainer?

00:04:21 Speaker_04
Are we ready to do this? Are we ready to vote? Are we ready to win? Oh, it is good to be here tonight with all these leaders. I thank you all so very much. I want to thank Representatives Lee, Deluzio. Let's send them back to the U.S.

00:04:46 Speaker_04
House of Representatives. Please send Bob Casey back to the United States Senate. And I thank everyone for being here and taking the time out of your busy lives to be here this evening. I love you back. I love you back.

00:05:09 Speaker_04
All right, so Pittsburgh, this is it. Tomorrow is election day. Tomorrow is election day. And the momentum is on our side. Our campaign has tapped into the ambitions, the aspirations, and the dreams of the American people.

00:05:31 Speaker_04
And we know it is time for a new generation of leadership in America. And I am ready to offer that leadership as the next president of the United States. But we still got some work to do. Because look, the race is not over, and we must finish strong.

00:06:00 Speaker_04
So listen, here's the thing about the hard work. We like hard work. Hard work is good work. Hard work is joyful work. And make no mistake, we will win. We will win. And we will win because when you know what you stand for, you know what to fight for.

00:06:33 Speaker_04
And we have an opportunity in this election to finally turn the page on a decade of politics driven by fear and division. We are done with that. We're done. We're done. We're exhausted with it. And Pittsburgh, we are not going back. We're not going back.

00:07:02 Speaker_04
And we are not going back because America is ready for a fresh start. And we are ready for a president who knows the true measure of a leader is not based on who you beat down, it is based on who you lift up.

00:07:26 Speaker_04
And instead of stewing over an enemies list, I will spend every day working on my to-do list. Full of priorities to improve your life because ours is not a fight against something. It is a fight for something.

00:07:46 Speaker_04
It is a fight for the future and it is a fight for freedom. Like the fundamental freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body. not have her government tell her what to do.

00:08:08 Speaker_04
And when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom nationwide, as President of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law. Proudly. Proudly. So, America, I am asking for your vote. I am asking for your vote.

00:08:35 Speaker_04
And here is my pledge to you. As president, I pledge to seek common ground and common sense solutions to the challenges you face. I am not looking to score political points. I am looking to make progress.

00:08:53 Speaker_04
I pledge to listen to those who will be impacted by the decisions I make. And we are not going back. And here's the thing, guys. We are fighting for a democracy. We are fighting for a democracy.

00:09:17 Speaker_04
And in a democracy, true leadership understands that the leader listens to the experts and listens to people who disagree with them. I will listen to people who disagree with me because I do not believe that people who disagree with me are the enemy.

00:09:34 Speaker_04
In fact, I will give them a seat at the table. That is what real leaders do. That is what strong leaders do. And I pledge to always put country above party and self and to be a president for all Americans. So Pittsburgh, that is my pledge to you.

00:10:06 Speaker_04
And to you, I ask then, who here has a plan to vote? Fantastic. OK, so help spread the word then. Polls are open here in Pennsylvania tomorrow from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. You know that.

00:10:24 Speaker_04
Go to IWillVote.com for all the information you need, including where and when to vote and where to drop off your mail ballot, because we need everyone to vote Pennsylvania. You will make the difference in this election. You will make the difference.

00:10:44 Speaker_04
And friends, listen, we are all here together because we love our country. We love our country. And when you love something, you fight for it. And I do believe it is one of the highest forms of patriotism. I love you back.

00:11:09 Speaker_04
And one of the highest forms of our love of our country is to then fight for the ideals of our country and to fight to realize the promise of America. So Pittsburgh, listen, we got one day left to get this done. So now we work to get out the vote.

00:11:31 Speaker_04
Let's reach out in these next 24 hours to family and friends and classmates and neighbors and co-workers. And as we do that, let us really be true to what our campaign has been about from the very start.

00:11:46 Speaker_04
And on that, I say, please, let us be intentional about building community. Let us be intentional about building coalitions.

00:11:57 Speaker_04
Because here's the thing, so much about these last several years has been about trying to make people point their fingers at each other, to have Americans point their fingers at each other, to try and make people feel alone or feel small.

00:12:11 Speaker_04
But let us do the work as we work toward this win of building up community and coalition and reminding everyone that we have so much more in common than what separates us. Let that be our goal.

00:12:31 Speaker_04
And let us remind everyone your vote is your voice and your voice is your power. So one last time, Pittsburgh, I ask you, are you ready to make your voices heard? Do we believe in freedom? Do we believe in opportunity?

