The Rachel Maddow Show, Transcript 01/28/15

CHRIS HAYES, "ALL IN" HOST: That is "ALL IN" for this evening. THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW starts right now, with Rachel, who has some news for us tonight. I`m all atwitter. I saw you on Twitter. I`m going to go upstairs and watch. RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC HOST: We do have some news. We have some news about somebody losing their job who you won`t be able to really believe has actually left their job. But we are able to break that story. HAYES: You got me. Well teased. MADDOW: All right. Thanks, Chris. Appreciate it. That story is coming up in just a few minutes on the show, somebody on the far political right who has weathered so many political storms. It felt like there was no chance that this person would ever lose his job. We are able to break the news tonight that he has apparently lost his job. You will be surprised by the circumstances that have caused that to happen. We`ve got that story coming up later on. But thanks for being with us for this hour. A lot happened in today`s news. This is what it looks like when a person circled there in red is carrying more than $30,000 in cash in a backpack. Sort of surprisingly subtle, right? This guy at the time the picture was taken, he was carrying $30,500 in stolen money in that bag. We know that, because we also have pictures of him taken while he was in the act of stealing that money that day. Over the course of five hours, on the night of February 19th, 2013, this individual man went from ATM to ATM to ATM in Manhattan, and each successive ATM machine, he withdrew thousands of dollars. He stuffed the big stacks of $20 bills and $50 bills into his backpack, and then he`d just move on to the ATM and do it again. He did this for more than five hours. That one guy stole more than $30,000, mostly in 20s, over the course of that night. But he was not alone. He was not the only person stealing cash from ATM machines in Manhattan over the course of those five hours on that cold February night. The ten arrows here on this map point to the specific ATM machines where that one guy we just showed you, where that one guy stole his $30,000 that night. But you see -- there`s a lot of other little dots all over this map. Dots on this map that don`t have the arrows on them, those are the other ATM machines in Manhattan, where other people, his co-conspirators in this massive heist were also at the exact same time also withdrawing stolen money from ATM machines all over the city. It all happened that one night, up and down Manhattan, all told on that night, February 19th, 2013. There were 2,904 ATM machines that were all hit across New York City. Eight guys, 2,900 ATMs, over one night. They stole $2.5 million in cash, mostly in 20s. Some machines apparently gave them 50s. But it turns out this was not just a coordinated scheme across New York City that night. It was a global thing. It was a big highly organized global plot. So, while this one guy who we just showed you, and his friends were stealing from ATM machines in New York in their coordinated attacks, in cities all over the world in two dozen countries around the world, these different cells of coordinated thieves were all doing the same thing, all at the same time, going ATM to ATM in cities in Japan, in Canada, in Germany, in Romania, and lots of other countries, on that one day in February. They all acted all at once. They made 36,000 fraudulent ATM transactions around the world that night, including the guys in New York City. All told in that one day`s work, that global ATM heist netted more than $40 million, worldwide, all in cash, all in one day`s work. That`s a lot of cash. The thing about this heist that was so hard to believe at the time was that it was a mix of very modern cyber crime, hacking into financial data bases, stealing pre-paid ATM card numbers, there`s this sort of very intensely technical part of this, but it was linked with old-school stealing -- stealing physical paper money that guys had to stuff into backpacks and run away with. The level of organization and coordination was really impressive. Whoever did the hacking hacked these financial institutions from which they got the prepaid debit card numbers, and they hacked the withdrawal limits on those cards to allow basically unlimited ATM withdrawal numbers on those numbers. Then distributed the numbers to the international networks of street level thieves including these doofuses in New York City who couldn`t resist posing with their stacks of cash. And then they unleashed all these guys like this all at once on ATMs, all those cities, all around the globe. And the guys on the street, the guys going to the ATMs with the backpacks, they used these fake ATM cards with these doctored stolen numbers on them and they simultaneously hit ATMs everywhere. These guys pocketed some of the cash, they sent a cut of it to the hackers who gave them the information, they laundered the money by buying expensive items with the cash and either keeping the items or reselling them. A Gucci was apparently very popular -- a bunch of Gucci boxes in the upper right-hand side of your screen. Gucci was popular. So was on the