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The Rachel Maddow Show - Season 18 - Episode 10
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00:00And thanks, Ruth Holm, for joining us this hour. Happy to have you here. Before we start, I want to
00:03let you know something that we've got sort of eyes on behind the scenes.
00:07We've got something essentially happening in our control room right now that we are keeping eyes on that we're going
00:12to turn around to you as soon as we get it.
00:14At Dover Air Base in Delaware, the dignified transfer is taking place right now for U.S. Army Sergeant Benjamin
00:22Pennington.
00:23He is the seventh U.S. service member to die in combat in President Trump's ongoing war with Iran.
00:31Sergeant Pennington is from Glendale, Kentucky. He was just 26 years old. Sergeant Pennington died yesterday.
00:38U.S. Central Command said the death was caused by injuries after an attack on the Prince Sultan Air Base
00:44in Saudi Arabia on March 1st.
00:46So, again, the attack was March 1st. He succumbed to his injuries yesterday.
00:51Vice President J.D. Vance has been at Dover Air Base to observe tonight's dignified transfer and to meet with
00:57Sergeant Pennington's family.
00:59The way this works is that we do not have live images of that event, that solemn event, as it
01:06happens.
01:07We have a camera there to collect tape of it as it happens, and then that tape has to be
01:13fed to us after the ceremony there is completed.
01:19And so at this point, we are waiting for that tape to be turned around and fed back to us
01:24in our control room.
01:25And then as soon as we have it, we will turn it around and show it to you.
01:29We expect that to happen this hour.
01:33How has Iran been able to hit American military targets in the Middle East, in Saudi Arabia, and other places?
01:40I mean, some targets for them are obvious places that anybody would be able to pick off a map, places
01:46like air bases or even U.S. embassies or consulates.
01:50But for all the damage that has been done to Iran's offensive capabilities in this war thus far, Iran has
01:58somehow also been able to hit things like, reportedly, a CIA facility in Riyadh and a naval command and control
02:06facility in Bahrain
02:08and U.S. radar facilities that are not clearly marked on any map and not obvious locations for anybody.
02:16How has Iran been able to find targets like that so they could aim their missiles and their drones at
02:22American facilities like that with such specificity?
02:26Well, the Washington Post and the Associated Press and us here at MSNOW have all now reported that Iran has
02:34been getting help in targeting American personnel and military facilities,
02:39help from a sophisticated military ally in targeting U.S. personnel and U.S. military capabilities all over the Middle
02:46East.
02:47The Washington Post's report on this was first, and they explained it bluntly and clearly.
02:53Quote, Russia is providing Iran with targeting information to attack American forces in the Middle East.
03:00The assistance signals that the rapidly expanding conflict now features one of America's chief nuclear-armed competitors with exquisite intelligence
03:10capabilities.
03:11Quote, Iran possesses only a handful of military-grade satellites and no satellite constellation of its own,
03:18which would make imagery provided by Russia much more advanced space capabilities highly valuable to the Iranians.
03:30So again, this was first reported by the Washington Post, this reporting then corroborated by the Associated Press and by
03:35us here at MSNOW.
03:36The upshot is that Russia is helping Iran.
03:39Russia specifically is giving them targeting information, giving them very specific locations,
03:45using their own intelligence capabilities to give the Iranians very specific locations
03:51so they know where to attack American troops to try to kill them and where to attack American facilities in
03:59the Middle East.
04:00Russia is giving Iran that information.
04:02What should the United States do about that?
04:06Well, under the leadership of Donald Trump, the United States has decided that under these circumstances,
04:12what our response is going to be is that we're going to ease sanctions on Russia, ease sanctions on Russia.
04:21Trump has moved to give Russia relief from sanctions.
04:26Trump has moved specifically to let Russia sell more of its oil and gas, get around sanctions,
04:33restrictions that might have prevented them from doing that before.
04:38I mean, Russia is allies with Iran, right?
04:41Russia issued a statement of congratulations when Iran chose Khomeini's son to replace him as the country's supreme leader.
04:48Congratulations, Jr. Enjoy your Ayatollah ship.
04:52He's a close relation, a close connection to the radical and powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
05:02Putin sends his personal congratulations.
05:05But, you know, Russia, as much as they might not want to see their ally put in difficult straits,
05:12Russia financially is actually really enjoying this moment.
05:16Because what does Russia have to offer the world?
05:19What does Russia have to offer the world economy?
05:22I mean, if you don't count vodka and potash, Russia basically has two industries,
05:26two things to offer the world, oil and war.
05:28And they're using their war-making abilities, their intelligence and satellite capabilities,
05:34to help Iran kill Americans, to help Iran target and kill Americans in the Middle East.