00:13:00 Speaker_04
Do we believe in the promise of America? And are we ready to fight for it? And when we fight, we win. God bless you and God bless the United States of America.

00:13:34 Speaker_01
Vice President Kamala Harris, this is the second-to-last campaign event she is going to do. This is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

00:13:42 Speaker_01
She's at the Cary Blast Furnaces, which is a massive former steel mill site in Pittsburgh that is now a National Historic Landmark, giving remarks here. You can hear that

00:13:54 Speaker_01
She is deep into a long day of campaigning that has come at the end of a long week of campaigning that has come at the end of 107 long days of campaigning.

00:14:04 Speaker_01
You can hear the hoarseness in her voice, but still a very high-energy performance from this candidate tonight. High-energy, clearly confident, clearly still enjoying herself. A huge crowd there in Pittsburgh tonight.

00:14:19 Speaker_01
You can see the glee on people's faces to be catching a glimpse of her as we head toward midnight, as we head toward the start, formally, of election day. Later on tonight, she's got one more stop.

00:14:31 Speaker_01
She's going to be in Philly on what they call the Rocky Steps, the steps of the art museum in Philly that everybody knows from the Rocky movie.

00:14:40 Speaker_01
She's going to be there in a massive rally in Philadelphia at the very, very end of the night, heading there right now as she wraps up this event in Pittsburgh. All right, we're going to take a quick break.

00:14:51 Speaker_01
When we come back, we've got a whole show for you. It's our last full show before the election. I think it's fair to say it's going to be pretty different than every other last show you've seen before the election, either on this network or any others.

00:15:04 Speaker_01
That's just because I'm a weirdo. A big show for you. Carl Allred is here with us tonight live. We've got a lot to get to. I'll be right back with us after this break. Stay with us. Happy Election Eve, you guys. How are you marking Election Eve?

00:15:37 Speaker_01
May I suggest deep breaths? May I suggest hydrating? May I suggest putting the beer back in the fridge and the wine back on the shelf? There will be plenty of time for that some other time, but maybe not right now.

00:15:52 Speaker_01
I don't think that's the right way to handle stress right now. You can do it later if you want to. But this is an unusual time that we are in, in our country, and therefore in all of our individual lives.

00:16:02 Speaker_01
We're not used to the Secret Service having to put up fencing around the U.S. Capitol and the White House and the Vice President's residence before an election. We're not used to stores in Washington, D.C. boarding up their windows.

00:16:17 Speaker_01
We're not used to governors putting the National Guard on standby because an election is getting underway. This is not how national elections have ever been before in the modern history of our country.

00:16:28 Speaker_01
But in the Trump era of the Republican Party, that is what it means now to have a national election. And so for us Americans, this is our time in American history. This is part of the legacy we will leave to future generations.

00:16:43 Speaker_01
But right now, on the eve of this election like no other, forgive me for just advising, forgive me for just saying like a PSA, we all need to be at our best and we all need to be ready for anything.

00:16:57 Speaker_01
So that's why I say deep breaths, hydrate, get a good night's sleep, don't stress out. Also, don't check out. because our country needs us all right now, and not just through this time tomorrow night.

00:17:10 Speaker_01
Our country is going to need us all in the days ahead and for an uncertain period of time. And so now really isn't the time to fall apart or to wallow in stress or succumb to it and check out.

00:17:24 Speaker_01
Now really is the time to try to get your head on straight, to try to get yourself ready for what we know will be some uncertainty and also fast-moving news. Now's the time just to keep your wits about you.

00:17:39 Speaker_01
And I know you're saturated in polling data at this point. I know you can recite the candidates' closing itineraries. Trump closing tonight in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We just saw Kamala Harris doing her penultimate event tonight in Pittsburgh.

00:17:53 Speaker_01
She'll be closing out the campaign on the famous steps from the movie Rocky at a huge rally in Philly that should go through midnight tonight. You all know that.

00:18:02 Speaker_01
The final polls in the race, both nationally and in the swing states, bottom line, candidates are tied, or at least within the margin of error.

00:18:10 Speaker_01
In just a few cases, they've got one of the candidates a point or two outside the margin of error, but honestly, it's a tie.

