The Rachel Maddow Show, Transcript 06/27/13

RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC HOST: And thanks to you at home for staying home with us next hour. Amazing. I know, it frequently seems as if Congress can`t do anything, but, today, they did. The United States Senate really did pass an immigration reform bill. This is huge deal. You could tell this was a huge deal by watching the way in which they physically cast their votes. Typically when the Senate votes, they wander around and chat each other up and the place kind of looks like half a garden party, half a bus depot. But today, Senate majority leader Harry Reid had the members of the United States Senate stay formally at their desks and vote from their desks. That is how you know they think this is a really big vote. This is the eyes of the nation are upon you stuff. And also, vice president Biden, as vice president, he is technically the president of the Senate. He also exercised his right to preside over the Senate today for this vote. As the Senate passed immigration reform, which, of course, is one of the administration`s marquee policy goals. Historic day today. The bill passed. Immigration reform has been stalled in Congress for almost a decade now. Democrats have been for it all along, but Republicans just have not being able to get it together. They have been chaotic about it even when their Republican president, George W. Bush, tried to champion the issue. I mean, over a different versions of immigration reform, different Republicans would support something or maybe even propose something, and then they would un-support the same idea that they used to like and that they maybe even proposed. They decide they didn`t like it once a democrat liked it. It has been a weird saga for the Republicans. But today, immigration reform passed. It passed by a lot. And that is big and meaningful news. All the Democrats in the Senate voted for it. And 14 Republicans did as well. Now, that means that most Republicans were still against it, but enough of them peeled off to make it possible. Now, who knows if it can pass in the Republican-controlled house. That`s where it`s heading next. But the reason immigration reform got 14 Republican votes in the Senate, the reason there is even a possibility that it can pass the Republican-controlled house, is because Republicans are terrified of the consequences of how badly they lose the Latino vote now. Republicans just do terrible with Latinos now. This is the Latino vote in the last election. Yes, guess how that election turned out. I mean, it`s understandable that Republicans do terrible with Latino voters given where they are on policy that Latinos care about. But having that many millions of Americans voting against you as a bloc, having the nation`s fastest growing minority group voting against you by nearly 3-1, that is an un- survivable situation for a national party. That is a disaster. Now, one way to try to fix that is to try to change what you look like to Latino voters on policy grounds. Try to erase the Republican I hate immigrants party image that you have earned through the careers of Steve King and Tom Tancredo and Pat Buchanan and Joe Arpaio and Jan Brewer. That anti-immigrant image of the party. You can try to change that by trying to get at least some of your party to support centrist immigration reform, like what happened today in the United States Senate. That`s one way to do it. Try to make yourself more attractive to Latino voters by doing something that Latino voters like. Or you can do what they do in Texas. Te Republicans are not so much trying to appeal to Latinos. They are more just trying to make sure Latinos can`t vote. In 2011, Texas Republicans passed a bill that said you`d no longer be allowed to vote in Texas unless you could provide documentation that you never had to show before, and that not everyone in the state has. Governor Rick Perry signed that voter I.D. bill into law and then the federal government wrote the state of Texas a nice note about it. Quote "we have carefully considered the information you have provided about your new voter I.D. law. including the state`s own estimate that as many as 800,000 registered Texas voters do not have the kind of I.D. that Texas Republicans wanted to make people show before they`d be allowed to vote." And it`s not just any 800,000 Texans who don`t have it. Quote "Hispanic registered voters are more than twice as likely as non-Hispanic registered voters to lack such identification." So, under the new Republican voting law in Texas, Hispanics would be twice as likely to not be allowed to vote, according to the state`s own data. And so, the federal government said, you know what, Texas, no. You cannot change your laws in such a way that you, yourself, admit will block hundreds of thousands of Latinos from ting. The federal government blocked Texas from going ahead with that. But that wasn`t all that Texas Republicans were trying to do. After the 2010 census, Texas Republicans created new congressional districts. Quote "with discriminatory purpose." That`s what a federal court said about the Republicans` new maps. Texas Republicans took away the seats of minority lawmakers and redrew the districts of white lawmakers to make those seats easier for the white people to win and hold on to. In the new maps the court said, the court noted in the new maps not a single white Texas lawmaker lost his or her seat to the new maps that were drawn by the Republicans. But black lawmakers, well, they just had their districts whittled out from under them. So, the federal court said no to that redistricting plan as well. Just as the federal justice department said no to the law that would make Hispanic voters twice as unlikely to be able to cast a ballot. But then this week the law that allowed the feds to block those moves in Texas, that law was gutted by the conservative majority of the Supreme Court. In gutting the voting rights act this week the Supreme Court also threw out both of those rulings about Texas. So now, Texas is good to go with its voter I.D. law that was blocked for being too racist, and with its new election maps that were blocked for being too racist. What the Republicans were doing to elections in Texas before, what they were trying to do was too obviously racist to be legal, until this week. But now, it`s legal. Now, they can just get away with it so they`re going for it. We have played this little bit of tape from election night 2008 before. But yesterday, with yesterday`s court rulings it was kind of like deja vu all over again, right back to this moment. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: I believe we have got some pictures out of San Francisco as well. Some of the celebration pouring out in the Castro district of the city, as it`s known, a place near and dear to your heart. CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC ANCHOR, HARDBALL: To me. Certainly me having written for the papers out there all those years. MADDOW: That may not all be celebration if it`s in the Castro and we haven`t got Prop 8. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: Prop 8. Oh, yes. That was the moment on election night in 2008 when we here at MSNBC, in covering the election of America`s first black president covering Barack Obama beating John McCain to win the presidency of the United States, simultaneously we started to realize that in California, while that victory at the presidential level was being celebrated as a civil rights milestone, California also that same night in that same election on that same ballot voted to take away existing marriage rights from California same-sex couples. That whiplash moment, that California, alone, experienced the night President Obama was first elected, that moment was referenced yesterday. It was brought up unprompted by one of the plaintiffs in the California same-sex marriage case that was decided yesterday at the Supreme Court. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In 2008 when we elected the first African-American president, it was a glorious day, but later that night it was a horrible night when the returns for Prop 8 came in saying that we were going to be treated as second-class citizens, and we just could not fathom being treated like that anymore. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: So it was that moment in 2008 when we simultaneously had this great civil rights advance of electing an African-American president, and also the civil rights reverse in terms of gay couples in California, that moment in 2008. Now, this week, we are essentially having the mirror image of that moment, thanks to the Supreme Court. With the elation over the Supreme Court ruling yesterday making this grand step on gay civil rights. That being celebrated all over the country. While at the same time, the country is still absorbing the decision by the same court just one day before to take a sledgehammer to the cornerstone of American civil rights law when they destroyed the voting rights act. And, yes, it`s under different rationales and for different structural reasons and responding to different specific circumstances and cases, but regardless, like that night in 2008, if you were in California, once again at the same moment the country is being pulled in two opposite directions on civil rights. Because of what the court ruled this week, the voting rights act, today, is dead. It`s gone. Only Congress has the power to bring it back from the dead, and maybe they will? But in the meantime, red states that had wanted to change their election laws in really racially discriminatory ways. But they could not get away with it because the voting rights act stopped them from doing that before. Those red states are now charging full steam ahead already as of today with racially discriminatory voting laws. I mean, in Texas, the voter I.D. law was called obviously racially motivated. It was called an attempt to keep whites in power. And that`s why it was blocked, federally. But with this week`s ruling taking the justice department out of the mix, Texas is going ahead going ahead with this law that until this week was too racist to be legal. But they are doing it. They are doing it, as is Mississippi, as is Alabama, as is North Carolina. All of these states that had been restrained from enacting voting laws that were too racist to be allowed before this week, they`re now going for it. It`s not theoretical, like they are cleared to go ahead with it, they`re going. It`s already happening. And so in these red states, all of the states that were fully covered under section five of the voting rights act, were all Republican-controlled states. And in these red states, it`s going to be a state-by-state fight at least for now. And in Washington, I mean, Republicans in Congress are going to have to decide what to do. They`re going to have to decide if they want a national fix for this problem, as President Obama suggested there should be today. They have to decide if it`s going it be a national fix. In the meantime before they get around to that, they have to decide whether to side with what`s going on with the red states now, whether decide with the Republican state governments. Are national Republicans going to take the side of the legislators whose voter I.D. plan was found to be actually just a way of keeping white people in power in Texas? Or are they going to be on the other side of that fight? Republicans in Congress have to decide which side they are going to take. And in all the other states that have been freed from the voting rights act, too. But this is going to be a fight. A state-to-state fight on voting rights in the short term starting right away. And in the same short term, it`s