05:42Also on the war-making front, Russia is obviously enjoying seeing the United States burn up lots and lots and
05:49lots of missiles
05:50and interceptor munitions in the Middle East.
05:52So we'll be less happy and less able to provide those same types of weapons to Ukraine to fight against
05:59Russia.
06:00So on the war-fighting side of things for Russia, this is great for them.
06:06This is a win-win.
06:07And, meanwhile, Russia's other industry, oil and gas, is as happy as it's been in a long time
06:12because of the huge spike in oil and gas prices all over the world,
06:15as Russia's oil and gas competitors in the Persian Gulf all basically get knocked offline.
06:21Right? If Russia can just sell their oil and gas, if they can be allowed to get their oil and
06:26gas to market,
06:27well, Russia's going to be rich again, which they desperately need,
06:32given how they've spent themselves into oblivion in their endless, pointless Ukraine war.
06:37And so we now simultaneously have the U.S. intelligence reports that Russia is helping Iran target American personnel
06:44and military facilities to kill Americans in the Middle East and the news that Trump is cutting sanctions on Russia
06:51to ensure they can sell practically all the oil and gas they want and refill their financial coffers as a
06:58country.
07:02And so what exactly happened today when Trump reportedly called a CBS news reporter and said,
07:10um, the war's pretty much over?
07:13And then Trump called a bizarre and incoherent press conference at one of his golf resorts where he said,
07:18no, no, no, it's, it's, it's not pretty much over. Where, where did you hear that? Who told you that
07:23fake news?
07:24In the middle of that swirling dust devil of nonsense and reversal and double reversal and incoherence and non sequitur
07:30from the president of the United States, what happened in the middle of all that today?
07:35Well, according to the Kremlin, in the middle of all that, President Donald Trump called Vladimir Putin
07:41and talked to him for an hour. And we only learned about that phone call because the Kremlin told us
07:46about it. The White House didn't announce it. The Kremlin did. Did the White House even know Trump was
07:52doing that before the Kremlin told everybody it had happened? Did Trump just call Putin from his flip
07:58phone? Was it while he was playing golf? Was it even in the White House calendar that today was the
08:03day
08:03Trump was supposed to check in with his boss? Gulf War three continues. Gulf War one was because Iraq
08:14invaded Kuwait and we wanted to make them uninvade Kuwait. Gulf War two was because the George W. Bush
08:20administration wanted somewhere else to invade besides Afghanistan. So they made up a fantasy about
08:25Iraq having weapons of mass destruction when they didn't. Gulf War three is now and Donald Trump started
08:31it. But for Gulf War three, there is still no coherent explanation from the president or the
08:37White House as to what exactly this is all for. Not even an obviously pretextual false reason like
08:43we had from George W. Bush. The president did unveil a new purported justification for the war today
08:50in his rambling press conference at his golf thing. He said, quote, we're doing this for the other parts
08:57of the world. We're doing this for the other parts of the world. It's actually hard to argue with that
09:04one. That one might actually be true. The Wall Street Journal is now describing this as the most
09:11severe energy crisis since the 1970s. CNBC calls it the biggest oil supply disruption in history
09:20because there is no way to safely move it to market. Saudi Arabia has now cut its production of oil.
09:27Iraq's production of oil is down to less than one third what it was before Trump started this war.
09:32In Qatar and Kuwait and Bahrain, major energy companies have declared force majeure, which
09:36basically means they're saying, hey, you know, act of God, outside our control, we can no longer be
09:43held to any contracts we previously signed as they all radically, radically scale down their oil and gas
09:50production. And it's not only fuel, it's also food, huge amounts of fertilizer passed through the
09:57Strait of Hormuz, fertilizer bound for ports all over the world, for crops all over the world, for food
10:04stuffs all over the world. Raw materials related to the petroleum industry also being choked off.
10:11A plastics plant north of Tokyo started to scale down production on Friday because they can't get the raw
10:16materials they use in that production process because they're, they're petroleum based products.
10:23It's also aluminum and other commodities like that as facilities like smelters shut down for lack
10:29of fuel. The nation of Bangladesh just closed its universities because they need to conserve energy.
10:37They need to conserve electricity used by the universities and they need to reduce the need for
10:43people to drive anywhere. Whole regions in the Philippines, including the capital city of
10:48Manila, just forced the country, just forced employers to institute a four day work week instead
10:54of a five day work week specifically to try to save energy. Gas stations in Vietnam have started to run
11:00out of fuel. They've started to put up sold out signs all over Hanoi. The New York Times reports that
11:08Pakistan's strategy is to hike gas prices so people hopefully stop driving and they're hoping that
11:15will be a protective measure to try to preserve both the supply and the price of diesel for Pakistan's
11:21trucks and buses. Okay. Maybe, maybe, maybe that'll work for some time. Maybe some of that will work
11:28for some time. But why did all this happen? What was all this for?
