-
Playlist
Playlist
-
Full Episodes
Full Episodes
The Rachel Maddow Show
Now playing
Friday, 04/26/19Watch the full episode of Friday night's The Rachel Maddow Show.
-
- Information
-
-
comments
Rachel Maddow StoriesRSS
Friday's Mini-Report, 4.26.19
Today's edition of quick hits:
* A new deadline: "A judge gave President Donald Trump's administration six months to identify migrant children who were separated from their families for reunification, a process the White House previously stated would take up to two years."
* A story we've been following: "Maria Butina, the Russian operative who used her NRA activism to illegally infiltrate conservative political circles, was sentenced to 18 months in prison by a federal judge Friday."
* A crazy story: "Federal prosecutors charged a state judge and a former court officer in Massachusetts with obstruction of justice on Thursday for allegedly helping an undocumented immigrant escape from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer at a courthouse last year."
* Referring to North Korean weapons, Trump, relying on his idiosyncratic grammar, said this morning, "There's been no tests. There's been no nothing." I wish that were true. It's not.
* An important story out of Kansas about reproductive rights: "Kansas' highest court ruled for the first time Friday that the state constitution protects abortion rights and blocked a first-in-the-nation ban on a common second trimester method for ending pregnancies."
* EPA: "After pressure from the Defense Department, the Environmental Protection Agency significantly weakened a proposed standard for cleaning up groundwater pollution caused by toxic chemicals that contaminate drinking water consumed by millions of Americans and that have been commonly used at military bases."
* A scary story out of northern California: "An Army veteran with a history of post-traumatic stress disorder was on his way to a Bible class when he told investigators he intentionally drove into a group of men, women and children, injuring eight people, police said."
Trump's newest skill: he thinks he's 'the greatest hostage negotiator'
One of the oddities of Donald Trump's personality is that he's convinced himself he's an expert in practically every subject. For example, the president recently assured the public, "I'm a professional at technology." What kind of technology? He didn't say, but we can probably assume he meant every possible kind.
That, of course, is just the starting point. Trump has also claimed to be the world's foremost authority on everything from terrorism to campaign finance, the judicial system to infrastructure, trade to renewable energy. NowThis recently prepared a video montage on the subject, and it was amazing to see the many subjects on which the president considers himself a world-class expert.
This morning, our polymathic president let us know about yet another area of his alleged expertise.
"'President Donald J. Trump is the greatest hostage negotiator that I know of in the history of the United States. 20 hostages, many in impossible circumstances, have been released in last two years. No money was paid.' Cheif [sic] Hostage Negotiator, USA!"
Sure, you and I might think that to have great skills as a hostage negotiator, one would probably need some kind of training, but not our president. He talked to the nation's "chief" hostage negotiator, who's certain that Trump is "the greatest hostage negotiator," not only alive today, but who's ever lived "in the history of the United States."
So, what's this all about?
Why Trump's rejection of the Arms Trade Treaty matters
Six years ago, the United Nations General Assembly endorsed the Arms Trade Treaty on a vote of 154 to 3. While there were some abstentions, the only nations opposed to the ATT were Iran, North Korea, and Syria. The United States voted with the majority, and several months later, then-Secretary of State John Kerry officially endorsed the treaty, beginning the ratification process.
That process, at least in this country, is now dead. Donald Trump made some news at the NRA convention today, announcing the end of the United States' support for the ATT. The Washington Post reported:
President Trump announced Friday that he would un-sign the global arms pact known as the Arms Trade Treaty in the latest illustration of his aversion to international pacts and world governance.
"We will never allow foreign bureaucrats to trample on your Second Amendment freedom," Trump said during a speech before the National Rifle Association in Indianapolis. "I'm officially announcing today that the United States will be revoking the effect of America's signature from this badly misguided treaty."
Specifically, the president added that he intends to formally ask the Senate to end the ratification process, so that he can "dispose of" the treaty (which, evidently, the Senate will have already done).
When the assembled crowd applauded this afternoon, Trump said, "I'm impressed. I didn't know too many of you would know what it is."
That's probably because he didn't know what it was. In fact, given his rhetoric today, Trump still doesn't know much about the treaty he's eager to "dispose of," or why he's aligning the United States with Iran, North Korea, and Syria.
Trump tries to relitigate his response to Charlottesville (again)
When former Vice President Joe Biden launched his 2020 presidential campaign with an online video yesterday, he focused special attention on Donald Trump's 2017 response to violence in Charlottesville, Va.