going to be a state-by-state fight in the three dozen states in the country who still do not have marriage equality. And who now must decide whether or not to keep offering gay people only second-class citizenship even after this federal ruling. I mean, from the prospective of the Supreme Court, we have been pulled in two opposite directions in these last two days. but from a practical level, in terms of what happens next, in terms of how we will move forward or not on both of these issues, we are not being pulled in different directions in terms of what happens next. On both of these issues, this is now a fight in the states, especially in the red states, over whether or not being gay should make you a second-class citizen and over whether or not our election laws ought to be blatantly racist. It`s going to be both of those fights in parallel in a lot of the same states, all starting right now. These two decisions from the Supreme Court this week pulled us in different directions, but the fight from here on both of these issues is the same. It happens on the ground locally, pulling in the same direction in a lot of the same places toward protected equal civil rights. And sometimes in some places that`s going to mean pulling together in the courts. We learned today that gay couples in New Jersey are suing for the right to marry in New Jersey. They`re going to try for equality in the courts there. Some people in some places are going to be trying not in the courts but in the streets. Guess where this is? This is Little Rock, Arkansas, yesterday afternoon. DOMA is dead. These folks are with a group called the Arkansas initiative for marriage equality. And yesterday, they got together and they walked through the streets of Little Rock for the right to marry in that very, very red state. Voters in Arkansas approved a ban on same-sex marriage in 2004. The vote was overwhelming in Arkansas. But look at this. In Arkansas, they`re starting a movement to overturn that ban, a homegrown movement. They have been working on this idea of marriage rights since the day after the November election 2012. This march, these Arkansans marched at the gay pride parade in Conway, Arkansas. If you live in a red state, this is no surprise to you. If you live in a blue state and you though red states your monolithic, no, say hello to the complicated unexpected rest of America. These folks hope to put the Arkansas marriage equality amendment before they fellow citizens on the 2016 ballot. They want it voted on because they think they can win. They have worked out the language of the referendum proposal. They are preparing to collect signatures. In support of the proposition that the right to marry shall not be abridged or denied on account of sex or sexual orientation, not even in Arkansas. We are seeing news like this in Arkansas, in Ohio, in Montana, in North Dakota, in Michigan, in Wyoming. All these places you wouldn`t necessarily expect it, but it`s happening at a homegrown grassroots level. This is now a state-by-state fight in every state for the right to marry. Just as it is a state-by-state fight in every state for the right to vote. Yesterday in Texas, a Democratic congressman sued the state of Texas over the voter I.D. law that until a few days ago was too racist for the federal government to let it go forward. He is now asking the court to block that law again. Joining us now is Mark Veasey, he is congressman from Forth Worth, Texas. He`s a new plaintiff in Veasey versus Texas, Texas governor Rick Perry. Congressman Veasey, thank you very much for being here. It`s nice to have you here. REP. MARC VEASEY (D), TEXAS: Thank you, Rachel. Thanks for having me on the show. MADDOW: Let me ask you. Your overall reaction to the idea of the voting rights act, damage done on civil rights terms this week by the Supreme Court and how the fight to preserve voting rights in the country moves forward from here on out. VEASEY: Well, the thing that I`m doing to preserve voting rights moving this point forward is I filed a suit in Texas, in Corpus Christi, to make sure this law is never implemented. As you stated earlier, this law was found to be discriminatory. And the fact just because section four was struck down that you would move to make a law that a court has found to be discriminatory is absolutely nonsense. Ant it sends the wrong message about Texas. We are a great state and don`t want to send a message to businesses and companies and people that are moving to the state of Texas in records number, mostly Latino and African-American, that discrimination is OK. We need to stop. I believe this law, this voter I.D. law passed by Republicans, when I was still in the legislature in 2011, that it`s discriminatory and violates section two. MADDOW: Do you think Texas still deserves the kind of special scrutiny it used to get under the voting rights act? If you could wave a magic wand and have Congress redesign a new formula to figure out who would have to be under that kind of special scrutiny from the justice department before they could change their laws like it used to be, would Texas need to be in cat category? VEASEY: Rachel, let me tell you something. For the four terms I was in the state legislature, I saw some of the worst discrimination as far as public policy is concerned coming from Republicans trying to implement that public policy so it would have an adverse impact on African-American and Latinos when it comes to exercising the right to vote. Groups like the king street patriots, they are alive and well, and they are actively trying to make sure that Republicans can continue to win elections at the expense of African-American and Latino voters. And absolutely Texas is not in any position to say that we should, can live in a post-section five world. There is no absolutely no doubt about that. MADDOW: As a member of Congress now, you have