11:36We're doing this for the other parts of the world.
11:42We're doing this for the other parts of the world. We're doing this for the other parts of the
11:47world. I'm sure they're delighted with that. All right. We've just received in the tape of the,
11:54this is, again, how this works. I mentioned at the show just short time ago, the dignified transfer
11:59took place for U.S. Army Sergeant Benjamin Pennington. He is the seventh U.S. service member
12:04to die in combat in this nation's ongoing war with Iran. The way these things go is that we do
12:10not
12:10bring you these events when they happen live, these dignified transfers at Dover, but we can turn them
12:16around very quickly after they've happened, as soon as we get in that tape. Sergeant Pennington died
12:21yesterday after succumbing to injuries after an attack on the Prince Sultan air base in Saudi
12:26Arabia just over a week ago. Vice President J.D. Vance was at Dover to observe tonight's dignified
12:32transfer and also to meet with Sergeant Pennington's family. We're told that Vice President Vance was
12:37joined by the Defense Secretary and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. And I should just tell you,
12:42we're going to show you this now, but as is customary, the video that we have of this solemn event
12:46is silent. There is no audio that is on purpose. But we've just gotten this in. Let's turn to it
12:51now.
12:52Watch.
13:16Watch.
38:08Because this is, honestly, this is a black site prison to hold people without trial and without access to legal
38:14representation indefinitely.
38:15That is what all of these places are that they are trying to build.
38:20There were protests this weekend in 13 states, more than 70 different protests in 13 states this weekend, all targeting
38:28Citizens Bank, Citizens Bank headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island.
38:33Citizens Bank is being targeted because activists say they provide financing to the private companies that have been running Trump's
38:41immigrant prisons thus far.
38:42Citizens Bank, as I say, headquartered in Rhode Island.
38:45That meant that a lot of these protests this weekend were in New England, but they were all over.
38:49They were all over.
38:51You see the sign here at Concord, Massachusetts on the left-hand side, boycott Citizens Bank.
38:56And the overpass sign on the right there, Akron, Ohio.
39:00Citizens Bank funds ICE camps.
39:04National boycotts effort now for a bank purported to be financing Trump's immigrant prisons.
39:11There was also this protest this weekend in New Mexico at the site of Jeffrey Epstein's former ranch.
39:19People protesting at the site of that ranch for full disclosure and for full accountability for people involved in Jeffrey
39:25Epstein's abuse of girls and women and his sex trafficking ring.
39:31I should tell you, I should tell you, that ranch in New Mexico, Jeffrey Epstein's ranch in New Mexico, has
39:35a new owner now.
39:37That ranch was bought secretly just a couple of years ago by a Texas Republican named Don Huffines, H-U
39:45-F-F-I-N-E-S, Huffines.
39:47You might have seen his name in headlines this week because he was just nominated by Texas Republicans last week
39:52to be their nominee for state comptroller.
39:56Honestly, Texas Republicans just nominated for statewide office the proud new owner of Jeffrey Epstein's ranch.
40:07Mr. Huffines has not been accused of any wrongdoing related to Epstein's crimes, but Texas Republicans must just be so
40:14proud.
40:14They own Epstein's ranch.
40:16I'm sure they got a great deal.
40:19Speaking of Republicans' core message to voters for the election this year, in Arizona today, we learned that the Trump
40:26administration subpoenaed records from the 2020 election from Maricopa County, which is where Phoenix is in Arizona.
40:34You might remember, after the 2020 election, which Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden, both nationwide and specifically in Arizona,
40:41you might remember, after that election, the Republican-controlled Arizona Senate contracted, seriously, with a company that called itself Cyber
40:50Ninjas.
40:52And they spent taxpayer money on that contract to do a bizarre circus of an audit of the Maricopa County
41:03ballots from the 2020 presidential election.
41:06And at that audit, among the things they did was they checked the ballot paper to see if it might
41:13have bamboo fibers in it, because that would mean China did it.
41:17China stole the election.
41:20Cyber Ninjas, sadly and surprisingly, went out of business not long after their bizarre audit adventure with Maricopa County's ballots.
41:29But today, we learned that the same Republican-controlled Arizona Senate that contracted with Cyber Ninjas to do that to
41:37their 2020 ballots, today, we learned they also have happily complied with a Trump administration subpoena of some kind to
41:45hand over all the Maricopa County elections data that still exists.