00:18:17 Speaker_01
And we could spend this last night, we could spend election eve tonight going through all of that in detail, but you know what, we're gonna get real vote counts starting less than 24 hours from now, so at this point, I think, why bother? So let's,

00:18:32 Speaker_01
Let's talk instead tonight about something that is in this election, but that I don't think is getting that much attention. And I think on election eve, it may be the time to think about it. It's a national security story about this election.

00:18:45 Speaker_01
We're also going to talk about a crime story that relates to this election. And I'll show you what I mean about needing to take care of yourself right now, not just through tomorrow, not just through election day, but beyond that as well.

00:18:57 Speaker_01
And I want to show you what I mean about that by talking about a national security story and a crime story. We'll start with national security. All right. So today, the day before our U.S.

00:19:08 Speaker_01
presidential election, today, a whole new country just got involved in the combat in the war in Ukraine.

00:19:16 Speaker_01
Ukraine announced today that for the first time, its soldiers launched an attack against troops from a foreign country that Russia has just brought in to support its own army on the border between Russia and Ukraine.

00:19:30 Speaker_01
Russia has brought in another country now. They've brought in troops from North Korea to fight their war in Ukraine now. And the initial reports about this were that maybe a couple of thousand North Korean soldiers were in Russia.

00:19:44 Speaker_01
Maybe they were there to observe the performance of North Korean weapons that Russia was using in its war. Maybe they were just observers. Then it became quickly that clearly they weren't just observers. There were too many of them for that.

00:19:56 Speaker_01
It was like 2,000 maybe, no, it was maybe 10,000, maybe reports of 12,000 North Korean troops. And they're not observers, they're combat troops. And Russia has put them on the front line at the border between Russia and Ukraine.

00:20:12 Speaker_01
And today, Ukrainian forces said for the first time that they fired on those North Korean troops. So now, the biggest land war in Europe since World War II 80 years ago,

00:20:25 Speaker_01
It now also involves significant combat forces from another country, from North Korea. And they are in the fight. They are in combat. Russia, of course, has been using weapons already from North Korea.

00:20:37 Speaker_01
They've been using weapons already from Iran as well. Russia has the biggest nuclear arsenal in the world. They keep threatening to use it.

00:20:45 Speaker_01
They've now formed an alliance with the world's other two most notorious rogue states who have either gone nuclear or have tried to. North Korea and Iran. And it's not just them.

00:20:58 Speaker_01
Of all the October surprises for this year, for our election—I mean, and there's been a bunch, from Trump's longest-serving chief of staff and his chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff going on the record to confirm that they both believe Trump is literally a fascist and that he wants to rule the United States as a fascist dictator.

00:21:17 Speaker_01
To the shock Iowa poll showing Kamala Harris, the Democrat, winning in what's supposed to be a solid red state.

00:21:24 Speaker_01
To the release of a tape recording of disgraced conman and child rapist Jeffrey Epstein saying he and Donald Trump were best friends for a decade. To the collapse of Trump's ability to fill a room, his closing string of empty rally venues.

00:21:42 Speaker_01
I mean, there's been so many strange turns and twists and surprises and shocks at the end of this election campaign. But of all the October surprises this year, this is the one that stuck to me like somebody pinned it to me with a dart.

00:21:55 Speaker_01
The Wall Street Journal reporting that, quote, late last year, the Kremlin made a request to the owner of the Starlink satellite system to, quote, not activate Starlink, that satellite system, over Taiwan.

00:22:10 Speaker_01
The request was made by Vladimir Putin personally to the owner of the Starlink satellite system, and that request was made to him, quote, as a favor to the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping.

00:22:23 Speaker_01
So here's Vladimir Putin waging war against one of our allies, biggest war in Europe since World War II. He's threatening to nuke anyone who tries to stop him. He's got Iran on his side, supplying him with weapons for that war.

00:22:35 Speaker_01
He's got North Korea on his side, supplying him with weapons and now sending him more than 10,000 combat soldiers to fight alongside his army. And he's apparently passed along a friend request, a favor request from the communist dictator of China.

00:22:51 Speaker_01
Hey, Starlink, don't turn on Starlink satellites over Taiwan. Taiwan, of course, which is also an ally of the United States.

00:23:01 Speaker_01
And, per the Wall Street Journal, the owner of Starlink appears to have agreed to do this favor for the Chinese dictator, the request passed on to him by his friend, the Russian dictator, against this American ally.

00:23:16 Speaker_01
Or at least per the Wall Street Journal, we can at least say the Starlink service is in fact not activated over Taiwan after Putin expressly requested that it not be activated over Taiwan as a favor to him and as a favor to the leader of China.

