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The Rachel Maddow Show, Transcript 09/11/15

Guests: Lynda Rouner

CHRIS HAYES, "ALL IN" HOST: Who knows how long that will last? (INAUDIBLE) and Lynn Sweet, thanks for joining us. That is "ALL IN" for this evening. THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW starts now. Good evening, Rachel. RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC HOST: Good evening, Chris. Happy Friday, my friend. HAYES: Thank you. You, too. MADDOW: And thanks to you at home as well for joining us this hour. This time four years ago, this time in the last race for the presidency, it was a big field of presidential candidates on the Republican side. But this time four years ago there was one clear front runner. By mid-September, by this time four years ago, not only did the Republicans have someone who is leading in the early states and nationally, but by this time in the race four years ago, this one front runner had been the clear front runner in more than 15 straight national polls. He led in the polls at that point he had been leading ever since the first moment he got in the race. And it was interesting because he got in a little late. The front runner this time four years ago hadn`t got in the race until mid-August. All the other candidates in the spring, early summer but this guy held out for months and it suited him well. I mean, all the other candidates are doing their thing or out there campaigning and tearing each other down, right? But he, for months of that time got to stay out of the fray and he got to just enjoy all of the people who were imploring him that he ought to get in the race too because he clearly could win. (BEGIN VIDOE CLIP) GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS: You say you don`t want to run for president. Why not? Or are you tempted? RICK PERRY (R), THEN-TEXAS GOVERNOR: At the end of the day, for the next week I have a legislative session that I`m focused on. And, you know, my hope is that person will come forward that can win the presidency that we can all get behind. VAN SUSTEREN: Are you tempted? PERRY: I can`t say I`m not tempted. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: I can`t say I`m not tempted. My friend Greta Van Susteren interviewing Rick Perry in 2011, four years ago. But that was actually May of 2011. It was not until August of that year he finally got in. And even though he was beating Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain and all the rest of them as soon as he got in, as soon as he declared his candidacy. It was interesting what happened to Rick Perry soon after, because he came in as this front runner. The guy who everybody thought would win. But once he started campaigning, there were signs in the ways he campaigned, signs in the ways he conducted himself in the debates, signs in the ways he talked to Republican audiences, they were just signs that he maybe wasn`t the candidate who everyone expected him to be. I mean, Rick Perry four years ago was supposed to win the Republican nomination hands down because he was going to be this swaggering, six guns, you know, borderline secessionist, Texas tough guy governor candidate. But then he did finally get in the race and it turns out this is how he campaigned. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PERRY: The good news is that little plan that I shared with you doesn`t force the granite state to expand your tax footprint. If you know what I mean, like 9 percent in expansion. (LAUGHTER) I love Herman. Is he the best? I have fun with him. He`s a great interesting guy. Thank you, Herman, for helping pay for the event tonight. (LAUGHTER) Everybody`s got a slogan, right? Mine is cut, balance and grow. Get that. Yeah. Cut the size of this government, and balance that budget and grow the economy. It is pretty simple actually. Or you can stay in the old system out there and, Senator, you know the ones that want to stay in the old system, pay the lawyers, pay accountants all that money is gone, or that! (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: That was Rick Perry in New Hampshire in his 2012 presidential campaign when he tried to run four years ago. And he had this great resume. It`s kind of perfect resume. On paper, he was the perfect candidate. He was definitely the Romney slayer, right? But that was sort of how he campaigned. It was a disaster, a new disaster every day. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REPORTER: About the two next wars, how do you feel about it? PERRY: She asked about Iran, Afghanistan, and I try not to -- I try not to make a connection between -- or excuse me, Iraq. Thank you very much. That will be on the front page of the -- something. Iraq. When you see his appointment, from my perspective inarguably activist judges, whether it was -- not the mayor -- REPORTER: Sonya Sotomayor? PERRY: Sotomayor. And the fact is, those of you that are sitting in this -- in this hall who are going to inherit this country are counting on us. Those of you that are -- will be 21 by November the 12th, I ask for your support and your vote. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: The election was not on November 12th. It was on November 6th that year. And you don`t have to be 21 to vote. You only need to be 18 to vote. Don`t listen to Rick Perry, kids, whatever you do, he has no idea what he is talking about. Rick Perry was an unexpected catastrophe in his presidential campaign in 2012, even before he got to oops. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PERRY: And I will tell you, it`s three agencies of government when I get there that are gone -- Commerce, Education and the -- what`s the third one there? Let`s see. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You mean five. PERRY: Oh, five, OK. So, Commerce, Education and the -- UNIDENTIFIED MALE: EPA. PERRY: EPA, there you go. No, kidding. MODERATOR: Seriously? Is EPA one you were talking about? PERRY: No, sir, no, sir. We are talking about the agencies of government -- the EPA needs to be rebuilt. No doubt about that. MODERATOR: You can`t name the third one? PERRY: The third agency of government, I would do away with Education, the Commerce and -- let`s see, I can`t. The third one I can`t. Sorry. Oops. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: That is remembered as the end of Rick Perry`s campaign in 2012 but it was not. That happened in November. He kept that campaign going for a couple more months. The following month, he put out an unintentionally funny super anti-gay ad where he looked like a well pressed Marlboro man. He -- after the "oops" thing he told the kids in New Hampshire they couldn`t vote until they were 21 and until six days after the election. I mean, Rick Perry kept going long enough to come in fifth in the Iowa caucuses and sixth in New Hampshire. This is after he had been the front runner in poll after poll after he first got in. But when he did get in, he just did a terrible job. By mid-January he dropped out, four years ago, went back to being governor of Texas. And then four years later, despite that terrible experience in 2012, he decided he would run again. Even if you forgot about the other things, about the way he campaigned in 2012, honestly that oops thing is just unforgettable. It was just one of the most indelible moments of the whole 2012 race. If you were bored by the campaign of 2012, you were entertained by oops. So, that`s hard to get over. And when Rick Perry decided to get back in this year, he knew he would have to get over it and an explanation why oops happened. Why he was so bad in 2012 and all of those things happened and why it wasn`t going to happen again. He did have an explanation this year for why he was so bad in 2012 and he wouldn`t be this year. He had an explanation and it was an interesting one. (BEGIN AUDIO CLIP) PERRY: There were two issues with me in 2011. One is I wasn`t healthy. You all you know the health stories and we`re going to -- you know, that was what it was. (END AUDIO CLIP) MADDOW: He went on to say that the second thing that was the problem with him in 2011 was that he over-prepared. But the first thing and main explanation, Rick Perry gave to the press this year for why he did so badly four years ago is that he said he was hurt, that he was physically unwell. He was unhealthy. And it had all sorts of consequences for him but he specifically had back surgery at a bad time and it went so poorly that it screwed up his whole campaign. You said there. You heard him in that clip. You know all of the help stories. That`s what it was, right? The health stories were about not the fact that he had back surgery in 2011 and was in pain, the health stories that came out around his campaign that year was something sketchy happened around his back surgery. "Vanity Fair" reported around the time he got out of the race in January 2012, that not only had Rick Perry have back surgery, he had made this terrible and in the end politically tragic decision to basically let a friend of his practice amateur back surgery on him. Here`s "Vanity Fair" from January 2012. Quote, "The most intriguing explanation for Perry`s collapse has been quietly circulating in Austin for weeks. This theory suggests that the governor is suffering from the aftereffects of his low back surgery in July, six weeks before he announced his candidacy. His surgeon, a friend who operates a Houston medical day spa, specializing in liposuction and laser hair removal, fused two of Perry`s vertebra together and then injected the governor for the first time in the surgeon`s career with two teaspoonfuls of stem cells that had what been cultured from fatty tissue taken from Perry`s hip." If you have to explain why you can`t tell Iran from Iraq, and why you think the name Sotomayor starts with an M and why don`t remember the name of the election that you`re running in, and you don`t know who`s allowed to vote, and you can`t remember your own campaign platform even when people are trying to help you and you give speeches. If you need a tough guy explanation for what happened back in 2012, well, then I had my friend give me amateur back surgery he had never done before. That`s a pretty good explanation. And so, when Rick Perry chose to run again this year, he explained that the only reason he did so badly in 2012 was those health stories, that health concern, that amateur back surgery. That`s what happened last time. Obviously, that was not going to be an issue this time and so he`d be fine. Well, now, having seen Rick Perry campaign four years later, having seen Rick Perry campaign in 2015, I think we can simply say that his amateur back surgery in 2011 wasn`t the problem. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) FEMALE TV ANCHOR: Joining me now former Texas Governor Rick Perry. Governor, do you want to make news today on the real story. Is Donald Trump right? Are you getting out of the race? PERRY: You know, a broken clock is right once a day. So -- (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: Twice -- broken -- twice. Donald Trump was premature in declaring that Rick Perry was dropping out of the presidential race. Rick Perry went on FOX News that day to say that he was -- he is still there, still working and he made a good effort in the interview to try to get back to his campaign talking points, but Donald Trump ended up right in substance if not on timing. And tonight, after losing his first Iowa campaign co-chair to the Donald Trump campaign and losing his second Iowa co-chair to the Rick Santorum campaign, and then shutting down his New Hampshire campaign all together and shutting down his South Carolina headquarters earlier this week, tonight, after not paying his staff for weeks, Rick Perry made it official and he became the first major party candidate to formally drop out of the race. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PERRY: When I gave my life to Christ, I said, "Your ways are greater than my ways. Your will is superior to mine." Today, I submit to you his will remains a mystery. But some things have come -- have become very clear to me. That is why today, I am suspending my campaign for the presidency of the United States. We have a tremendous field of candidates, probably the greatest group of men and women. I step aside knowing our party`s in good hands. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: In his prepared remarks, he was supposed to say we have a tremendous field, the best in a generation, departed there, but he said I step aside knowing our party is in good hands. Rick Perry was the first party candidate to ever make a run for the presidency of the United States while also simultaneously being under criminal indictment. So maybe this year he`s a special case. Maybe you can`t run for president while you are also fighting a criminal corruption case at home. That said, Rick Perry is one of a surprisingly large number of well- known, supposedly top-tier Republican candidates with great presidential- looking resumes who have tanked in the campaign so far this year. I mean, it`s got to be a very sobering thing today for these guys to see Rick Perry dropping out the race today, because as he said, it is clear to him there`s no point in him continuing. Well, it`s got to be a sobering thing to look at Rick Perry getting out of the race if you are Chris Christie or Rick Santorum or Lindsey Graham today, because in the latest Republican presidential poll that just came out today, in the Quinnipiac poll that just came out in Iowa, Rick Perry who just quit, because of a hopeless campaign, he`s tied in the polls with Chris Christie, and Rick Santorum and Lindsey Graham. They are all at 1 percent with Rick Perry. The last Iowa poll before that, Lindsey Graham was tied with Rick Perry at zero percent. I mean, it`s not a point you have to ask yourself why is Rick Perry the only one who is quitting. Ordinarily when a big candidate gets out of the race, everybody else scrambles to try to pick up their voters. In this case, it is a question of whether there are any Rick Perry voters to be redistributed. One candidate, though, is making an overt play today for something that Rick Perry`s departure potentially does make possible for him. CNN, of course, has the next Republican debate. It will happen on Wednesday. Up until today, there were 17 candidates running for the Republican nomination. CNN decided to disqualify one of the candidates all together. They decided they wouldn`t allow Jim Gilmore in to either their debate or their kids` table event. So, that got them down to 16 candidates to distribute. CNN further then decided that of the 16, they would take ten and put them in big debate and six in the kids` table debate. Then, after that, CNN changed the rules and decided instead of ten they would take 11 candidates and put them in the primetime debate and they put five candidates in the other debate, 11 and five. OK. Well, now, one of those five is dead politically speaking. So, the CNN plan right now is to have 11 candidates in one of their debate events and four candidates in the other, but they`re still not going to let that one other guy qualify for either. Well, that one other guy is Jim Gilmore. I think this means he would please like Rick Perry`s seat at the kids table on CNN on Wednesday. It is all the more ridiculous now that CNN is still splitting this weird giant field of candidates into a real debate and a kids` table debate, really, 11 and four? But there are a lot of weird things about the presidential race this year. As of tonight, Rick Perry will no longer be one of them. Lots more to come tonight. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PERRY: Today, I`m suspending my campaign for the presidency of the United States. We have a tremendous field of candidates, probably the greatest group of men and women. I step aside knowing our party`s in good hands. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: Governor Rick Perry of Texas losing the thread, but nevertheless managing to drop out of the race for the president in a speech in Texas. In the latest Iowa poll from Quinnipiac, Rick Perry was at just 1 percent in Iowa. But so were three other candidates that show no sign of dropping out. New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie is one of the three in the poll that was tied with Perry in Iowa at 1 percent. But you know what? Governor Christie got potential good news for his campaign today. One of the things that has been looming for Governor Christie was the prospect of the criminal trials of his former staffers and employees in the bridgegate scandals. Those trials were due to start up next month. If you are polling at 1 percent in Iowa already, you`re on the brink already of not making debates, having your staffers go on corruption trial from your administration is nothing to look forward to. Well, the good news that arrived today is that those criminal trials, those bridgegate trials that were supposed to start next month have now been delayed by the courts until March. So, those trials could still very well be political kryptonite for Governor Christie when they start up, but they won`t have a chance to derail his campaign until March, provided his presidential campaign still exists in March. As of tonight, Rick Perry is the first candidate to drop out. Why him first and who`s likely to be next? Joining us now is Beth Fouhy. She`s senior editor for MSNBC.com. Beth, it`s great to have you here tonight. Thanks for being here. BETH FOUHY, SENIOR EDITOR, MSNBC.COM: You bet. MADDOW: Usually people redistribute the support of candidates who quit to other people who are very desirous of their supporters. I`m not sure there`s anything of Rick Perry`s to distribute. Is that fair? FOUHY: Yes, he didn`t have a lane in this particular race. I mean, everything that you said in this first segment is true. He completely destroyed himself in 2012 and this field is so large and split among so many people and Donald Trump is so dominant that Rick Perry really never carved out an avenue that was logically his. He is a conservative. He`s Christian. There are many candidates in the field who are both and horse runner candidates. MADDOW: When we saw the size of the field, we thought it was going to be 17 people, what everyone thought would happen was it would be hard for people to break out. Everybody would be splitting small numbers. Instead, what we`ve got is 15 candidates splitting very small numbers and two candidates who are popping in poll after poll after poll now. Early state and national numbers, Ben Carson and Donald Trump are in double- digits and everybody else in single digits. FOUHY: Yes. MADDOW: Does that mean we should see Rick Perry as the first of the whole bunch of them who are going to leave now? Or was he a special case? FOUHY: You know, we are going to see others drop out. But we`ve got this unusual situation as you know that the money fight is different this time. We`ve got people being propped up by super PACs, so they can stay in much longer than they would have otherwise. We have Rick Santorum who`s not polling well anywhere. You`ve interviewed Rick Santorum. He`s got a super PAC that is going to stand behind him, apparently comes thick or thin. But then you have other candidates who were supposed to be do well on their own like Scott Walker, promising guy six months ago. He`s got the support of the Koch brothers, he is totally tanking, as well. So, there`s no real rhyme or reason as to why these people are flat, except for Trump and except for Ben Carson who like Trump is an outsider. MADDOW: In terms of Governor Walker, specifically, one reason I have been fascinated with this Iowa poll is not just because Rick Perry has got to quit and there are others that are worse or tied with him in that poll, but it is specifically Scott Walker. The last Quinnipiac Iowa poll had Scott Walker in first place in Iowa. This next one, he`s dropped 15 points. He`s now in tenth place. Is there precedent for that sort of thing? I`m trying to find a precipitating event in the Scott Walker near history that tells us what is going on there. Is it that just Trump is taking all his numbers or is there something else that we can`t see? FOUHY: Trump, of course, has devastated basically everybody in this field except for Ben Carson. Walker, on the other hand, I think suffered by the fact that he came in very, very strong last February. He gave that great speech in Iowa to the Iowa Freedom Foundation, did very well, excited conservatives. He had a good solid record as a Republican governor of a blue state, he cut taxes, he had pushed back on labor, very, very good credentials. But then we found out, whoa, he has no charisma and he was totally ill-prepared. He was not prepared for the spotlight to be on him that early. He dropped out after he made a couple of embarrassing statements. Went back to learn history and some foreign policy. By then he had slowed down. The momentum was basically gone. Others had moved in and sort of taken that lane that he was trying to grab in Iowa, like Ted Cruz, who are stronger candidates, better for the long haul, have a ton of money and he basically kind of lost his place. And he had a chance to redeem himself at the last debate and he didn`t. MADDOW: Beth Fouhy, MSNBC senior editor, host of "Reporters Notebook" on Shift. Beth, this is -- I did not -- I knew that Rick Perry was going to get out. I did not know he was going to get out late on a Friday at this point in the race. But the next person that drops out let`s come back and do this again. FOUHY: Definitely. MADDOW: Thanks, Beth. FOUHY: Thanks, Rachel. MADDOW: All right. We have some exclusive new polling tonight from the Democratic side of the race that has some very surprising numbers in it. And we`ve got quite possibly the funniest thing ever said on either side of the race since the whole race started. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R-LA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think it`s pretty outrageous for him to be attacking anybody`s appearance when he looks like he`s got a squirrel sitting on his head. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: Rick Perry`s out. Scott Walker has dropped from first place in the Quinnipiac poll in Iowa the last time around to tenth place in their poll that`s out today. Scott Walker is falling off the map. Donald Trump winning there and winning everywhere else. Now, Donald Trump`s campaign says they`ve just given out 20,000 tickets for a Donald Trump speech in Dallas on Monday. Bobby Jindal really did just tell CBS that Donald Trump should not make fun of Carly Fiorina`s appearance since he himself looks like he has a squirrel sitting on his head. The Republican race for president this year is so nutty and it is swerving around so unpredictably right now that if the Republican presidential were a car and you were a cop, you would pull it over and breathalyze it. On the Democratic side, though, we are also getting new signs of that race starting to weave in and out of its lanes, because tonight, I can give you brand new hot off the press polling, this is from the brand new MSNBC/Telemundo/Marist poll which gives one interesting new angle on what`s going on among the Democrats. Now, this full poll is not going to come out until next week. But we`ve got an advanced look at the matchups that they just polled nationwide for Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden versus a few different top tier potential Republican candidates. So, as you can see all the matchups here, there`s Hillary Clinton on the top row. There`s Joe Biden on the bottom row. The bottom line from what you can see here, the big headline here is that in these hypothetical general election matchups, Democrats beat Republicans every single time, in every single matchup. But, again, in this new poll, again it`s brand new from NBC, Telemundo and Marist, we`re just getting this tonight, Vice President Biden who is not running at this point, Vice President Biden beats every candidate by a larger margin than Hillary Clinton does. I mean, they are both winning against Trump, or Jeb, or Cruz or Rubio, but Biden wins by more. And there`s honestly no point in speculating whether or not Vice President Biden is going to get in the race. He has made more than clear that he just hasn`t decided. And so, by definition, if he doesn`t know than nobody knows. But if one of the things that is affecting his decision-making process about whether or not to get in is the prospect of his viability as a candidate, the question of whether or not he could win. Polling like this, which shows him beating Republicans more handedly than Hillary Clinton does, polling like this has to be seen as a nudge. Well, there are two other things to watch for here. One is the other Democratic candidate who was happily, completely confounding pundits in the Beltway press on the Democratic side and that, of course, is Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders, right now, is fresh off of this Iowa poll this week that put him for the first time leading the field in Iowa. That comes after three straight polls in New Hampshire which also showed Bernie Sanders leading the field in New Hampshire. After all of that, Bernie Sanders, the Vermont socialist, is now heading south. He spent today in Atlanta. Tomorrow, he`s going to be doing three appearances, three town hall meetings in a row in South Carolina. He`s going to be doing those three town hall events in South Carolina alongside African-American studies professor Cornell West. So, the pundit class has this easy dismissal of Bernie Sanders, which is that he can`t compete for the Democratic nomination for real because he can`t compete for black voters. It is taken as a given in the Beltway press corps that Bernie Sanders could never compete as a Democrat in the South. Well, Bernie Sanders` juggernaut campaign is not conceding either of those points that the pundits keep making and Bernie Sanders started to test those points in earnest today and tomorrow. So watch that, watch Bernie in the South. The other thing to watch on this side is the news we just got from the White House late tonight about Vice President Biden`s week next week. You know, the Republican debate is Wednesday night. Tonight, after 7:00 p.m. Eastern, this late-night announcement from the White House is the morning after that Republican debate next week, Vice President Biden is hitting the trail. He`s going to Michigan to deliver remarks on the economy and then later that same day another big public event in Columbus, Ohio. Maybe Vice President Biden is not running for president. But he`s not saying he will not run for president. And the day after the Republican debate, we now know he is going to be doing a swing state tour, that, hey, maybe he would do because he is vice president. But anybody who`s trying to tell what is going on the Democratic side right now -- honestly, the forecast is cloudy, very cloudy, which is kind of exciting. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: It`s Friday. So still to come tonight, we`ve got the Friday night news dump. And actually I should tell you, for the first time tonight we have the Friday night news dump and then more show. Usually it is Friday night news dump and then prison. Tonight, we`re scrambling that. So, anyway, stick around for that. But we`ve also got next, an update on my nomination for the single most radical thing that Republicans have tried to pull off in any red state in the country all this year. It may be the most radical thing that anyone has tried in a state all of this decade. They are really trying to do it. I`ve never seen anything like it. And that story is next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: Kansas Governor Sam Brownback is best known nationally for blowing up the finances of the state of Kansas in what he called a real live experiment in conservative economics. So far, the results of that Sam Brownback economic experiment include Kansas having its credit rating downgraded multiple times and some school districts having to shut down early this year because they ran out of money before the end of the school year. Governor Sam Brownback came in as a proud radical conservative ready to experiment. Lucky for you, Kansas. But in June, here on the show we reported on what appeared to be not just the single most radical thing that Sam Brownback had tried yet, as far as I can tell, this is the single most radical thing tried as policy in any state in the country by anyone for years. Because what Sam Brownback did in June is that he signed a law which told judges in the Kansas state court system how he Sam Brownback wanted them to rule on a particular case. And unless the courts ruled the way he told them to rule, Sam Brownback said he would abolish the whole court system. He would completely defund the Kansas judiciary unless they ruled the way he wanted to on this case. Enjoy your judicial independence. Well, in that case, a Kansas judge has now issued his ruling and surprise, surprise, he did not rule the way Sam Brownback instructed him to rule. And so, now, there is a crisis in Kansas. I mean, as soon as this judge made the ruling an he ruled contrary to how Sam Brownback told him to rule, this Kansas law says the court system has to be shut down. The whole court system loses all of its funding as a consequence of the judge not doing what he was told. The state`s attorney general filed an emergency motion and got the judge to stay his ruling because they`re going to appeal the judge`s ruling to the Supreme Court, but that`s a question because if the entire judiciary gets shut down, there`s not going to be a Kansas Supreme Court to appeal to. They are getting rid of it. Even the lawyer who won the case agreed to put his victory on hold because as he said, quote, "An independent branch of government would have ceased to exist." And if the Kansas Supreme Court does keep funding long enough to hear the appeal of this case, there is also the thorny legal question of whether or not they are allowed to decide a matter where their existence is at stake. Kind of hard to be impartial in those circumstances. But, hey, according to Sam Brownback, everything is fine. Nothing to see here. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REPORTER: We going to have a court system much longer? GOV. SAM BROWNBACK (R), KANSAS: Oh, absolutely. Yes, we`re going to have a court system. We have a court system. And that will continue to move forward. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: Unless it -- we don`t know how Governor Brownback intends for Kansas to have a court system since he signed a law that takes away all of its money because the judges ruled in this one case the way they told him not to. I mean, maybe the judges will have a bake sale to keep the courts open. Maybe they can sell raffle tickets. Under the law, Sam Brownback signed off, they will have to figure out something. This has come to pass. Kansas under Sam Brownback has now officially won the title of the most radical state government in the country for this year. I don`t know what further proof you need than the fact they are really right now in the process of outlawing their own court system. Now we know. Wow. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRICIA MCKINNEY, TRMS SENIOR PLANNING PRODUCER: Hello! MADDOW: Hello. MCKINNEY: It`s that time! It`s time for the Friday night news dump selection. MADDOW: OK. MCKINNEY: We`re going to start with a blast from the past. Do you remember this? MADDOW: What did we use it for? It`s a flamingo head. MCKINNEY: Yes, and I have two other animals. We did this thing about the Washington zoo during the earthquake a few years ago. And the animals -- there was a very, very detailed description of how the animals behaved but there was no video. So, the TRMS players is putting Bill Wolff as a flamingo reenacted what they did. MADDOW: OK. MCKINNEY: You remember how a couple of weeks ago I came in wearing a clown jacket. MADDOW: Oh, yes. MCKINNEY: I found the rest of the clown suit. It is all here. MADDOW: Minus the jacket. MCKINNEY: No, I put the jacket in there. I didn`t keep it. So it has a horn, pants, rainbow wig, bow tie. MADDOW: So, it`s a well used, recently worn, recently partially worn clown suit. I think that is too creepy. MCKINNEY: OK. (LAUGHTER) MADDOW: This is freaking awesome. MCKINNEY: Yes. MADDOW: It`s a set. It`s a set. > (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: I`m waiting. Woohoo! Friday night news dump time. Producer Wendy McNeal, welcome to the program. WENDY MCNEAL, TRMS PRODUCER: Thank you. MADDOW: Making your debut as the person that shows off the things. MCNEAL: Yes, I`m the rookie on the block. MADDOW: It`s very exciting