lower right-hand side of your screen staging stacks of their stolen cash on some Coors Light can and putting a baseball cap on top. Nobody said these guys were geniuses. All told, that heist, that big global ATM heist netted just a breathtaking amount of money, over 40 million bucks in cash. It seemed like they were going to get away with it. This novel way of combining cyber crime, this advanced hacking, with good old-fashioned guy stuffing stolen cash into his pants crime, that combination looked impenetrable for a while. It seemed like they were going to get away with it, until they got caught. The guys who pulled off the New York City chapter of this global heist, the guys that hit all the ATMs around the city in one night, it was eight guys in total, those eight guys got caught. They got caught by the office of the U.S. attorney for the eastern district of New York. And her name was Loretta Lynch. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LORETTA LYNCH, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR EASTERN DIST. OF NY: The computer hackers steal or generate PIN numbers. In a feat of coordination, all at the same time, send those PIN numbers to the assembled cells in different cities all at the same time. The cells are waiting. They are standing by. They are standing by, they are assigned ATMs. And once they receive these PINs via e-mail or text, they become a criminal flash mob going from machine to machine, drawing as much money as they can before these accounts are shut down. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: It was Loretta Lynch`s office that cracked that global ATM heist case. Loretta Lynch is now President Obama`s nominee to be the attorney general of the United States. But in her previous job, her current job as U.S. attorney for the eastern district of New York, she has led some very high-profile and very interesting prosecutions. Her office prosecuted the most recent member of Congress to have to resign from Congress, because he had just been indicted on federal felony charges. Just late last month, Mr. Congressman -- I`ll break you like a boy -- Michael Grimm pled guilty to a federal count of tax fraud and resigned from Congress. Loretta Lynch`s office led the prosecution against him. And yes, Michael Grimm is a Republican. But because Loretta Lynch has been the U.S. attorney in New York, when it comes to locking up public officials, who have a bad case of corruption, there are a lot more Democrats to choose from than there are Republicans in New York. And Loretta Lynch has had a great percentage on that because what New York state grows in great numbers are Democratic public officials who really ought to be in jail. New York public officials prosecuted by Loretta Lynch`s office included Democratic State Senator Pedro Espada, Jr., Democratic Assemblyman William Boyland, Democratic State Senator John Sampson, according to prosecutors try to infiltrate Loretta Lynch`s office by approaching one of her attorneys and asking for the names of the cooperating witnesses against him, so he could arrange to, quote, "take them out" -- serving state senator that guy. Loretta Lynch`s office is also known for leading some high-profile terrorism cases, including the case against Najibullah Zazi. He`s the guy that pleaded guilty to providing material support to al Qaeda and conspiring to bomb the New York City subway system. Her office prosecuted the guy who plotted the bottom at the Federal Reserve in New York. They caught him in one of the controversial cases that used an undercover FBI agent who was posing as an al Qaeda facilitator. She`s also prosecuted cases against law enforcement officials for abusing their power. Her office has broken up drug trafficking rings. Her office famously announced the massive immigration bust in which more than a dozen franchise owners of 7-Eleven stores were caught using immigrants essentially as slave labor. Loretta Lynch called that trafficking ring a modern-day plantation system. On public corruption, on terrorism, and all these high-profile and complicated cases, Loretta Lynch has been a very successful and very federal prosecutor. That`s her resume. The only way it`s controversial I think is if you`re sort of against law and order prosecutors. But her resume, her length -- the length of the list of her successful prosecutions, and the types of cases that she`s prosecuted, it`s not the sort of thing that gets a lot of political criticism. But by and large, her resume, her track record in her current job as a U.S. attorney, as a federal prosecutor, that is not what has been coming up during her confirmation hearing for attorney general today, before the newly Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee. At least that`s not what came up too often when Republicans on the committee were leading the question of her today. Instead, this is sort of the flavor of what Senate Republicans on her confirmation committee today wanted to talk about when they had questions to ask of Loretta Lynch. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R), TEXAS: You`re not Eric Holder, are you? LYNCH: No, I`m not, sir. (LAUGHTER) CORNYN: No one is suggesting that you are, but of course, Attorney General Holder`s record is heavy on our minds now. And the attorney general refers to himself as the president`s wing man, suggesting that he is not -- does not exercise independent legal judgment as the chief law enforcement officer for the country. You wouldn`t consider yourself to be a political arm of the White House as attorney general, would you? LYNCH: No, Senator, that would be a totally inappropriate view of the position of attorney general. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: Seriously, that was today. That was your Judiciary on Republican politics fixated on the guy who`s no longer going to be attorney general. Here`s what`s on top for tomorrow. Here are some of the expert witnesses that Senate Republicans have called to appear before the committee and comment on Loretta Lynch`s nomination to be the nation`s next attorney general. This is her confirmation hearing for attorney general. The Republicans have called Sharyl Attkisson who works now for the news site by Jim DeMint`s conservative think tank Heritage Foundation. Her journalistic beat there includes several features on how the federal government is covering up and stone walling the Republicans` Benghazi investigation. She`s also maybe the nation`s foremost expert on the right- wing conspiracy theory that the Justice Department under Attorney General Eric Holder intentionally lost guns across the border in Mexico, specifically so those guns would be used in gun violence here, so Americans would then be outraged by that gun violence and would finally turn against the Second Amendment, and thus let Eric Holder take all their guns. That is the Republican conspiracy theory about the so-called Fast and Furious scandal. And so, Republicans have summoned expert testimony on that conspiracy theory about Eric Holder. To weigh in on the nomination of our would-be new attorney general of the United States, who has herself had a rather illustrious and complicated career. I mean, they`re testifying on Fast and Furious, not because Loretta Lynch had anything to do with Fast and Furious, but I guess because that`s what the Republicans like to talk about when they get the chance to talk on this committee. The Fast and Furious false flag conspiracy theory will be followed by the founder of the group called True the Vote. True the Vote is known to most people for the national attention they`ve had for being a group that creeps people out by watching them and following them when they go to vote. When Attorney General Eric Holder announced that he was resigning as attorney general, the woman who will be testifying tomorrow from True the Vote said she hoped his resignation would end Eric Holder`s racialist assault on voting rights across America, Eric Holder`s racialist assault. In addition to those go experts, Republicans have also invited a sheriff from Milwaukee who says he wants Eric Holder to apologize to police departments across the country. What does that have to do with Loretta Lynch? Those are a few of the experts who will get to go to Congress tomorrow and weigh in on whether or not we should have Loretta Lynch as the next attorney general of the United States. The job of attorney general is a really, really, really big, important job. It`s a job honestly that people seem to agree Loretta Lynch is highly qualified for. The smart money says she will most likely win confirmation for the job. But Senate Republicans have decided that her confirmation hearing for attorney general will serve as a platform for people who specialize in conspiracy theories about our current attorney general. Day two of Loretta Lynch`s confirmation hearing starts tomorrow morning. We, of course, will be watching. But we`ll probably be watching like this. Joining us is Jeffrey Rosen, law professor at George Washington University, president of the National Constitution Center. Mr. Rosen, thanks very much for being with us. JEFFREY ROSEN, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIV. LAW SCHOOL: Thank you so much having me. MADDOW: So, you have watched and reported on lots of attorney general confirmation hearings. It`s a really, big important job and these confirmation hearings are often very dramatic. It`s a very important post. How would you assess Loretta Lynch`s performance today in these hearings? ROSEN: It was striking that Senator Leahy said that out of all the attorney general confirmation hearings he`s seen, Loretta Lynch was the most impressive. And it was also remarkable that despite all the theater that you accurately described in your great introduction, Republicans as well as Democrats seem essentially to concede that probably she will be confirmed, but that she should be. It was striking that they realized that she`s a real prosecutor. I thought it was so helpful that you began with that complicated ATM $40 million heist case, because that`s her passion -- cyber crime, going after the bad guys. The fact that she even engaged in immigration enforcement, which is the lightning rod of this hearing, since the Republicans repeatedly pressed her about whether or not she thought that President Obama`s immigration orders were constitutional. And she in a very good lawyerly fashion said, the Office of Legal