The Rachel Maddow Show, Transcript 06/12/15

CHRIS HAYES, "ALL IN" HOST: That is "ALL IN" for this evening. THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW starts now. Good evening, Rachel. RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC HOST: Good evening. Happy Friday, my friend. Thanks. HAYES: And you too. You too. MADDOW: And thanks to you at home for staying with us for the next hour. Again, frog in my throat, I`m sorry. But a little more suspense in the show. My voice just might give out at any moment -- in which case, then what will happen? You have to stick around to see, right? Voice notwithstanding, we have a big show tonight. Really interesting news out of the escaped convict story in upstate New York. Late breaking news on that tonight. We`ve got scary sea creature news coming up. That`s exciting. Also, the latest hullaballoo in Congress today. This big Democrat on Democrat fight, which is really interesting and really unresolved. So, there`s a lot coming up tonight, particularly for a Friday night. But we begin here in Poland. The capital of Poland is Warsaw -- lovely this time of year. And if you are in Warsaw and you want to have a very, very fancy meal, like you want to have the most expensive meal in town, you would probably end up at this restaurant. It is the one there with the lights around all three sides over the door on both sides. See that? I am -- I am a lot of different ethnicities. I`m kind of a Heinz 57. Polish is not one of my ethnicities. Nobody in my family speaks Polish. We called one of our producer`s Polish cousins, though, today, cousin Donna. She lives in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and asked us if she would leave us a voice mail telling us how to pronounce the name of this very expensive restaurant in Warsaw. Here is how cousin Donna says you say the name of this restaurant. (BEGIN AUDIO CLIP) COUSIN DONNA: Sowa & Przyjaciele. (END AUDIO CLIP) MADDOW: So, one Polish person who grew up in Elizabeth, New Jersey, says it that way. That is as close as we can get. She is probably right. It`s also possible, full disclosure, that cousin Donna might be pulling our leg. She might have just swore at all of you in Polish, which I don`t know. And I think that is the name of this restaurant, which is very important in today`s news. Can we just play it one more time? (BEGIN AUDIO CLIP) COUSIN DONNA: Sowa & Przyjaciele. (END AUDIO CLIP) MADDOW: In any case, at this restaurant, very fancy restaurant in Warsaw, somebody, we still don`t know who, placed a hidden microphone inside of the dining room and through that microphone they tape recorded conversations that took place between various high level Polish government officials while those officials were having very expensive meals at this very, very expensive restaurant. I mean, really expensive. Bottles of wine at this restaurant that cost $1,200 each, and part of the scandal is government ministers were eating a lot of meals at this really spectacular expensive restaurant, and incidentally charging it all to taxpayers. But the real meat of the scandal is about what these government officials were caught talking about on these tapes. These were ministers from the ruling party in Poland that has been in a power for almost a decade. From an American perspective, what`s probably most important to us about that ruling party, is that that party has been and therefore the polish party has been very, very supportive of the United States. They have been very aggressive about maintaining a strong relationship between Poland and the United States, even on stuff that is a hard call, like even supporting George W. Bush and his invasion of Iraq. So one of the things that scandalous about the conversations caught on tape in this restaurant is that government ministers from that very pro- American government turns out in private while they are drinking $1,200 bottles of wine, turns out they talk tons of smack about the United States and specifically, they talk tons of smack about Poland going out of their way to have a good relationship with the United States. Poland`s foreign ministers at the time of these tape recordings, at this restaurant, he was foreign minister, he was caught on tape saying that Poland having the good relationship with the United States was bullpucky -- except he didn`t say bullpucky, he said bull-bleep. He said it was bullpucky and worthless. And then he described how it was worse than worthless for Poland to bother having a good relationship with the United States. He said, quote, "We`ll get into a conflict with the Russians and Germans, and we`ll think that everything super because we gave the Americans a" -- we gave them -- I don`t know how to bleep that and have you still know what he said. I think the way to say it is that, he said we gave the Americans a thing that rhymes with snow mob. We think everything is super because we gave the Americans a snow mob. Losers, he says, complete losers. So, he`s foreign minister when he said that. He is in charge of their foreign policy. He is in charge of maintaining this robust, excellent relationship with the United States but privately he says it`s worthless. He says it`s bull, complete losers, he says. He was foreign minister when he said that. He has since become the equivalent of speaker of the House which is a powerful job in the country`s government. But then these tapes came out. They are super explosive and that guy ended up having to resign in disgrace. In fact, four top ministers from the government and this guy, now speaker of the House, had to all offered to in disgrace because of the tapes from this restaurant. They all had to resign. This week, they all resigned on Wednesday of this week, including that guy who said that the relationship between Poland and the U.S. was worthless. He resigned on Wednesday. And then on Thursday, the very next day, Jeb Bush went to Poland and met with him. The day after he had to -- again, what this guy said about the United States being bull and worthless and he said Poland is giving Americans a snow mob, complete losers, the day after he has to offered to for saying that, Jeb Bush goes to Poland to do a big photo on, shaking hands with him and meeting him and smiles all around. On this trip, Jeb Bush was asked if that wasn`t kind of an odd choice given what the guy had resigned for the day before this meeting. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REPORTER: Met this morning with the now former speaker of the parliament, who was caught on tape saying some not so nice colorful things about the U.S. JEB BUSH (R), FORMER FLORIDA GOVENOR: Yes. REPORER: Did you consider canceling that and more specifically in your conversation did you get to clarify his feelings about the U.S. because it seems to be kind of -- BUSH: In our conversation, it was clear to me he is a strong believer in strong ties with the United States. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: Though, I mean, actually, the guy is on tape saying strong ties to the United States are worthless, literally worthless. Remember when George W. Bush looked at Putin and said he could see into his eyes and tell what a good guy he was. He saw into his soul. I mean, literally, this guy said Poland having a relationship with the United States is like one aspect of oral sex as if oral sex was a bad thing, OK? This guy was not subtle about how worthless and terrible he thinks it is for Poland to have a strong relationship with the United States. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BUSH: He is a supporter of the United States and a friend of the United States and I felt like it was more than appropriate to meet with him. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: But he just resigned the day before you met with him for all of the things that he said about the United States. That didn`t come up? This is weird, right? This is supposed to be Jeb Bush`s chest pounding, tough America, take no guff tour and he take this is meeting and does this photo on with this guy who just got caught on tape calling the United States losers and worthless. He meets with that actual guy, the day after he has to resign for saying all of that about the United States and Jeb Bush is taking the whole thing as actually, I think he really likes us. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BUSH: He is a strong believer in strong ties with the United States. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: Which he literally calls worthless to have those ties. So that happened. We have a great, strong, free press in this country. It is really something worth being proud of an American. The beltway press is sometimes less slightly awesome than the press at large. Today, some people said that the shining star example of the epitome of what is wrong with the beltway press was this. The lead supposedly political reporter for Bloomberg Politics, Mark Halperin, announcing that this weekend, he`ll be co-leading a Pilates class with Mitt Romney`s wife specifically for wealthy donors who will be attending the Romney`s Republican summit this weekend at one of their houses in Utah. I don`t know anything about Pilates. I don`t know if one of the poses is holding their feet to the fire. Does Pilates even have some poses. Some people said this is the sign of the apocalypse. This news of the hard-hitting political reporter leading a Pilates class with the politician`s wife for the donors is the epitome of what`s wrong with the Beltway press these days. And that may be. I would also, though, like to suggest this as a contender. After Jeb Bush goes to Poland to meet the guy who just resigned the day before for talking all sorts of lurid swearing smack about the United States and how worthless and worse than worthless the United States is, Jeb Bush goes and meets with that guy the day after he has to offered to for saying that and he said, I think the guy seemed like he liked us. And the beltway press -- look at the headline in Politico.com today about this trip. The beltway press is like, well, Jeb Bush didn`t eat his own tie. He didn`t fall down a flight of stairs. Looks he still got the top of his head in both hands. Looks like a successful trip, gaffe-free. I mean, I know it`s Poland. This guy`s name isn`t even hard to pronounce. I mean it`s not that hard to figure out that this was an embarrassment, right? But unless I guess the beltway press gets it spoon fed to them, they can`t figure out that sort of thing. Gaffe-free, the Jeb Bush folks said it was gaffe-free, so it must have been. Amazing. There have basically three things going on right now in presidential politics and one is the Republican field this year, this amazing Republican field being so huge, so flat in terms of not being any obvious front-runner and so far, I think, so poorly covered in terms of the differences between the candidates and how well or how poorly they are doing on their campaigns. Jeb, I think he likes us, Bush, will be back from Poland soon. He`ll be declaring his presidential run formally on Monday. Apparently, Donald Trump will be declaring his presidential run on Tuesday. Even with what I think are the beltway press. I`m surprised that hasn`t been a bigger deal in the press. Maybe he`s too hard to pronounce too. I don`t know. So, I mean, there`s the GOP field, which is amazing. And that`s one thing that`s going on. I think now emerging issues about how the GOP field is being covered. Maybe the press is just spread too thin, right? But there is also the process and how the process is really unusually in flux right now. We reported last night in face of this giant Republican field of