00:23:34 Speaker_01
Now, why is this an election story? Why are you telling me this story on election eve, Rachel Maddow? This is an election story because the owner of Starlink, the guy who's on the phone with the Russian dictator in this story,

00:23:46 Speaker_01
He is currently what appears to be the de facto CEO of the Donald Trump for President campaign, not just funding his campaign personally to the tune of over $100 million, not just personally managing Donald Trump's ground game for voter turnout, but also turning his own social media company, Twitter, into an all-Trump, all-the-time conspiracy theory and propaganda machine that eagerly amplifies even the most obviously foreign disinformation, boosting Trump and targeting his Democratic opponents.

00:24:18 Speaker_01
Walter Isaacson reported in his recent book on Elon Musk that Musk was asked by the Kremlin to not let Ukraine use the Starlink satellite system over the Black Sea, where Ukraine was targeting Russian Navy ships to sink them.

00:24:36 Speaker_01
The Wall Street Journal reports that Musk is now in frequent and secret, frequent and secret communication with Putin and the Russian government.

00:24:46 Speaker_01
And also that it is Putin's Russian troops who are now using Elon Musk's Starlink service on the battlefield in their war against our ally Ukraine, even as he cuts Ukraine off from that service at key strategic moments.

00:25:04 Speaker_01
So you see where this is going? Happy Election Eve, right? I mean, Trump himself says he, quote, doesn't talk about his secret communications with Putin.

00:25:13 Speaker_01
Bob Woodward's latest book reporting that Trump himself has been in frequent secret communication with Putin since Trump left office and now while he is trying to get back into office, while Putin is leading a new world axis.

00:25:28 Speaker_01
not just leading a war against our ally Ukraine, but leading a new world axis of Russia, North Korea, Iran, and China against the United States.

00:25:38 Speaker_01
Putin leading that axis against the United States with the assistance of one particular American, who holds multi-billion dollar sensitive defense and space contracts with the U.S.

00:25:50 Speaker_01
government, and who has mostly taken over the ground game operations and the funding of Trump's presidential campaign. So, like I said, pace yourself. I mean, if Trump wins the election, we pretty clearly are gonna be joining the axis, right?

00:26:13 Speaker_01
These countries that most want America destroyed, that most want to remove the United States from the world stage, that want to destroy us as a country and diminish us as much as they can, this axis led by Russia will be joining it.

00:26:31 Speaker_01
if Trump is elected. Trump says our so-called allies he doesn't like. Well, he's full of unreserved, totally unqualified praise for the dictators in this axis, right?

00:26:41 Speaker_01
He has telegraphed that we will switch sides in the Ukraine war, meaning we'll switch to Putin's side, where he's now using North Korean troops in battle. Trump is full of praise for the North Korean dictator.

00:26:54 Speaker_01
He has telegraphed that we will leave NATO, that we'll collapse NATO.

00:26:58 Speaker_01
The countries in the world who are most violently opposed to the United States and most determined to seek the diminishment of America and the end of American influence on the world stage, they, if Trump wins, will have their president installed with Elon Musk's help, while Musk is in direct and secret communication with Vladimir Putin, who heads up that axis.

00:27:23 Speaker_01
So pace yourself. If that happens, if Trump wins, that's what's going to happen to America on the world stage. And Americans who think that's a bad idea are going to have a lot of work to do. Your country will need you. But also think about if he loses.

00:27:43 Speaker_01
If Trump loses, Given that, given what I just described, America's got a lot of work to do along these lines as well. Because just as a presidential campaign,

00:27:55 Speaker_01
This is a national security disaster, and one that President Harris is going to have to clean up, and quickly.

00:28:02 Speaker_01
I mean, you really can't have the head of a company that is the primary rocket launcher for the Defense Department and NASA, you can't have the head of that company in secret communications with America's worst enemy, while America's enemy is actively waging a war against one of our allies, especially once you learn that he's using his businesses to help

00:28:23 Speaker_01
the other side to help Russia in that war, and apparently to do secret favors for China against our other allies like Taiwan. I mean, that can't be.

00:28:34 Speaker_01
I mean, also, just for what it's worth, presumably a guy who's reported to have regularly used ketamine, plus LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, and shrooms, and who smokes weed on a national podcast, presumably he can't even have a security clearance.