"In that moment," the Delaware Democrat said, "I knew the threat to this nation was unlike any I'd seen in my lifetime."
It was against this backdrop that a reporter asked the president this morning if he still believes there were "very fine people on both sides" in Charlottesville. "Oh, I've answered that question," the Republican responded.
And if he'd stopped there, said nothing else, and fielded the next question, it would have demonstrated a degree of common sense and political agility. Trump did not, however, stop there.
"[I]f you look at what I said, you will see that that question was answered perfectly.
"And I was talking about people that went because they felt very strongly about the monument to Robert E. Lee, a great general. Whether you like it or not, he was one of the great generals.
"I have spoken to many generals here, right at the White House, and many people thought -- of the generals, they think that he was maybe their favorite general.
"People were there protesting the taking down of the monument of Robert E. Lee. Everybody knows that."
I'm curious what part of Donald Trump's brain told him, "Nearly two years later, after international condemnations and brutal political blowback, now seems like a good time to relitigate my scandalous response to Charlottesville."
Friday's Campaign Round-Up, 4.26.19
Today's installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* In Michigan, where Democratic state legislative candidates received the most votes while Republicans received the most power, a federal court yesterday unanimously struck down the state's gerrymandered district lines, concluding that the existing map is "deliberately" discriminatory.
* Symone Sanders, a prominent African-American political strategist and Sen. Bernie Sanders' former press secretary, has joined former Vice President Joe Biden's 2020 team.
* And speaking of Biden, the former vice president reached out to Anita Hill to express regret for how he responded to her testimony in 1991, and by all appearances, the professor was not satisfied with Biden's contrition.
* Nevertheless, the Delaware Democrat picked up some additional endorsements yesterday afternoon from several U.S. House members, as well as his home state's governor, John Carney (D).
* During her appearance at the "She the People" event this week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) unveiled her latest policy proposal: a measure intended to address black maternal mortality rates.
* Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld (R), running a long-shot primary campaign against Donald Trump, made the case this week that the president should resign from office in response to the Mueller report. Weld went on to describe Trump as "a one-man crime wave."
Trump tries to build a wall between the White House and accountability
NBC News ran a headline this week that may have seemed hyperbolic, but which was clearly rooted in fact: "Trump goes to war for power over Congress."
Reading this Washington Post report, it's difficult to draw any other conclusion.
President Trump's defiance of congressional attempts to investigate his administration has put new pressure on the legislative branch's ability to serve as a constitutional check on a president who sees few limits on his executive power.
Since taking office, Trump has consistently treated Congress as more of a subordinate than an equal -- often aided by the tacit approval of congressional Republicans who have shown little interest in confronting the president.
But tensions between Trump and Capitol Hill have escalated in recent days as the White House refuses to comply with subpoenas from newly empowered House Democrats eager to conduct aggressive oversight of his administration.
One of the most striking aspects of this unfolding dilemma is the scope of the conflict.
Trump and his team are ignoring congressional subpoenas. And they're ignoring a federal law on disclosure of his tax returns to a congressional committee chairman. And they're ignoring requests for testimony. And they're encouraging private entities not to cooperate with congressional inquiries. And they're circumventing Congress on border measures. And they're not bothering to nominate cabinet officials, preferring "acting" secretaries to those confirmed by the Senate.
The Post's report added, "The administration has also blown off some requests from powerful Republicans."
Donald Trump may not be building a wall between the United States and Mexico, but as the New York Times suggested yesterday, he's making strides in building a wall between the White House and congressional oversight.
Team Trump peddles odd Obama-Russia message to its 2020 donors
Donald Trump's preoccupation with Barack Obama has been a little creepy lately. In fact, the Republican tweeted about his presidential predecessor a couple of times again this morning.
But to really drive the point home, consider TPM's report on the Trump campaign's latest pitch to its donors -- in the form of an "Official Obama-Russia Accountability" survey.
The "survey" -- really just a mechanism for gathering voters' contact information -- promises that the President will "personally review" the responses of those who provide their answers (plus their names, emails and cell numbers).
But the framing is pretty rich. "Obama worked with Russia?" the email subject line reads.
In the Trump campaign's telling, the "Waste of Money Mueller Report" proved that "Cheatin' Obama" intentionally declined to prevent Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential contest.
One of the "survey" questions read, "Do you believe Obama doing nothing gave Russians the green light to interfere in the 2016 Election?"
So let me get this straight. Russia attacked the U.S. elections, as part of a military intelligence operation intended to put Donald Trump in power. Obama, the Trump campaign wants its supporters to believe, may have given Moscow "the green light" to intervene in our elections, and the Democratic president may have even "worked with" Russia.