candidates that the first Republican debate is basically now off with New Hampshire in particular, all right? A lot of the Republican candidates as well rejecting the terms that were agreed to by the Republican Party and FOX News to cut off eligibility for the first debate at 10 candidates when it looks like there are closer to 20 potentially viable candidates actually running. The New Hampshire largest newspaper is holding a simultaneous event, simultaneous to the first FOX debate that will put all the candidates in the position of choosing whether they want to do the FOX debate with only 10 people in it, or they want to do the New Hampshire debate. They won`t be able to do both. That is a crisis that just started since the "New Hampshire Union Leader" announced they`re going to do the simultaneous event. We have no idea how that`s going to play out. If Republicans were hoping that an informal event like the Iowa straw poll might play a more serious that usual role this year in helping to winnow down their unwieldy big field of candidates, those hopes were dashed today when the Iowa Republican Party voted unanimously to abolish the Iowa straw poll this year. They`re just not going to hold it this year. So, the process of how Republicans are going to choose their nominee from this historically enormous field, there`s never been a field like this before in presidential politics in either party, that process is in flux in a way it has never been true before, and that is fascinating. But then the third thing going on right now is happening in the Democratic field. And the Democratic field tomorrow is about to have the biggest moment yet and that story and our interview on that story is next. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: Our guest for the interview tonight is the guy who`s running the Hillary Clinton 50 state organizing campaign. Particularly for liberals and for Democrats, there`s a lot of questions, right, about what kind of president Hillary Clinton might be. There`s a lot of substantive questions about what her style would be as president, about how her policies might stack up against this current Democratic president or the last Democratic president, who happens to be her husband, Bill Clinton, maybe she`ll be nothing like either of those previous Democratic president. Before we get there, though, while the Democratic Party has yet to pick their presidential nominee, although everybody thinks it`s probably going to be her, there`s also really substantive questions about whether or not she can get there. Historically speaking, it`s hard for a president`s party to hold on to the White House after a president has two terms. Whoever the Republicans pick, it`s going to be a hard row to hoe for the Democrats to put another president in the White House after Barack Obama`s two terms. Does Hillary Clinton`s campaign have a plan that can win? No matter who the Republican nominee is, how are they going to run their campaign? Is it likely to put her in the White House? What`s their strategy? And how good of a strategy is it? The guy we have here next for the interview is the guy I most want to ask the question because he`s the guy who can most answer them. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: This is Roosevelt Island. It`s part of New York City. It`s in the middle of the East River, between Manhattan and Queens. It`s roughly 800 feet wide and two miles long. It`s a little bit hard to get to and from. You could get the F train there on the subway. You can take this cool ski lift style tram thing from 59th Street on the Manhattan side. Every once in a while it does get stack and leaves people dangling over the east River for a while, but that`s just adding to the fun, most of the time it`s fine. Good luck. It`s called Roosevelt Island. It`s named after Franklin Delano Roosevelt and there is a dramatic and lovely relatively new park on Roosevelt Island. It`s called the Four Freedoms Park. It`s named after the famous State of the Union Address FDR gave in 1941 when he talked about the freedom of speech, the freedom of worship, the freedom from want, and freedom from fear. Well, tomorrow, thousands of people are expected to make their way onto little Roosevelt Island for a big, highly anticipated speech by Hillary Rodham Clinton. Secretary Clinton has, of course, already technically announced that she is running for president. She did so with this video nine weeks ago. Since then, she has been doing events and small scale events, with small numbers of voters, mostly close to the press, not all but mostly. And she`s mostly been in Iowa and New Hampshire, but she`s also been traveling to some other places around the country. This tomorrow is going to be her first big large-scale hello America, public event. They`re basically considering tomorrow to be her campaign kickoff. It`s supposed to be 85 degrees and partly sunny tomorrow for the event. People are expected to be filtering on to the island all morning at 11:45 Eastern her speech is due to start. The campaign says this will basically be Secretary Clinton stating her case, saying who she is and why she`s running. Against this giant chaotic Republican field, when there are so many different Republican candidates running but honestly almost no policy differences among them, against the unexpectedly spunky challenge that Secretary Clinton has already gotten from the unabashed left in the form of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. For as fascinating as this campaign already is in these early days, I really, really want to hear why Hillary Clinton says she is running. I mean, honestly, I know that she is running. I want to hear from her the mission statement for her campaign. I want to know why she`s running. When it comes to imagining her in the White House and her making it to the White