00:28:51 Speaker_01
a personal security clearance. But you definitely can't have a security clearance, let alone that much leverage over American national security, if you are doing anti-American diplomatic favors for dictators with whom you are in secret communication.

00:29:10 Speaker_01
So buckle up. Even if Trump doesn't win, the Defense Department and NASA are gonna need a new arrangement for all their rockets. And for all the multi-billion dollar contracts Elon Musk's companies have with the U.S. government, the U.S.

00:29:25 Speaker_01
government is going to have to either, I mean, unwind from all of those contracts, or Elon Musk's companies are going to have to unwind from him. This is an untenable reality in national security terms. now that we know what we know about Elon Musk.

00:29:46 Speaker_01
This election, regardless of who wins, has produced a national security problem that is going to be a huge new thing for our country to deal with, likely with tons of drama, and it will start as soon as we've got an election result either way.

00:29:59 Speaker_01
So pace yourself, if for no other reason than to be ready for that. Let's also talk about crime in this election. Everybody's talking about the polls, I know. Let's talk about national security and about crime.

00:30:11 Speaker_01
You've seen all these headlines in the lead-up to Election Day tomorrow. Particularly today, there's a ton of these headlines about right-wing pro-Trump groups planning to sow chaos. around polling sites in the election.

00:30:24 Speaker_01
Right-wing pro-Trump groups forming an army to try to stop the counting of votes. Paramilitary pro-Trump groups planning to menace people. Pro-Trump groups planning violence around the election.

00:30:36 Speaker_01
Bringing back all the things they tried to do in 2020 to overthrow that election, up to and including the violence they tried on January 6th in Washington to stop the certification of the vote.

00:30:47 Speaker_01
Seen all these headlines about how it's all coming back, they're going to try it all again. You know what all of that is? All of that is crime. Violence of any kind for any reason is a crime.

00:31:01 Speaker_01
Intimidating election workers or public officials or voters is a crime. Paramilitary militias are themselves a crime. The leader of the Proud Boys is serving 22 years in federal prison right now.

00:31:15 Speaker_01
I mean, even the fake electors thing, impersonating electors, that whole fake electors scheme was a crime. It was a crime in 2020, and just because you're thinking about trying it a second time doesn't make it any more legal than it was back then.

00:31:29 Speaker_01
Law enforcement didn't know what these pro-Trump groups were going to try to do in 2020, right? Law enforcement didn't know what these guys were going to do in 2020 any more than the pro-Trump groups did.

00:31:40 Speaker_01
They sort of felt their way through it and just crimed along the way as they made stuff up. But now law enforcement knows what these pro-Trump groups and the Trump campaign are going to do.

00:31:50 Speaker_01
And if these guys are planning the exact same set of crimes in 2024, they're just planning on doing more of them in more places, this stuff doesn't get any less illegal. It just means there's gonna be more arrests.

00:32:06 Speaker_01
Tonight in Philadelphia, the district attorney there just gave a news conference reminding anybody who's excited about committing crimes tomorrow to try to mess with the election

00:32:16 Speaker_01
She gave a press conference reminding that those crimes will be treated as crimes. Just because you're thinking about doing your crimes for Donald Trump doesn't mean they're not crimes and that you won't be going to prison for committing them.

00:32:27 Speaker_01
Watch this from the Philly DA. I mean, inject this straight into my veins, honestly, but also, please, just watch this.

00:32:36 Speaker_03
I want people to be reassured that when they get up tomorrow to go vote, if they have not voted already, that everybody in this city is working and has been working for months to make sure that there will be nothing tough about that experience and nothing to fear in that experience.

00:32:54 Speaker_03
But I also want to be clear, anybody who thinks it's time to play militia, F around and find out. Anybody who thinks it's time to insult, to deride, to mistreat, to threaten people, F around and find out.

00:33:13 Speaker_03
We do have the cuffs, we do have the jail cells, we do have the Philly juries, and we have the state prisons.

00:33:19 Speaker_03
So if you're gonna try to turn an election into some form of coercion, if you're gonna try to bully people, bully votes or voters, you're gonna try to erase votes, you're gonna try any of that nonsense, We're not playing. F around and find out.

00:33:38 Speaker_01
Pennsylvania officials also circulating the hotline you can call to report voter intimidation in that state. F around and find out we're not playing.

00:33:48 Speaker_01
That applies to anybody who wants to commit crimes targeting voters or polling sites or anything else about our election. And you know what? It doesn't just hold in Philly. It holds everywhere. I would just say one last point here.