a voice if Congress chooses to embark on this project. You`ll have a voice in setting the new rules for who should get special scrutiny. Congress could bring the voting rights act back from the dead by establishing a new formula for picking jurisdictions that ought to be subject to the kind of scrutiny that used to be established by that law. How will you try to make the argument to Republicans that Congress ought to do that? VEASEY: Well, I would say to Republicans that when you look at civil rights legislation that took place in the 1960s, it took a bipartisan effort to get those things done, and so what I would tell my colleagues, both Republicans and Democrats, is let`s come together and let`s be for fairness. We want people to know that Texas and other states want to do the right thing when it comes to all of its citizens, and we know that many of these policies, like the ones trying to be implemented in Texas, are simply unfair. Rachel, just to drive home just how unfair some of these laws are in Texas, when it comes to the voter I.D. law that was passed, if you are -- if you have a concealed handgun license, that will be an acceptable form of I.D. to vote. But if you are a student and have a state college I.D. or if you`re a veteran and have a veterans I.D., that would not work. That would not be acceptable. MADDOW: Wow. VEASEY: So if you have a concealed handgun license and a glock, that`s OK, but if you have a student I.D. or a disabled veterans I.D., no bueno. It`s not fair. We need to do the right thing. MADDOW: Congressman Mark Veasey of Texas. One of the co-complainants in a new lawsuit challenging Texas` proposed voter I.D. law. Thank you very much for your time tonight, sir. Please keep us apprised as this moves forward. VEASEY: Absolutely. Thank you, Rachel, for having me on. MADDOW: Thanks very much. All right, I should note our guest, Mark Veasey of Texas, congressman from Texas, he is one of the people who recruited the woman named Wendy Davis to be in the Texas state Senate. Did you hear what Governor Rick Perry said today about state senator Wendy Davis? It`s on in Texas. We have got that story coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: The fight this week in Texas has been riveting. Senator Wendy Davis` 11 hour, one-woman stand against the Texas Republican abortion ban that would close more than 80 percent of the women`s health clinics that provide abortions in the state. Thousands of people streaming through the Texas state capitol to cheer Senator Davis on. A big portion of the country inside and outside of Texas just glued to that story this week. And the story got even more incredible today. We will have more on that coming up in the show in a couple minutes. But n that same subject, in two other states right now, bills have just gone through the legislature, and are on their way to two other states` Republican governors for them to decide what to do with them. (VIDEO CLIP PLAYING) MADDOW: That was the scene at the Ohio statehouse today in Columbus. Protesters yelling "line item veto, line item veto!" because right now in Ohio, the only way that surprise brand new last minute adopted in secret anti-abortion law can be stopped is if they`re line item vetoed by Ohio governor John Kasich. These are not regular antiabortion bills in Ohio. No, this time Ohio Republicans decided they didn`t want to debate their anti-abortion wish lists. So stuck all this stuff into the state`s budget at the last minute without ever bringing it up for debate. They did it at the last minute as they passed the final version of the budget last night, I think probably hoping that nobody would notice. So it`s a forced medically unnecessary ultrasound that you cannot say no to. It is a forced lecture from Ohio doctors even if they do not medically agree with the content of the lecture. It`s defunding Planned Parenthood and other family planning providers. Reducing women`s access to contraceptives and cancer screenings and prenatal car. And of course, it`s more trap laws to just shut down clinics that provide abortions in Ohio. The Ohio stuff even redefines the word pregnancy for the purpose of Ohio state law to use it for anti-abortion purposes. And all of this stuff was not debated. The Republicans just shoved all this stuff into the budget at the last minute then passed the budget and now the only person who could change any of it is Ohio governor John Kasich who has until Sunday to decide and who thus far will not say what he is going to do but does keep reminding everybody how anti-abortion he is. So the John Kasich deadline about what to do about all these surprise antiabortion measures that ended up in the budget is Sunday night. In the meantime, he`s scheduled a press conference for tomorrow at noon eastern. We`ll have more on that in tomorrow night`s show depending on what happens there. In addition, there`s also what`s happening in North Carolina right now. What`s happening in North Carolina right now is a little unusual, unheard of, maybe is the right term here. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- 132 (INAUDIBLE) to include instruction in the school health education program, on their preventable causes of pre-term birth, including induced abortion as a cause of preterm birth and subsequent pregnancies. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: A bill to be -- what did you say the bill was name was? The bill, the what? A bill to be entitled, an act to include instruction in the school health education program on the preventable causes of preterm birth including induced abortion as a cause of preterm birth and subsequent pregnancies. That`s the name of it. And in Shouty (ph), all capital letters as well. On party lines the North Carolina house did pass this thing today. In practical terms it`s a bill that would force school health teachers to lie to seventh graders about abortion. The state government with this bill would direct teachers to teach that abortion is a health risk that keeps women from carrying their future pregnancies to term. So if you have an abortion now, you`ll never have a baby in the future. And that is not at all true. That is no true according to the wild eyed feminist wicked dulas (ph) who make up the American college of obstetricians and gynecologists. It`s not true. But the Republicans in the North Carolina legislature want to mandate that your kids` health teachers at school have to tell it to your kids, anyway, by law. Party line vote. One of the sure signs of how confident the Republicans are in this legislation is that even though there was quite a robust debate on this bill with lawmakers ling up at the microphones six deep for a turn to speak on it, we cannot comb through the transcript to tell you what was said at the debate because one of the bill`s Republican supporters intervened to stop any transcript from being made of the debate. It was not transcribed. The Republicans decided. But they passed the bill. The Republicans passed it. And when North Carolina`s new Republican governor Pat McCrory was elected in November, he pledged that he would not sign any new anti-abortion legislation as North Carolina`s governor. But this is on his desk. It`s heading toward his desk, at least. All eyes on North Carolina right now to see if that is a campaign promise that the governor plans to keep in this case. Regardless of what Republicans say they are working on in governance, if you look at what they are doing in governance, what they are going to acrobatic and astonishing lengths to do at all costs wherever in this country they are in power, it is abortion. Abortion, abortion, abortion is the top of their list everywhere they hold power. We will keep you posted on this thing in North Carolina and the thing in Ohio and the thing in Texas and, and, and everywhere else they`re doing this because they`re doing it everywhere. This is their number one priority. Watch this space. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC ANCHOR: Rick Perry became governor of Texas when George W. Bush was elected president in 2000. He has been governor of Texas ever since. Soon Mr. Perry is due to announce whether he`s going to run again. Again to be Texas governor. Or whether he wants to maybe do something else. Most of the smart money is on something else. People think he will not run for governor again because he wants to run for president again instead. And maybe so. And maybe he will do great this time. On paper he`s still a great candidate. The problem is that the election isn`t on paper. Sometimes there`s the talking. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why does Texas continue with abstinence education programs when they don`t seem to be working? In fact, I think we have the third highest teen pregnancy rate in the country among all the states. GOV. RICK PERRY (R), TEXAS: Abstinence works. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But we are the third highest teen pregnancy -- we have the third highest teen pregnancy rate among all states in the country. The question, the point is, doesn`t seem to be working. PERRY: The fact of the matter is, it is the best form of -- to teach our children. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you give me a statistic suggesting it works? PERRY: And I`m for it. I`m just going to tell you from -- I`m going to tell you from my own personal life, abstinence works. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: Texas Governor Rick Perry talking about sex in public never goes well. And today he turned those bright lights of his on to the subject of sex and reproduction and Texas State Senator Wendy Davis. It really did not go well. That`s coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: In Austin, Texas, there`s a nail salon where you can get what I think are very fancy manicures. I`m extremely not an expert on this subject. But at this Austin salon, you can get on your nails, for example, a portrait of Carl Seguin, the cosmologist, or Neil deGrasse Tyson, the astrophysicist. Also at this nail salon, puns. You`re my butter half. (LAUGHTER) And now for one day and one day only, you can get Senator Wendy Davis nail art. If your thumb is one Wendy Davis portrait short of being perfect, now is your chance to fix that problem. So yes, there is Wendy Davis nail art in Austin, Texas, right now. The salon says that half the Wendy Davis nail art proceeds will go to Planned Parenthood. Also, in Wendy Davis inspired culture news, you should know that the Internet has already cast the actress Connie Britton in this starring role of the not yet pitched, not yet written, not yet actual movie about Wendy Davis` filibuster this week. Mrs. Coach as Senator Davis. Wendy Davis at least for the moment is a political phenomenon. Texas State Senator Wendy Davis filibusters her way to Democratic stardom. Texas` newest political star, Wendy Davis, feminist superhero. Filibuster hero dares -- dares Texas to draft her for a run at the governorship. Wendy Davis, folk hero. The pro-choice caucus in the United States House of Representatives today put out a statement thanking senator Davis who is, after all, a state senator, thanking her for her all day, all night filibuster. And on this show last night, Cecile Richards, the national president of Planned Parenthood and a completely and totally of Texas politics, Cecile Richards here last night marveled about what happened with Wendy Davis this week in Texas. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CECILE RICHARD, NATIONAL PRESIDENT, PLANNED PARENTHOOD: There were folks in -- obviously there on the Senate floor, but thousands of people outside in the rotunda filling the capitol. And it was amazing. It was absolutely amazing. I have never seen anything like it in all my history of organizing or as a Texan. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: Now the big question in Democratic politics is, what`s next here? Last night our own beloved Chris Hayes put the question of Wendy Davis` political future to Wendy Davis herself. And unlike most politicians, she actually answered the question. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHRIS HAYES, MSNBC`S "ALL IN": Your state has not elected a statewide Democrat for quite some time. Are you going to run for governor? STATE SEN. WENDY DAVIS (D), TEXAS: You know, I would be lying if I told you that I hadn`t had aspirations to run for a statewide office. I love this state and it`s been an incredible opportunity to represent it in the Texas Senate. I think the real story will be, will the sentiment of people hold? Will they demonstrate their desire for new leadership in this state? If yesterday was any indication, I think chances are pretty good that that`s going to be the case. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: If he had not been on notice before, Texas Governor Rick Perry is now on notice. About 15 hours about Wendy Davis proclaimed her aspirations to run for statewide office, Governor Perry found himself in front of a microphone and a camera and an antiabortion audience that gave him a standing ovation when he tried to mansplain the true meaning of Wendy Davis` own family. Trying to mansplain that history to Wendy Davis. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PERRY: Even the woman who filibustered the Senate the other day was born into difficult circumstances. She was the daughter of a single woman. She was a teenage mother, herself. She managed to eventually graduate from Harvard Law School and serve in the Texas Senate. It`s just unfortunate that she hasn`t learned from her own example that every life must be given a chance to realize its full potential and that every life matters. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: You got that, Senator Davis, about your own life and what you need to learn from it? Isn`t it nice that you managed to get through law school? In case you think Rick Perry has not meant to judge Wendy Davis and her life in uncomfortably personal terms, if you`re expecting maybe an apology or something, here he was on Dallas` NBC affiliate a few minutes later. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PERRY: She didn`t come from particularly good circumstances. What if her mom had said, you know, I just can`t do this, I don`t want to do this. At that particular point in time, I think it becomes very personal. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: To all of this, Wendy Davis had a reply. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DAVIS: I would just say that it really demeans the office that he holds to make a personal statement like that. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: So this happened today. Rick Perry clearly thinks that Wendy Davis could be his opponent should he choose to run for re-election as governor. And Wendy Davis seems like she`d be a formidable candidate, particularly given the fundraising power of her new national profile. Also Wendy Davis could be out of her current job in time for the governor`s race. The Supreme Court getting the Voting Rights Act this week allows Texan Republicans to redraw the congressional district map in a way that targets Wendy Davis essentially out of her seat. But they cannot redistrict Democratic voters clear out of the state entirely. So could Wendy Davis` rocketing popularity on her side of the aisle sustain her through a run for governor? Does this moment in Texas Democratic politics mean that the longtime Democratic pipe dream of Texas turning blue is actually sort of at least a little on its way? Joining us now for the interview is a man who would know. He`s a former Obama campaign field director who`s working on the grassroots effort to transform Texas from a red state into a blue state. His name is Jeremy Bird, he`s a senior adviser from Battleground Texas. Mr. Bird, it`s good to have you here. JEREMY BIRD, BATTLEGROUND TEXAS SENIOR ADVISER: Rachel, thanks for having me. MADDOW: So watching a New York City TV show talk about Texas politics in this moment in abortion and Rick Perry politics, what are we missing? What are we misunderstanding about Texas politics? BIRD: Well, Look, I think -- I think what we saw this week was three things that have been really going on in Texas for a long time. One, if you look at that gallery, if you look at those people that are there, you see a groundswell of support. And these folks are all across the state, 254 counties. And they have been organizing for a long time. And I think you see a huge group of folks that are ready to go. The second thing that you saw is there`s a great bench of Democratic folks, Wendy Davis, obviously, Senator Davis, her colleagues in the Senate. When you look at some of the mayors across the state of Texas, when you look at some of the congressmen and women you had on your show earlier tonight. You see a bench of truly inspiring leaders down there and the third thing you see is Republican extremism. They have gone so far to the right. They have continued to alienate women voters, Hispanic voters, African-American voters, Asian voters. Voters all across the state of Texas. And you see that on the national scale which you`ve talked about today, but you see it in Texas I think in more stark terms than you see anywhere else. MADDOW: It seems like what Texas Republicans have done with the power that they have had in the state for so long is that they have used the power that they`ve got to structurally change the state electorally in a way that means that Democrats will never have a chance. BIRD: Well, what they`ve tried to do, and you see this with gerrymandering, is they`ve