House, honestly, I also want to know something about how she`s running, about how she`s planning to get there, and why she thinks that plan will work. Joining us now is Marlon Marshall. He`s director of state campaigns and political engagement for the Hillary Clinton campaign -- and am I right you`ll be the emcee tomorrow on Roosevelt Island? MARLON MARSHALL, HILLARY FOR AMERICA: That is pushing that. Yes, I am going to be emceeing the event. I`m very excited about it. Excited to be here. MADDOW: Thank you. It`s nice to have you here. In terms of the way that I explain the expectation for that, logistically, I think the logistics are right. MARSHALL: Right. MADDOW: In terms of the goal of the campaign, is this the mission statement? Is this hello, America, here`s why I`m running? MARSHALL: I think this -- yes. This is you`re going to get a chance to hear from her directly why she`s running, why she`s doing it, which a lot goes back to her personal story, goes back to her mother, how her mother was a fighter. She was abandoned at an early age and then when she was 14 years old, she`s kind of -- she was abandoned at 14 years old and then -- I`m losing my train of thought for a second. I apologize. MADDOW: You won`t be nervous tomorrow. MARSHALL: I will not be nervous tomorrow. Just only on your show. She was abandoned at an early age and when Hillary was a teenager, her mother told her the story on how she was abandoned. And she said, Hillary was really shocked her mother was able to keep moving and she said why, and she said, throughout all my life, people kept giving me chances and that`s exactly why Hillary is running for president. She wants to be that fighter for every Americans every single day. MADDOW: To give people more chances that made her story possible. MARSHALL: Yes. MADDOW: While I look at the challenge ahead of you -- MARSHALL: Yes. MADDOW: -- I know that you guys and you in particular, are in charge of making sure that Hillary Clinton organization is in all 50 states. MARSHALL: Right. MADDOW: I look at the challenge historically speaking of holding on to the White House after a president from one party has held on to it for two terms, as Barack Obama has for the Democrats, it`s a real -- it happens when George H.W. Bush won after Reagan, but it`s a really uphill to do. Why does it help to think about putting staff and money and energy like in a place like Utah, in a place like Alaska? MARSHALL: Yes. Well, first of all, for a competitive primary, and we are expecting a competitive primary and we are a large staff in Iowa, in New Hampshire and Nevada, South Carolina and they`re out there organizing. They`ve done over 3,500 one-on-one meetings with individual supporters to talk about how to get involved ion the campaign. And as you mentioned, we have staff in every other state as well, too. They`ve posted over 330 grassroots organizing meetings, getting people in. They`re going to be ready. So, to get past the first four states, you want to be ready to have a competitive primary in any other state. The real reason, though, is that I`m a true believer that organizing is about the power of the personal story and when you get an organizer in a room, you get volunteers together and you share the story about why they support a candidate, and what it is about them. Like for me, it`s my mother, I support Hillary Clinton and it goes back to my mom, my mom was a teacher for 36 years, and I saw her teach every single day fifth graders, and seeing that really -- I wanted those kids to have -- I don`t know how to describe it except more of just my mother`s vision for children is what drove me every single day as I was growing up. Having those stories, having people organize, telling those stories, that`s why people will give their time and energy to the campaign and it`s important to start that early in the campaign to build those relationships. MADDOW: And you say you are expecting a competitive primary. MARSHALL: Yes. MADDOW: Bernard Sanders, independent of Vermont, is -- MARSHALL: Yes. MADDOW: -- I describe him as having an unexpectedly spunky campaign so far. MARSHALL: Yes. MADDOW: Do you see him as the chief competition for the nomination? How do you see the Democratic field shaping up? MARSHALL: I think we`re preparing for anything. And so we`re just preparing for a competitive primary. If you look at Iowa, no -- if you look at the incoming president, nobody has gotten above 50 percent in Iowa caucuses. So, anything can happen. But you have to really go out there and earn everyone`s vote, earn the support, and that`s what we`ve been doing about putting organizers on the ground this early, that`s what we`re continuing to do, and that`s what you`re going to hear about speech tomorrow is like, why? Why should you vote for Hillary Clinton for president? You`re going to hear it tomorrow. MADDOW: When you see -- the reason I asked you specifically about Bernie Sanders, of all the things I have in mind tonight, is he`s doing another event tonight at Drake University where he`s got a really big turnout, a really good boisterous turnout, a lot of support of him, and I think people thought of him as more of -- forgive me -- more of a Dennis Kucinich kind of character, somebody who`s going to be more of a gadfly to the campaign. He`s really mobilizing a lot of people. Does that unsettle as an organizer, when you see the big crowds he`s turning out? MARSHALL: I think, look, we`ve had a lot of excitement, too. Again, 330 organizing meetings, 11,000 people have gone into people`s home to be part of those meetings. We have again, those 3,500 individual conversations. We have events lined up for Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina next week. So, we`re excited about our excitement that we`re seeing on our side too, and we feel good about it. MADDOW: Marlon Marshall, director of state campaigns and political engagement for the Hillary Clinton campaign -- will you please put in a good word that Secretary Clinton should come on the show and do an interview? MARSHALL: I`ll tell her. (LAUGHTER) MADDOW: OK, thank you very much. MARSHALL: All right. MADDOW: I`ll check to make sure. MARSHALL: I know you will. MADDOW: Thank you very much. MARSHALL: Thank you. MADDOW: All right. Lots to come tonight. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRICIA MCKINNEY, TRMS PRODUCER: Hello. It is that time again. To pike prizes for the Friday night. MADDOW: These look better than unusual. MCKINNEY: Why don`t we start with these. This is a swag. MADDOW: An NBC News water bottle. MCKINNEY: This is a stress ball. You remember at times, we all had a box of stress balls. That was on my desk. Clearly, I haven`t been stressed. MADDOW: It is clean. Wow. This is lucky. MCKINNEY: You know how after Christmas you can`t find candy canes anywhere, so I bought these at my local supermarket this past Christmas and kept them in my drawer in case we should ever have a candy cane -- MADDOW: A non-seasonal candy cane need. MCKINNEY: And this, we use the last year during the 2014 primaries remember when Scott Brown used to give out random plaques to women. (LAUGHTER) MCKINNEY: Hey, I`m going to meet with random women. I`m going to give you a plaque. It`d be like, women for Scott Brown. MADDOW: I like this so much. I love this too much to give away. Yes, I think we should give away the candy canes. Can we combine? Is that a weird combination? Which is a weirder combination, the water bottle or the stress ball? MCKINNEY: Stress ball. MADDOW: Stress ball and candy canes. MCKINNEY: Yes. MADDOW: There you go. MCKINNEY: I`ll let you keep that. MADDOW: Thanks, Scott. (END VIDEO CLIP) (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: So, it`s now day seven, and finally today, something happened in the week long manhunt for the two prisoners who escaped from a maximum- security prison in Dannemora, New York, last weekend. Unfortunately, while there is a big new development in the case today, for the first time all this week, it doesn`t mean that the authorities are closer to catching these guys. They are still on the loose. We keep hearing every day that authorities have got them cornered, you know? They are brink off capturing them, they`re closing in. We keep hearing that. So far, that has been the case. It was not the case earlier this week, when they announced they are expanding their focus to Vermont. It was not the case when they zeroed in on the town of Willsboro, New York. It was not the case when they zeroed in closer to the prison in the town of Cadyville, New York. As of tonight, those two escaped prisoners are still out there somewhere despite all those breathless reporting this week that they are about to be caught. But the big development today is that there has been an arrest made in conjunction with this case. There`s been a lot of reporting this week about a civilian prison employee who worked at the tailor shop where these two escape prisoners also were employed inside of the prison. Honestly, a lot of what`s been reported about her this past few days has been un- sourced rumors and basically gossip. But in concrete terms, the district attorney now says three specific things about her. One, that she has been helping authorities as they try to find these convicts this week. Two, she did provide the escaped prisoners with some materials that might have helped in their escape. Although, the district attorney says these recent reports that she gave them power tools, those reports are not true. And three, the big news tonight, is that as of tonight, this woman who worked at the prison who has been helping, who did provide these guys with something that aided in their escape, according to the prosecutors, tonight, she has now been arrested. She`s been charged with one felony count of promoted prison contraband and one misdemeanor count of criminal facilitation and that could mean up to seven years in jail. Again, this woman has apparently been helping authorities all week voluntarily. Why they waited until today a week after they escaped to actually read her her rights and lock her up, we don`t know. Authorities say they are interviewing numerous other civilian employees at the prison and they say this woman is one part of the investigation. But tonight, after a week, she`s under arrest and that is the latest tonight from upstate New York as this manhunt continues. Joining us now is Jesse McKinley. He`s a "New York Times" reporter who`s been covering the manhunt since it began last week. Jesse, it`s nice to have you with us again. Thanks for being here. JESSE MCKINLEY, NEW YORK TIMES: Good evening. Thanks for having me. MADDOW: Do we know specifically what this prison employee did? MCKINLEY: Well, that is a good question. We don`t exactly. The questions as to what sort of contraband she brought into the prison, there are reports that it was some sort of saw, there were reports it might have been a cell phone, but, of course, none of those are confirmed. What the district attorney did say is that it was power tools, some sort of electrical grinder or something like that, those are false according to the district attorney. MADDOW: What do we know about the circumstances of her arrest? It may be that I don`t know how these things work, but it does seem at least interesting that the escape happened a week ago, either last Friday or Saturday, she`s apparently been working with authorities all week, why arrest her today? Why that timing? MCKINLEY: Well, I think that the going theory right now is that perhaps she has told them as much as they can. After all, if you buy the theory she was supposed to be the getaway driver and that would have involved her in a much