00:34:00 Speaker_01
It also applies to anybody thinking about trying to paper over those crimes, to try to give them an air of legality.

00:34:06 Speaker_01
I mean, there's a reason why Rudy Giuliani is not only under indictment right now, he also no longer owns any of his worldly possessions.

00:34:15 Speaker_01
Because Rudy Giuliani used his position as Donald Trump's lawyer to come after innocent poll workers in Georgia who have now literally sued him out of his house and home.

00:34:26 Speaker_01
Just a few days ago, Thursday, Halloween, the lawyer who quarterbacked the fake electors scheme for Donald Trump was indefinitely barred from ever practicing law in New York State again.

00:34:38 Speaker_01
I mean, while they're taking away the law license of the guy who organized the fake electors last time, which got all the fake electors arrested, here's politico.com reporting today that Republicans are nevertheless bringing all the fake electors back again to try it one more time.

00:34:53 Speaker_01
Whereupon, let me let you know, it is still illegal and you're all gonna get arrested again. As the Philly DA said, F around and find out nobody's playing.

00:35:06 Speaker_01
Trump fake electors guy Kenneth Chesbrough was indicted and pled guilty to a felony and has now had his law license suspended. Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis was indicted and pled guilty and had her law license suspended.

00:35:18 Speaker_01
Trump lawyer John Eastman has been indicted and had his law license suspended. Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani has been indicted, has been permanently disbarred, and has been irrevocably and profoundly bankrupted for life.

00:35:31 Speaker_01
And that is just what happened to the lawyers. Messing with an election in the United States of America is a crime. This election, there is a lot to pay attention to. So pace yourself.

00:35:49 Speaker_01
People are going to try to rerun 2020 and interfere in the election, try to use violence to get their way. They are going to get arrested, and they are going to go to prison. And we are going to have that crime story to deal with if they try it.

00:36:02 Speaker_01
We are also going to have a big national security mess to clean up just from the Trump campaign, even if Harris wins. There's so much we're going to need to stand up for and be ready for, and it does not stop tomorrow, no matter what happens tomorrow.

00:36:19 Speaker_01
So my friends, deep breaths. Hydrate, beer back in the fridge, wine back on the shelf. We have lots of work to do. Tomorrow's just the start. Check out this map of where Kamala Harris has campaigned since September.

00:36:38 Speaker_01
The bigger the circle, the more events she has done. And you can see that the Harris campaign has been incredibly disciplined about where they're sending the vice president. 11 events in Wisconsin, 18 in Michigan, 20 in Pennsylvania.

00:36:52 Speaker_01
Just the vast, vast majority of her events have been in the big seven swing states. Except, wait, what's that one little circle? That tiny little circle in Texas?

00:37:02 Speaker_01
The Harris campaign, I imagine, doesn't have high hopes that they will win the presidential race in Texas. I mean, maybe, who knows, but that would be a really big deal.

00:37:12 Speaker_01
Still, though, on this most disciplined of presidential campaigns, Vice President Harris went herself to Texas anyway, late last month, late in October, where she held a huge rally in Texas.

00:37:26 Speaker_01
And she campaigned with this guy, with Democratic Congressman Colin Allred, who is running a tight race to try to unseat Republican Senator Ted Cruz. Kamala Harris going to Texas to campaign for Colin Allred.

00:37:41 Speaker_01
It's a very big veer off of what has otherwise been a very, very tight slalom through the swing states.

00:37:49 Speaker_01
And it shows you that this incredibly disciplined, incredibly focused campaign thought it was worth it to spend time and resources in Texas because they think this could be a winnable Senate seat for a Democrat in Texas.

00:38:02 Speaker_01
Joining us now is the man himself, Congressman Colin Allred. He is the Democratic nominee for Texas Senate. Congressman, it's great to see you. Thank you so much.

00:38:11 Speaker_02
Yeah, thanks for having me on, Rachel. I appreciate it.

00:38:12 Speaker_01
Is there faith in you? Well-placed. Are you gonna win this seat?

00:38:17 Speaker_02
Well, listen, Rachel, something special is happening in Texas, from campaigning with Liz Cheney to George Bush expressing, I guess, his admiration for me, my constituent, to what's been happening with these Texas women coming forward, telling their stories about this horrific abortion ban that we're dealing with here, that Ted Cruz is responsible for.