41:49From 2020, no word on if that included any test strands of bamboo or maybe ninja outfits.
41:57This comes on the heels of a number of luminaries from the QAnon movement, starting to explain to various podcasters
42:04that they themselves have drafted an executive order that Trump is going to sign to proclaim a national emergency of
42:11some kind over the 2026 midterm elections.
42:14QAnon celebrities say they've written the executive order, and they're now just waiting for him to sign it.
42:23So, I mean, that's about how it's going, right?
42:26I mean, job creation under Donald Trump was literally negative last month.
42:31The U.S. economy under Donald Trump lost 92,000 jobs last month.
42:35Over the past year, while Trump's been in office, the country has lost nearly 100,000 manufacturing jobs specifically, because
42:43remember how his tariffs were supposed to save U.S. manufacturing?
42:46He's finally had to fire his Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem.
42:50There are three-, four-, five-hour waits at some airports now for airport security, because that's Kristi Noem's department, so
42:56that's going great.
42:56His efforts to build himself a huge new network of massive prisons where he can hold people without trial and
43:02without access to lawyers, those efforts appear to be either floundering or revealed as just patently insane everywhere he's trying
43:09to do it.
43:09Local residents and voters and politicians of both parties rejecting those Trump prison camps outright in every single place he
43:17is trying to put them.
43:18Gas prices have now spiked as high as they've ever been while he has been president, with the worst still
43:24to come, as the war he started for no discernible reason causes the worst energy world shock in at least
43:3050 years.
43:33The Trump era is really rising up to its full height right now, with Republicans in Washington today starting to
43:41crater in a whole new way.
43:44And that story is next.
43:46Stay with us.
43:51I mentioned a moment ago one awkward situation playing out for Republicans heading into this November's elections.
43:58The statewide candidate for Texas State Comptroller turns out to have secretly bought the New Mexico ranch that was owned
44:04by notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
44:07He bought the Epstein ranch, and now he's the Republican Party's candidate for statewide office for State Comptroller in Texas.
44:15Must have a great head for numbers, this guy who secretly bought Jeffrey Epstein's ranch.
44:20It has made for awkward headlines already.
44:23Even though Don Huffines has not been accused of any wrongdoing in the Epstein case, even though he says any
44:29request from law enforcement to search the property will be met with immediate access and full cooperation,
44:34it's still going to be awkward for Texas Republicans all the time when his ownership of Jeffrey Epstein's ranch keeps
44:41coming up over and over again during the course of 2026 heading into the November election.
44:47Just today, New Mexico investigators began a new search of the property, a good reminder to all Texas Republicans that
44:54that's their guy, the Jeffrey Epstein ranch owner guy.
44:59It's expected to be a difficult election season for Republicans for a lot of reasons.
45:03Their biggest challenge will likely be keeping control of Congress in November.
45:06Already, the Republican majority is slow, is so slim in the House, they can afford to lose only one vote
45:12on any party line issue.
45:14Well, today, California Republican Congressman Kevin Kiley announced that he's leaving the Republican Party.
45:20He wants to serve his swing district as an independent from here on out.
45:24Congressman Kiley says he will still caucus with the Republicans, but, of course, he now has every political reason to
45:29try to distance himself from his party on any high-profile vote he has to take.
45:34Meanwhile, several other House Republicans have essentially become very lame ducks, say, Texas Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw, who lost his
45:42primary.
45:42He's going to be out of office next year.
45:45Does he have to show up between now and the end of his term?
45:48It's up to him.
45:49Texas Republican Congressman Wesley Hunt also gave up his seat in the House to come in third in the Texas
45:56Senate race.
45:57Congressman Hunt already had a terrible attendance record in Congress.
46:00What reason does he have to show up now, now that he's given up his seat?
46:04Texas Republican Congressman Tony Gonzalez, how about him?
46:07He agreed not to seek re-election after an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide.
46:12If Tony Gonzalez remains in the House, which he says he plans to do, he'll have to face an ethics
46:18investigation.
46:19What's the likelihood that he's going to keep showing up?
46:22If he quits, the ethics investigation just goes away.
46:25See also Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who has recently bucked her party specifically on the issue of
46:31Jeffrey Epstein.
46:32Congresswoman Mace is also giving up her seat to run for governor.
46:35So what incentive does she have to stick around in the meantime?
46:39She is also facing a House ethics investigation over an alleged misuse of taxpayer dollars.
46:44She denies that wrongdoing, but any investigation would go away if she were to step down before her term is
46:51finished.
46:53Republicans knew to expect a fight for control of the House in November.
46:57I'm not sure they expected this much of a fight for control right now, like Monday, today, and from here
47:04on out.
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