greater detail than she is involved right now. At this point, my understanding is that she has basically spilled as much as they can to authorities. Authorities feel like they have come to the end of that investigative lead, and now, she is being arrested. She is being arraigned as we speak. MADDOW: Jesse, this manhunt, this intensive manhunt over a large area continues now. I mean, if it goes on until tomorrow it will be starting a full second week, they`ve got hundreds of law enforcement up there and it has been a lot of heavy weather, it`s been a lot of grueling work, 24 hours a day -- is there tension? I mean, is this now becoming itself a strain in terms of the size of the operation? Is there tension either among law enforcement taking part in this or between law enforcement the people who live up there? MCKINLEY: There have been reports, sure, there is some butting of the heads in terms of agencies. Kind of more anecdotally, though, in being on the ground and seeing the guys come out of the woods -- I mean, there is a real dower mood about them. They want to catch these guys, particularly the correction agents in the prison. They are sleeping in there and eating in there and they haven`t seen their families. I can sense a frustration about it. That being said, the size of the search party continues to grow. They`ve got 800 guys on the ground here now. So, they are still expressing confidence but a weekend, they can`t be happy with the progress that they`ve made. MADDOW: In terms of that progress just bluntly, has there been any concrete sign of the trailer of these guys? Has there been anything hard that authorities have disclosed in terms of a clue, a sign, something that is confirmed that these guys have been anywhere outside of the prison? MCKINLEY: The short answer is no. MADDOW: Wow. MCKINLEY: I mean, they have said that the canine units picked up a scent. They are very confident in this lead. They feel strongly enough about it that they have basically focused a great deal of the search on five square mile area just to the east of here. But in terms of finding bedding that is reported but it`s not confirmed. There were reports they found some is candy or some food wrappers, once again, that`s not confirmed. And part of that may be the nature of the beast. The police may be playing their cards very close to the vest. But in terms of concrete evidence, you know, a tool for example or break in or a stolen vehicle report, we have none of that at this hour. MADDOW: Amazing. Just the longer the story it goes on, the more remarkable it becomes. Jesse McKinley, reporter for "The New York Times", thanks for talking with us. Your clarity on this is really, really helpful. Thank you very much. MCKINLEY: Thank you. Thanks so much. MADDOW: All right. A lot still ahead tonight, including as promised, terrifying sea creatures. But, first, one more thing about this manhunt. I will admit, this is not the most substantive thing in the world but you need to know this. The New York state police commander leading the manhunt for the two escaped prisoners, we now know his name. His name is Charles Guess. Specifically, Major Charles Guess. The man leading the manhunt, his name is Major Guess. That`s all. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: At top of the show, I promised terrifying sea creatures from today`s news. Behold. I told you. Terrifying sea creatures. And this isn`t the only one. And how this charming demon see blob is in the news is coming up. You wouldn`t expect it. But that guy actually it turns out he is delicious. Seriously. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: In most other countries, the national sport is soccer -- futbol. But in the United States, our national sport arguably is baseball. And one of the things the countries must find the most perplexing about our national pass time is baseball stadium shenanigans. Minor league teams are the best at it. Minor league teams are the famous for doing the nuttiest stuff in their stadiums. It`s one of the greatest things about minor league baseball. If you have not been to a minor league baseball game, treat yourself and go to it. You will love it, I swear, and the tickets are super cheap. At the pro-level, one of our better baseball shenanigans is the tradition of racing overlarge awkward mascot items around the bases. In Milwaukee, famously, it is the racing of the sausages. In Pittsburgh, it is the racing of the Pierogies. That`s kind of hard to tell apart except for the different hats. But at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., home of the Nationals baseball team, it is the racing of the overly large giant awkward puppet presidents. President Obama last night went on a rare presidential baseball outing and he went to the Nationals Park last night for the annual congressional baseball game where Republicans and Democrats from Congress play against each other in baseball. And President Obama, while he was there -- look, he met all of the big, awkward president puppet things back stage at the stadium. Apparently, he said on the street, he challenged them to a race. But there are a couple of pieces of good news for the president that came out of the trip that he took to the congressional baseball game last night. Honestly, the first one is that he did take this surreal and awesome picture with the awkward racing president things. That`s great. The other piece of good news for President Obama is that the Democrats won. For the seventh straight year, the Democrats routed congressional Republicans at the baseball game. Congressional Republicans are good at winning some things. Baseball against Democrats is not one of them. Can`t gerrymander that field. But the reason President Obama was there last night, much as I`m sure he loves baseball, might have less to do with that annual