00:38:37 Speaker_02
We're going to beat Ted Cruz tomorrow. And when we do, it's going to be a win for 30 million Texans.

00:38:41 Speaker_01
Wow. Let me ask you about that abortion ban. Obviously, Texas has one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the country.

00:38:48 Speaker_01
One of the most aggressive and mean-spirited paths to that ban and some of the legislation and the prosecution decisions by Texas Republican law enforcement officials have captured the nation's imagination, not just Texans, but everybody's eyes are on Texas with how

00:39:05 Speaker_01
cruel it's been and what the consequences have been for Texas families, Texas women. A lot of people have said it's hard to poll on the impact of that, that it's a little bit of a black box.

00:39:15 Speaker_01
We may be missing not just the impact among women, but the impact among men and other people who are just, women and men who are concerned about what these bans mean.

00:39:26 Speaker_01
Are you seeing that register in a legible way in your internal polling, or do you know what to expect there?

00:39:33 Speaker_02
Listen, I think that every Texan is having this conversation, because it's dangerous to be pregnant in Texas now.

00:39:38 Speaker_02
When we have over 100 OBGYNs writing open letters to the leaders of the state saying, this is not sustainable, when we have stories of Texas women who have died, who should not have died because they were denied miscarriage care, when there's 26,000 Texas women have been forced to give birth to their rapist child.

00:39:55 Speaker_02
This is now a daily conversation. And we had a great event the other night here in Dallas, where I was talking to the men in the crowd, because, you know, I'm a father. My wife and I have had two boys here in Dallas in the last five years.

00:40:08 Speaker_02
And I can't imagine how we would have felt if the doctor had come in and said, there's a problem with the baby. There's nothing I can do, because Ted Cruz thinks he knows better. This is just not who we are as Texans.

00:40:18 Speaker_02
And, Rachel, I think you know enough about Texas to know that we believe in freedom. That's one of the kind of core tenets for us. And this is not it. And that's why we're going to beat Ted Cruz.

00:40:27 Speaker_01
Congressman, let me just ask you one process question. We have seen that fewer Texans voted early this year compared to 2020. There's no apples to apples comparison that's possible with 2020 because it was such a strange year because of COVID.

00:40:41 Speaker_01
But do you expect that the overall voter turnout is going to be a little lower in Texas this year? Or do you think it's just that so many people are going to turn up on Election Day and therefore people should be prepared for big lines?

00:40:53 Speaker_02
Listen, I think it's going to be a big Election Day. And, as you said, 2020 is a totally different year. We had an extra week of early voting. That's a big deal in Texas. But we also can shape who comes out to vote tomorrow.

00:41:04 Speaker_02
And so I want folks to sign up to volunteer with us, to go to ColinAllred.com. There's still time to knock on doors, to make phone calls, to get folks out to vote, to make sure that we get across that line.

00:41:15 Speaker_02
When we do, as I said, it's not going to be a win for a party or for me individually.

00:41:19 Speaker_02
It's gonna be a win for 30 million Texans who deserve a senator who doesn't abandon them when they need them most, one who doesn't just care about himself, one who care about all of us.

00:41:28 Speaker_01
Congressman Collin Allred, the next senator from the great state of Texas, at least he says he will be, right here tonight on Election Eve. Sir, good luck to you.

00:41:36 Speaker_01
Let us know how tomorrow goes over the course of the day as you watch those long lines at Texas polling places. We'll be checking in with you tomorrow as the results come in. Thank you, sir.

00:41:46 Speaker_02
Thanks, Rachel.

00:41:46 Speaker_01
All right, we'll be right back. Stay with us. So the last time Donald Trump ran for president, he lost. He spent the weeks between that election and moving day trying to overturn the results.

00:42:06 Speaker_01
Along with the private machinations and the arm-twisting, Trump and his allies filed 65 separate lawsuits in search of a court that would somehow help them throw out the election result and keep him in power. And we all know how that came out.

00:42:20 Speaker_01
Well, in this election, a group called the 65 Project, which is named for that failed effort, the 65 Project, in this election, their mission is to dissuade lawyers from pursuing Trump's bogus, frivolous claims about the election, to forcibly, forcefully dissuade lawyers from playing a part in that kind of thing.

00:42:44 Speaker_01
for a second time around. The managing director of the 65 Project joins us now here on Election Eve. Michael Tudor, thank you very much for being here. Appreciate your time.