tried to make elections not matter. MADDOW: Yes. BIRD: Right. And they`ve tried to take it to where people`s vote doesn`t count. And so what you have -- you look at the 2012 election, for example, you have three million Latinos in Texas who didn`t vote. You have barely half of the population voting. The eligible population voting. And that doesn`t just happen overnight. It happens with a systemic attempt to make people think that their vote doesn`t matter. To continue to gerrymandering, to continue to try to make districts that aren`t competitive. And they`ve done that systemically over time. And what we have to do is go back to those voters all across the valley. In Harris County, in Dallas, all across this state. And talk to people about why their vote does matter. And there are specific races that they can`t gerrymander. At the county level. At the mayoral level. We need to win those local elections. Continue to turn more and more of those counties blue. And over time we can actually have an impact statewide and have some elections that we can win and start to change the state. MADDOW: When you say go talk to those voters, what does that mean in terms of investments, in terms of resources, in terms of the kind of operation that you`re trying to mount? BIRD: Yes, so it needs to be Texas size. And we have to go everywhere. We have to go to rural areas, we have to go to the suburbs. (CROSSTALK) MADDOW: Go how, though? Go in what way? Holding meetings? Knocking on people`s doors? I mean, what`s your effort? BIRD: All of it, organizing. So basically we have to go to a couple of key things. One is registration. There are at least 2.2 million unregistered Hispanics, African-Americans, and Asian Americans in Texas today that we need to put on the voter rolls. Put a registration form in front of them and say, get out there and vote. Over the last couple of weeks, couple of months actually, Battleground Texas, our folks on the ground have trained about 2,000 folks. In Texas they make you go to the county clerk, the county registrar to get trained before you can go register somebody in Texas. We`ve been starting to train those folks. We`ve got to go talk to people about that, get them on the rolls. Then once they`re on the rolls, we`ve got to get them to turn out. We`ve got to go to their doors, we`ve got to call them on the phone, we have to have a digital outreach program. We`ve got to find them wherever they are, talk about the importance of the election. And do exactly what we saw this week, when people how important their vote is, and what it means for issues that matter to them, they`ll start turning out. MADDOW: If Rick Perry runs for re-election, can any Democrat beat him? Or does he have it locked up next time around? BIRD: Well, look, you see what Rick Perry has done recently. And I think the interesting thing is not just this week, but the entire session, the legislative session was filled up with the debate around the $5 million that Rick Perry and Republican extremists in Texas took away from local schools. MADDOW: Yes. BIRD: Right? And I think that voters in Texas are starting to really see that. They`re starting to see their leaders -- Rick Perry, Ted Cruz -- against immigration reform, against public funding of education, against health insurance reform, against all these things that Hispanic voters and other voters in Texas think are good for their families. And I think they`re getting tired of it and so I think whether Rick Perry runs again or somebody else runs, we`ve got to draw that contrast, get those folks registered and turn them out. If the people who are in Texas vote, we can win, but it`s about actually changing the electorate and making it look more like the population. MADDOW: You speak like a man in the middle of a fight. You are not talking about the fight, you are fighting it which makes me feel like this effort is more alive than I had previously realized. Jeremy Bird, former Obama campaign field director. Senior adviser for Battleground Texas. I have a feeling we will be speaking again. Thanks very much. BIRD: I look forward to it. Thank you. Rachel. MADDOW: We`ll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: On "NIGHTLY NEWS" tonight on NBC, investigative reporter Michael Isikoff just dropped a bombshell. An exclusive report. Michael Isikoff is now reporting that the man who just stepped out as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine General James Cartwright. So one of the highest ranking members of the U.S. military who just retired. General Cartwright has reportedly been notified that he is the target of a criminal investigation. The Justice Department is reportedly investigating him in conjunction with a highly sensitive leak, that led to a "New York Times" story. Now President Obama had covertly ordered a cyber attack on the Iranian nuclear program. An Operation called Olympic Games that started under George W. Bush that was escalated by President Obama, including the Stuxnet attack on the Iranian nuclear centrifuges. It was reported in that story that General Cartwright oversaw that operation, that cyberwar operation. But now, as of tonight, breaking news, Michael Isikoff is reporting that General Cartwright is the target of a criminal investigation into whether or not he was the leak behind that story. This is rather stunning news, especially if it means that this general is potentially going to be arrested in conjunction with this case. We don`t know whether that`s the case, but we are being told that he has been told he is the target of this criminal investigation. We will keep you posted. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: Do you want to know who is really happy that we`re right in the middle of a really busy news cycle right now? This guy, Governor Ultrasound. Republican Governor Bob McDonnell of the great state of Virginia. He is having a rotten few weeks with every day bringing new bad news about this corruption scandal that he`s in. Two things seem to be saving Governor Ultrasound from perhaps becoming former Governor Ultrasound these days. One thing is the amount of other compelling stuff in the news that`s just squeezing him out of it. Immigration reform, gay marriage, the Voting Rights Act. Right? The other thing, though, is that every new Bob McDonnell corruption scandal development seems to get published sometime right around midnight. It`s been a weird thing about this scandal but the Bob McDonnell bad news headlines always seem to come out when people are asleep. This is the latest one, you see this one? "Donor bought Rolex watch for the Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell." The donor who reportedly bought that bling for Governor McDonnell is this guy, Jonnie Williams. The FBI right now is investigating the governor`s relationship with this Virginia businessman. They`re reportedly looking into whether there was in effect bribery taking place inside the governor`s mansion. Whether there was quid pro quo where this guy was giving Bob McDonnell money and gifts in exchange for preferential treatment from the state. That question at this point, incredibly, comes down to this. Maybe not this exact Rolex, although that would be so awesome. But it comes down to why that wealthy businessman gave the governor of Virginia a $6,000 Rolex that we don`t have a picture of. It`s a gift that was never disclosed. The donor is the head of a Virginia based company that makes health products. They make health products that have to do with tobacco, which is a little strange for a health company but they are a health product company. And in the summer of 2011, Bob McDonnell`s wife, the first lady of Virginia, she arranged a meeting between that donor and an official from the Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources. It`s kind of a score, right? That sort of meeting is a big deal for a health product company. And that meeting arranged by Governor McDonnell`s wife, that is where the Rolex watch comes in. See, the donor, Jonnie Williams, quote, "bought the watch at the urging of Maureen McDonnell, who admired his Williams` own Rolex and suggested that he buy her a similar one that she could give to her husband. Her proposal occurred moments before the meeting she had arranged for him, with the state health official. So before you go into this meeting that I set up for you with the state health department for your health company, I must say that`s a mighty fine Rolex you have there on your wrist, my husband would sure love a Rolex like that. Anyway, have fun in the meeting that I just arranged for you. The donor went into that meeting, and then two weeks later, Governor Bob McDonnell finds himself with a shiny new Rolex. Engraved with the inscription, "71st Governor of Virginia," Tada. It`s a gift from Jonnie Williams. Bob McDonnell has insisted that this big money donor has never received any special treatment from the administration. But that claim is taking a serious beating now given this drip, drip, drip of details that keep coming out almost every day now -- or almost every night now. On Tuesday, the "Richmond Times Dispatch" reported on a New York City shopping spree that Bob McDonnell`s wife went on, courtesy of the health product CEO guy. Quote, "During the trip, Miss McDonnell spent time at the Manhattan showroom of famed designer Oscar Dela Renta, where she tried on a suede jacket that cost at least $10,000. Jonnie Williams put the garment on his tab. Mr. Williams also bought the first lady two -- Mr. Williams also bought the first lady two pairs of designer shoes, a Louis Vuitton leather handbag, and a designer dress." That shopping spree happened in the spring of 2011. Just a few months later, Bob McDonnell opened up the governor`s mansion for that CEO to mark the formal launch of one of his new health products. Yes, no special treatment there. Neither of those gifts, neither the Rolex nor the shopping spree were ever disclosed to the public by Governor McDonnell. And they did not have to be because Jonnie Williams is considered to be a friend of the family. But the details here reek. Right? (LAUGHTER) The details here smell really bad if Bob McDonnell ever expects to have any kind of future in politics ever again. In June 2011, the governor`s wife flew down to Florida to personally tout the potential health benefits of this donor`s new magic tobacco pill. Three days later, that donor cut a $15,000 check to pay for the catering of Bob McDonnell`s daughter`s wedding. Star Scientific, the company at the center of this, is not only under federal investigation for securities fraud, they`re also currently in litigation with the state of Virginia over a $700,000 tax bill. And yet, that company`s CEO has been lavishing the governor with all sorts of gifts including a trip to his lake house which Bob McDonnell borrowed the donor`s Ferrari for a drive back to the state capitol. The Rolex, the Ferrari, the New York City shopping spree, these are all details that have come out just in the last few weeks as this investigation into the governor continues to heat up. Bob McDonnell is not only under federal for his dealings with this donor. He`s also under state investigation over the gifts that he has received, and a federal grand jury has apparently been impaneled, although the details are sort of murky in terms of what they`re looking into. At some point, the news cycle is going to slow down enough to realize that what`s happening at Virginia right now is jaw-dropping. Governor Ultrasound, good luck to you, sir. You are going to need it. Now it`s time for "THE LAST WORD WITH LAWRENCE O`DONNELL." Have a great night. THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. 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