congressional baseball game and more to do with Nancy Pelosi. So, John Boehner is the leader of congressional Republicans, for a while he was their leader when they were in the minority, now, he`s their leader as speaker. Either way, John Boehner, even though he is the leader, turns out John Boehner has very little control over the Republicans. He converts little sway over what the Republicans do. It`s always a mystery when John Boehner brings something up for the vote in the House when he supposedly controls, and you never know whether something will pass or not, it`s one of the exciting things about the era of John Boehner`s leadership. It`s chaos. Nancy Pelosi is John Boehner`s opposite number in the other party, in the Democratic Party. But Nancy Pelosi does not have and has never had that same problem. Nancy Pelosi, when she was speaker and when she is leader of the Democrats in the minority, either way, she conducts House Democrats like a symphony. When she was speaker, that`s how the House was able to pass the huge number of consequential bills that they passed. But even when she is in the minority, it makes a predictable news in terms of what House Democrats are going to do. Once Nancy Pelosi has weighed in and said out loud what she thinks should happen with Democratic votes in the House, that just happens. So, when President Obama made his unexpected appearance last night of congressional baseball game and then was spotted and talking with Nancy Pelosi for a very long time, one on one, at that baseball game, you could kind of guess that maybe what they were talking about was today`s big nail biter of a vote in Congress. This trade deal thing is a rare bird. Republicans like it, President Obama likes it. But most Democrats do not like it. And Republicans have this big majority in Congress. Theoretically, they should be able to pass it on their own. But, again, John Boehner cannot lead a puppy to a hamburger. John Boehner cannot conduct a single person playing chop sticks. John Boehner cannot whip his way out of a paper bag. He cannot get Republicans to do anything he wants them to do ever. And so, even though John Boehner has the numbers, which should mean he should be able to do this himself, he can`t. He needs Democrats, he needs some Democrats to cross over and vote with Republicans in order to pass this thing. And there was a lot of suspense today heading into this vote as to whether or not the Democratic votes would be there. There was a ton of suspense, legitimately. Nobody knew what would happen, until Nancy Pelosi stood up and said she would vote no, and then it was like been boom. Turn out the lights, slam the door, double lock it, get in the car and drive home. It`s over. It was totally over. And it turns out, even though there`d been all this suspense, it wasn`t even close. It wasn`t even close. And that`s what happened today. I mean, overall for the trade deal, it is not over. Through some procedural acrobatics, they will, in effect, be bringing it back early next week, but today, at least the president`s baseball diplomacy with Nancy Pelosi and the president turning up on Capitol Hill today to personally lobby, not just Nancy Pelosi but all Democrats to please vote yes on this thing, the president cajoling Democrats in public and in private, that they should trust him on this, that this trade deal weren`t so bad and he wouldn`t support it if it were a bad deal, if it weren`t as bad as they said it would be, everything he tried was not enough to stop this thing today, liberals stopped this trade thing today, for now. If they want to keep it dead, they`re going to have to hold the line through this weekend and through the beginning of next week until the next vote happens and it is going to be a high pressure line to hold. I mean, first of all there is always the possibility that Republicans might get it together under John Boehner leadership and do it themselves. Don`t worry about that. More likely, there is going to be a ton of pressure among all of the various factions within the Democratic Party. Today, the liberal group Democracy for America put out this statement ahead of today`s vote. This is unusual for Democratic politics. Look. Quote, "We wanted to be very clear to Democratic members of Congress, if you vote for the trade bill, we will not lift a finger or raise a penny to protect you when you are attacked in 2016. We will encourage our progressive allies to join us in leaving you to rot. And we will actively search for opportunities to primary you with a real Democrat." Leaving you to rot. We`ll primary you with a real -- I mean, liberals and Democrats don`t usually talk like this. Don`t usually fight like this, but they are now. And it`s on. And this weekend and the next few days will tell the tale as to whether liberals are going to win, in the end here, or whether today was a temporary victory for them that will be overntuend. True drama on this. Watch this space. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: Watch out, truck! Friday night news time. Producer Nick Tutz, who is tonight`s lucky player? NICK TUTZ, TRMS PRODUCER: Tonight`s lucky player is Russel Rivinius. He is from McMinnville, Oregon. He works as a bartender. He plays disk golf which is like Frisbee golf with a better name. MADDOW: OK. TUTZ: And his only serious hobby is gift wrapping. MADDOW: Russel, it`s very nice to meet you. Thank you very much for being here. RUSSEL RIVINIUS, CONTESTANT: Thank you very much. MADDOW: Do I still got you? Ah -- RIVINIUS: Can you hear me? MADDOW: Now I can hear you. RIVINIUS: Oh, good. MADDOW: Oh good. You are back. It is like we went in to some terrible warp. RIVINIUS: It happened. MADDOW: How is gift wrapping a serious hobby? Does this mean you are seriously excellent at it? RIVINIUS: I like to consider myself a good gift wrapper, yes. I