Or put another way, in this twisted little narrative, despite allegations that the 2016 Trump campaign may have conspired with Russia, the 2020 Trump campaign would like people to believe Obama may have conspired with Russia ... apparently to help Trump.
Trump's TPP missteps serve as a backdrop for trade talks with Japan
As interesting as these trade talks will be, it's the events that led up to them that deserve attention.
President Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan will meet in Washington on Friday as the two countries work toward a bilateral trade deal that could give American farmers more access to Japan's market and forestall tariffs on Japanese cars.
The trouble, of course, is that the United States already negotiated with Japan and gained greater access to the country's market. It was Trump who walked away from that deal.
At issue was the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), which the Obama administration successfully negotiated, but which Trump killed almost immediately after taking office. The Republican assured Americans at the time that he'd replace the TPP with a "beautiful" alternative, and true to form, that never happened.
Soon after, as regular readers know, our former partners in the TPP struck their own agreement -- without us -- which created a striking dynamic: the benefits we negotiated to help the United States would now benefit a wide variety of countries, but not ours.
Last week, the Trump administration upbraided Japan for not giving us more favorable trade terms, overlooking the fact that Japan already did, a few years ago, in a deal the Trump administration abandoned for reasons the president has never been able to explain in a coherent way.
The Washington Post's Catherine Rampell had a great piece this week, explaining that dozens of other countries are now benefiting "from changes we persuaded Japan to make," creating conditions in which American farmers are poised "to lose out, big time."
Trump insists there was 'an attempted overthrow' of US government
On five occasions this month, Donald Trump has promoted Twitter content from others claiming there was an attempted "coup" against his administration. Last night on Fox News, the president lent his voice to the same hysterical talking point.
While discussing the origins of the Mueller probe -- which he and fellow Republicans have demanded an investigation into -- with his best friend and Fox News host Sean Hannity, Trump called the investigation a "coup" and the "greatest political scandal" in history, even greater than Watergate.
Looking over the transcript, the president was not subtle on this point. It seemed as if Trump called into Sean Hannity's show specifically to push this line.
"Really, it's a coup," Trump said. "It's spying. It's everything that you can imagine. It's hard to believe in this country that we would have had that.... I really say, now we have to get down because this was a coup. This was an attempted overthrow of the United States government."
He added, "This was a coup. This wasn't stealing information from an office in the Watergate apartments. This was an attempted coup. And it's like a third world country -- and inconceivable."
I can appreciate the fact that we've all grown quite inured to Donald Trump appearing on Fox News and saying strange things. It's an understandable reaction.
But it's worth pausing to appreciate just how extraordinary the circumstances are. For the first time in our history, the sitting American president has told the world that there was "an attempted overthrow of the United States government" -- a declaration that has been greeted with widespread shrugs, as if it were a routine Thursday night.
Because, by and large, it was. This is our life now.
Economy shows surprising resilience in early months of 2019
Economic growth in the latter half of 2018 gradually slid in the wrong direction, prompting fears of a possible economic downturn. Those concerns are a lot quieter this morning.
Reports of the demise of the U.S. economy proved unfounded as first quarter activity showed surprising strength. The U.S. economy expanded at a 3.2% annual pace in the first three months of 2019, the government said Friday.
The gain was well above forecasts. Economists polled by MarketWatch had forecast a 2.3% increase in gross domestic product.... One unexpected factor behind the acceleration in GDP growth in the first quarter was a sharp upturn in state and local government spending.
The full report from the Commerce Department is online here.
If recent history is any guide, Donald Trump and the White House will, any minute now, claim that GDP growth of 3.2% is even better than the 3% rate the Republican says was his goal, so it's worth remembering that this morning's report refers to quarterly growth -- January through March -- not annual growth. (Also, the president promised annual growth between 4% and 6%. Why he set expectations unreasonably high is still a mystery.)
What's more, this new figure will be revised in the coming months.
Regardless, there's no denying that 3.2% growth is the latest evidence of a healthy economy, and should bury talk of a looming recession, at least for a while.
Pages
About The Rachel Maddow Show
Launched in 2008, “The Rachel Maddow Show” follows the machinations of policy making in America, from local political activism to international diplomacy. Rachel Maddow looks past the distractions of political theater and stunts and focuses on the legislative proposals and policies that shape American life - as well as the people making and influencing those policies and their ultimate outcome, intended or otherwise.