00:42:53 Speaker_05
Good to be here. Thanks, Rachel.

00:42:54 Speaker_01
So I'm struck that as we head to election day tomorrow, even just in recent days, we have had yet another of Trump's lawyers had his law license suspended.

00:43:04 Speaker_01
Kenneth Chesbrough in New York City, in Rudy Giuliani's case, he has essentially lost all of his worldly goods in addition to being disbarred.

00:43:14 Speaker_01
Do you think that a deterrent has been established heading into this next election cycle for lawyers to not do this stuff anymore when Trump tells them to?

00:43:23 Speaker_05
I do think so, Rachel. I think that we can see that in a few ways. One is in the list of lawyers who you named who have already faced discipline. Jenna Ellis, Rudy Giuliani, Ken Chisbrough just last week, Jeffrey Clark.

00:43:34 Speaker_05
The list can continue and including names that you wouldn't recognize from Arizona, Maryland, across the board. In addition to that, we've seen it in perhaps less measurable ways.

00:43:43 Speaker_05
We've seen just a few weeks ago, Cleta Mitchell, one of the most strident election denying attorneys, said that she could not find an attorney in Pennsylvania who is willing to go on with a lawsuit with her.

00:43:55 Speaker_05
She had to recruit somebody out of Minnesota. The 65 Project had filed 10 bar complaints in Pennsylvania. And we think that that part of the reason why she struggled was because of our efforts. We saw Carrie Lake saying the same thing in 2022.

00:44:06 Speaker_05
She said she had a practically begged lawyers to represent her because they were worried about pacing discipline if they represented her. So we've seen some success. We think there's been a strong deterrent effect and we're eager to continue.

00:44:20 Speaker_01
Trump is expected to falsely claim victory, to baselessly claim victory before the results of the election are known.

00:44:28 Speaker_01
His allies, in many ways, have set the stage to claim the election is stolen or that an outcome is unknowable because they've created the illusion of chaos or tried to create real chaos themselves.

00:44:40 Speaker_01
As you've followed with such detail what they tried in 2020, you've created some of the consequences for those lawyers who participated in some of those 2020 schemes.

00:44:52 Speaker_01
What concerns you the most about ways they may try to muck with the election this time around, starting tomorrow?

00:45:00 Speaker_05
Well, the concern is, as you kind of named, they are not trying to win the lawsuits that they file. If their objective was to win them, the deterrent effect would have been created long ago, because they've lost case after case after case.

00:45:14 Speaker_05
Their effort there is a propaganda. They are using the lawsuits as a sheen to create this gloss over baseless, fraudulent, predetermined claims of a rigged election.

00:45:26 Speaker_05
And then they're hoping that that credibility, which would be lacking if it were coming from somebody with hair dye coming down his forehead, speaking in front of a landscaping parking lot, or somebody in an orange vest in a garbage truck, they're using the court system to create that sheen, that gloss of credibility.

00:45:43 Speaker_05
That's the concern I have, is that they're going to continue to use the legal system as a propaganda tool, which is why we have to create that deterrent effect, that accountability, because otherwise they won't be deterred.

00:45:55 Speaker_01
You know, one of the lessons in fighting tyranny that Tim Snyder tells in his book on tyranny is that professional institutions, professional associations need to police themselves to avoid becoming tools of the tyrant.

00:46:09 Speaker_01
Project 65 is an exemplar of that in the legal profession, and it means a lot.

00:46:15 Speaker_01
And it's, I think, it's been an exemplar not only for lawyers, but to other professional associations and institutions in our civil society in terms of how to stand up to this stuff.

00:46:25 Speaker_01
Michael Teeter, managing director of The 65 Project, thank you so much for joining us tonight. Stay in touch with us over the next couple of days.

00:46:31 Speaker_05
Thank you.

00:46:33 Speaker_01
Later tonight, Kamala Harris will hold the final rally of her campaign in Philly. Look at this. It's not started yet. The crowd is already huge. We're gonna bring you this event in Philadelphia live tonight right here on MSNBC.

00:46:45 Speaker_01
Of course, tomorrow I'll be back here with all my colleagues starting at 6 p.m. Eastern. We'll be going till whenever 30. I'm bringing extra snacks for the occasion. It's gonna be the most exciting night of the year and maybe the longest. We can't wait.

00:46:58 Speaker_01
We were made for this. Hydrate, get a good night's sleep tonight. Your country needs you.