often spend more on the wrapping than on the gifts. MADDOW: Wow, you would be surprised if you win our gifts tonight. They are both very cheap and very poorly wrapped. RIVINIUS: That`s perfect. It`s the thought that counts, so whatever people say. MADDOW: All right. You`re going to get three multiple choice questions about this week`s news. If you get at least two right, you will win this piece of junk, which will not at all be helpful for your day job, even if you are tending bar. Nick, what is the first gift? TUTZ: We have the Rachel Maddow drink mixer. MADDOW: Never ever use it at work. All right. RIVINIUS: OK. MADDOW: So, that`s your initial gift. If you get them all right, though, you need extra credit or consolation prize or just because we have something random that until tonight has been cluttering up our office. It`s extra random tonight. Nick, what`s the extra random clutter evening? TUTZ: We have this NBC Universal group stress ball. MADDOW: Only mildly used. TUTZ: Mildly used. And we have candy canes, fresh from this past Christmas season. MADDOW: OK. RIVINIUS: Oh, perfect. I think I have some of my own actually. MADDOW: It`s a good combo, the stress ball and candy canes. We also have to bring in the disembodied voice of Steve Benen, lord of Maddow Blog, the guy who determines whether you get the right answer. Hello, Steve. STEVEN BENEN, MADDOW BLOG: Good evening to you both. MADDOW: Good evening. RIVINIUS: Hi, Steve. MADDOW: All right. First question, here we go, Russel. Monday`s show, we covered a truly terrifying story out of Alaska. This past week, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game started getting reports of Arctic lampreys falling from the sky. An arctic lamprey`s mother thinks it is the cutest thing ever, but for the rest of us, the idea of Arctic lampreys falling from the sky is the stuff of nightmares. RIVINIUS: Exactly. MADDOW: Which one of these animals is an Arctic lamprey? Is it A, these guys? Is it B, these guys? Is it C, this guy? Or is it D, this guy? RIVINIUS: Those are all equally terrifying in my opinion. I think I`m going to go with C. MADDOW: C is the Arctic lamprey. Steve, did Russel get it right? BENEN: Let`s check the terrifying segment from Monday`s show. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: Apparently it is apparently seagulls fault, they plucked the lampreys out of the water and fly away and the lamprey wriggles to much or maybe it just turns around and look at that terrifying face! (END VIDEO CLIP) BENEN: Yes, good luck getting that image out of your head. The correct answer is C and Russel is correct. MADDOW: Well done. For the record A is a deep sea hatchet fish, B is some variety of squid that has human teeth. And D is a sea cucumber but the ugly kind. But well done, you go the first one right. You got to get the two right to win the worthless cocktail shaker prize. So, here we go to question two. On Tuesday`s show we talked about the U.S. women`s soccer team heading to the World Cup and something the women`s teams are force to do in the world cup that the men`s teams are never forced to do. What is that? Is it A, they have to play overtime to break a tie instead of going to a shootout? B, they have to play on artificial turf? C, they have to follow FIFA rules for the length of their hair? Or D, they have to promise never to say anything negative about corruption in FIFA? RIVINIUS: B, play on artificial turf. MADDOW: The answer B, playing on artificial turf. Steve, what`s the right answer? BENEN: The correct answer is B. It is artificial turf and Russel is correct. MADDOW: Excellent. All right. Get ready for your last question, Russel. RIVINIUS: Yes. MADDOW: Bear with me here. On last night`s show, we reported on a remarkable e-mail by one presidential candidate this week. The email asked for campaign donations after explaining just how much that particular candidate running for president. This is from last night`s segment. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: Dear insert name here. I`m going to ask you to make a sacrifice the next 48 hours. But before I do, I want you to know, I wouldn`t ask you if I hadn`t already done it myself. You see, running for president of the United States is a significant sacrifice. Health and sleep, I`m sacrificing even more sleep with long nights and constant travel, and the pizza diet is a staple on the campaign trail. Days start before dawn and many times don`t end until early the next morning. There`s almost no personal time. Can you run for president? (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: Which 2016 candidate, Russel, sent out that complaining e- mail to ask for campaign donations this week? Was it A, Ted Cruz, B, Donald Trump, C, Scott Walker, or D, the husband and wife campaign team of Doug and Wendy whiner? RIVINIUS: The answer is A, Ted Cruz and you can replace running for president with bar tending and it is still true. No sleep whatsoever. MADDOW: Is Russell right that it was Ted Cruz? BENEN: He is. Ted Cruz isn`t having any fun at all and Russel is right once again. MADDOW: He might be a wonderful bartender because of all this training. RIVINIUS: Maybe. MADDOW: Nick, did -- you do the math, did Russel win the prize? TUTZ: He wins them all. MADDOW: You win them all. Well done. Don`t bring the stress ball to work. People will think it is a garnish and eat it. RIVINIUS: OK, perfect. MADDOW: But thank you for playing. It was really nice to meet you. RIVINIUS: Thank you so much, Rachel. MADDOW: And if you want to play the most awesome name in basic cable news or at least the one that happens latest in the day, send us an e-mail Rachel@msnbc.com, tell us who you are, where you are from and why you want to play the news dump. Can`t wait to send you our junk. Now, go to prison. 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