to have you here. Wendy, tell us who our first player is. MCNEAL: Well, Rachel, tonight, we have Lynda Rouner, from Houston, Texas, baby. She`s a nurse, a mom of a 6 -year-old and, by the way, her 6- year-old is a huge fan of the show. Huge fan. And she loves Dr. Who. Rachel, meet Lynda. MADDOW: Lynda, it`s very nice to meet you. Thank you for being here. LYNDA ROUNER, HOUSTON, TEXAS: Thank you for having me. MADDOW: I was told when we got you to be our contestant that you watch the show really, really, really late at night. ROUNER: I do. I am a night nurse. I take my lunch break about 3:00 in the morning. That`s when the replay is on. And I time it that way so I can watch you. MADDOW: I am an insomniac. Sometimes I`m also watching the rerun of the show at 3:00 a.m. for no good reason. You are doing it for a very good reason. I`m doing it because my clock is wrong. It is great to have you here. And this is going to be fun. You probably nope how it works. Three multiple choice questions if you get at least two right, you will win this piece of junk. Wendy, please show everybody. MCNEAL: This piece of junk right here, THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW cocktail shaker. But for this purposes, I`d say more of a shot shaker. MADDOW: Yes, exactly. It`s very tiny. Can do no harm. If you get them all right, Lynda, we will have another prize for you which you may or may not want, but this is it. MCNEAL: Yes, I mean, I wouldn`t say these are junk but we are close to Halloween they could be used as costumes. The story behind it is back in 2011, an earthquake hit Washington, D.C. and there was a detailed news report about how the animals at the local zoo were reacting and there wasn`t video of it. So, THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW players had a little bit of fun of reenacting how they thought the animals were feeling. MADDOW: Yes. That was how we documented the flamingo and gorilla response to the quake. So, those could be yours. We`ll bring in the disembodied voice of Steve Benen from Maddow Blog, the man who determines whether or not you got the right answer. Hello, Steve. STEVE BENEN, MADDOW BLOG (via telephone): Good evening to both of you. MADDOW: Good evening. ROUNER: Hello. MADDOW: All right. First question, Lynda, are you ready? ROUNER: OK. MADDOW: This is from Tuesday`s show. Tuesday`s show, we reported the CEO of one of the largest airlines in the world had suddenly resigned in the wake of a federal investigation into a top appointee and political ally of presidential candidate Chris Christie. It`s been reported that one subject of the investigation is whether the airline basically bribed this Christie guy by putting in place a money losing non-stop flight between New Jersey and this man`s vacation home. Which major airline just lost its CEO over this potential Chris Christie scandal? Was it (A), Delta Airlines, (B), United Airlines, (C), American Eagle Airlines, or (D), American Illegal Airlines? ROUNER: I believe that was (B), United Airlines. MADDOW: Steve, did she get that right? BENEN: Let`s check Tuesday`s show. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: United Airlines allegedly created a new route, a non-stop flight route between Newark Airport and Columbia, South Carolina, specifically at the request of David Samson, specifically to make his trips to his vacation home easier for him and his wife. (END VIDEO CLIP) BENEN: Right. The correct answer is United Airlines. And Lynda is one for one. MADDOW: Well done, Lynda. Well done. ROUNER: Yay! MADDOW: Also, that sound clip giving away I don`t know if it is route or route. Discussion but we will leave it at that. Second question from Wednesday`s show. On Wednesday show, we reported one of the presidential contenders is not doing great this year, picked up a patron saint recently in the form of a popular late-night talk show host. The talk show host has been running a campaign on his show to try to get this one candidate up above his zero percent in the polls to maybe 1 percent. Unfortunately, for this candidate, the campaign doesn`t seem to be working. He is still mostly polling at zero. But which talk show host and which candidate are we talking about? Is it (A), Conan O`Brien and Lincoln Chafee, (B), Stephen Colbert and Rick Santorum, (C), Jimmy Kimmel and Rick Perry, or (D), Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Jindal? ROUNER: I believe it`s A. MADDOW: Conan O`Brien and Lincoln Chafee. Steve, is that correct? BENEN: Let`s check Wednesday`s show. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: One of the candidates who just cannot get in gear at all has picked up an unlikely patron saint in the form of a late night comedian called Conan O`Brien. CONAN O`BRIEN, COMEDIAN: I`m just taking just a short amount of time here and making it my mission tonight to help Lincoln Chafee get from zero percent all the way to 1 percent. (APPLAUSE) (END VIDEO CLIP) BENEN: Poor Linc Chafee. Anyway, the correct answer is A and Lynda is right again. MADDOW: Well done, well done. All right. Last question -- this is for all of the fake zoo animals, Lynda. As host of the first two Republican presidential debates, FOX News and CNN said they only wanted to let ten candidates onto the main stage. But when CNN made a late change to their inclusion rules which moved Carly Fiorina into tenth place in their rankings, they also decided they would let the 11th place candidate in to the main debate as well. There`s going to be 11 people on stage instead of ten. So, last night, we reported the name of the candidate who`s led in to the CNN main debate even though he is in 11th place in their own rankings. Who is it? Is it (A), Rand Paul, (B), Marco Rubio, (C), Chris Christie, or (D), Deez Nuts? (LAUGHTER) ROUNER: Well, I don`t think it`s D, although that would be hilarious. I believe it`s C, Chris Christie. MADDOW: Chris Christie. Steve, do you have the answer for us? BENEN: Let`s check last night`s show. MADDOW: OK. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: By rights, that same rule change that let Carly Fiorina into the debate should have pushed Chris Christie out of the debate since now, under their new rules, he is no longer a top ten candidate. He`s number 11. But seeing that as the eventual outcome of this new rule change they made, CNN just decided they would fudge it a little more and let Chris Christie in the real debate, too. (END VIDEO CLIP) BENEN: Yes, the correct answer is Chris Christie and Lynda is right once more. ROUNER: Yes. MADDOW: Wendy, please give Lynda the excellent news. MCNEAL: Yes, Lynda, you have won the fabulous shot shaker and the paper animals. ROUNER: Hooray. MADDOW: Hopefully those will be handy for you at a Halloween. Will you please give your 6-year-old our kindest regards from here at THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW? ROUNER: I sure will. Her name is Katie and she loves you. MADDOW: Katie, we have an internship ready for you in approximately 12 years. (LAUGHTER) MADDOW: Thank you, Lynda. It`s really great to meet you. ROUNER: Thank you. It`s great to meet you. MADDOW: Thank you. And if you want to play the most awesome game in basic cable news, all you have to do is email, Rachel@msnbc.com. Just tell us who are, where you`re from, why you want to play. We would love to send our office junk to you. Now, normally, I at this point of the show, I would send you to prison now, but look at your clock, it`s not the right time. That`s because there is actually more show to come tonight, including an incredible personal story from one of NBC News`s toughest and most unflappable reporters. It happened today. We had a camera there. It was amazing and that`s next. Please stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: So you know who Jim Miklaszewski is. Mostly people call him Mik. He`s the NBC Pentagon correspondent. He`s been a visible, steady, rock solid part of the NBC News gathering team for three decades. One of the most recognizable people on TV. In 2001, when the 9/11 attacks happened, Jim Miklaszewski was live on the air from the Pentagon where he had his office. And where he was when the Pentagon was hit by that plane that day. Well, today in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at the opening of part of the Flight 93 memorial there, Jim Miklaszewski was part of that program today. At that event, he gave an account I had never heard him give before of his own reporting experience that day, what he saw and what he went through personally. And it was -- honestly, it was stunning. Just take a minute. This is not a long piece of tape, but just hear this, particularly today, and particularly was of who he is and how solid he is and what you know of him already. This is just something worth seeing today. Trust me. Watch. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JIM MIKLASZEWSKI, NBC NEWS CHIEF PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: As massive and solid as that total concrete structure Pentagon is, the entire building shook, windows rattled. My immediate thought was we are under attack. I jumped up from the chair, looked out the window to see people running from the building. After a couple of hours, I walked out the mall entrance, closest to the crash site and in to what I could only describe on the air as a war zone. There was a gaping hole in the side of the building, a ferocious fire fed by thousands of gallons of jet fuel. Medics attending to wounded, medevac helicopters. While overhead, two Air Force F-16 fighter jets were crisscrossing the sky at a very low level. An Air Force colonel stand next to me, looking up and saying to no one in particular, "My God, we`re flying CAPs," combat air patrols over the nation`s capitol. At first, we received only sketchy numbers of casualties, no firm counts. The courtyard in the middle of the Pentagon with its majestic elm trees has always been a refuge from the daily grind of the Pentagon. On 9/11-- on 9/11, it became a makeshift morgue, 120 people at work in the Pentagon were killed. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: NBC News chief Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski is as solid as they come. One of these reporters who himself sometimes seems like he`s built of concrete and steel. That was him speaking today in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on the 14th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. So, what`s going to happen right now on MSNBC is a presentation. It`s called "9/11 As It Happened." And that "As It Happened" is important, because this is not a documentary. This is not a typical TV show. What we are about to show is the events of that day presented as it unfolded. This was NBC`s live coverage that morning 14 years ago as it happened. And I`ll tell you, honestly, it is presented with only limited editing. But that starts right now. Good night. THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. END