Counsel has approved most of these orders. It`s questioned some of them, and I think there`s strong precedent to support most of them. She just showed herself to be a consummate professional. She wasn`t all the rattled by the questions that as you suggested were more about Eric Holder, and attempt to resurrect Republican frustration with his administration than really with her record. And by the end of it, you had Republicans like Senator Graham saying, "if not her, who?", suggesting that he really would vote for her pretty enthusiastically. So, for her, it was a great day. Whether it was a great day for public discourse, as you suggested, is another question. MADDOW: And do you think, though, it is fair to say about the discussion about Loretta Lynch`s qualifications for this job is essentially a totally different discussion, happening in parallel at the same hearing alongside, basically unrelated set of questions and discussions, and we`ll hear witness testimony tomorrow, about Eric Holder. They`re not actually asking her about Eric Holder`s tenure, just using him to talk about him in an unrelated way? ROSEN: It`s absolutely the case. If you found that frustrating today, tomorrow will be either more frustrating or more theatrically amusing, because the witnesses as you suggested are an absolute gallery of Holder critics who are determined to resurrect controversies that, as you suggested, have long been laid to rest. The inspector general`s independent report found no basis for Sharyl Attkisson`s claims about Operation Fast and Furious, but she`s going to resurrect them. We`re going to hear about voter fraud, about Ferguson. This has a lot to do about Eric Holder and nothing to do about Loretta Lynch. And I guess it`s striking that Republican frustration with their inability to investigate, I suppose, Holder, when the Democrats hold the Senate is so great that now they`ve finally got the majority, they`re determined to use this moment in the spotlight as a referendum on Holder and not Lynch. That`s, of course, good for Lynch, because it ensures she`ll be confirmed. But it really ensures that the important issues that, as you suggested an attorney general deals with won`t be ventilated. So, I was more interested in the differences between Lynch and Holder on issues relating from NSA surveillance, to the death penalty, to marijuana. On all of those issues, she actually suggested that she`d be to the right of Holder. She enthusiastically embraced the death penalty. And she said she thought it was an effective deterrent. Holder had been more equivocal. She said that she would not support the decriminalization of pot. Holder had moved in the other direction. And on NSA surveillance, she called it effective and constitutional. Holder had defended it but she seemed to go a little further. So, on all these matters, again, great for Republicans, and doesn`t call her professionalism into question, but it does suggest she may be a different attorney general than Holder. And, finally, there`s this very important question that at the end of most presidential administrations, especially in the second term, there`s often a scandal, especially with a Republican Senate, we can ensure there will be scandal mongering. Traditionally, presidents have liked next to them attorney generals who really have their back, who they know well and personally. Holder did have a relationship with Obama, Lynch does not. So, if the scandals themselves get fast and furious, it will be interesting to see how exactly Lynch responds. MADDOW: And it will be fascinating just over the next days and weeks to figure out how we`re going to learn those things about Loretta Lynch since I think the confirmation hearings are being used for a totally separate purpose. She`s a fascinating character. She`s had an amazing career. This is going to be a really interesting political process to watch. Jeffrey Rosen, law professor at George Washington, president of the National Constitution Center -- it`s great to have you here. Thank you so much. ROSEN: Thank you very much. MADDOW: Thanks. All right. There`s lots ahead, including as I mentioned at the top, a little breaking news tonight about a very visible member of the far right in this country, who appears to have just been fired, and for a surprising reason. We`ve got that story coming up exclusively. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: In late September, Apple released a new fancy iPhone, and then they proceeded to sell 74 million of them, 74 million. That means that Apple sold nine iPhones every second of every day, for the last three months. Yesterday, Apple posted the biggest quarterly earnings ever. This fall, from October through December, Apple made more money in one quarter than any company has ever made in the history of the earth. Until now, the top record holders were all oil companies. But with an $18 billion profit over one quarter, this past quarter, Apple just blew by Gazprom, and Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon on its way to the top. They beat ExxonMobil`s best quarterly profit by $4 billion. Still, though, it felt like oil and gas companies are poor. They`re just acting like it. In the United States, there have been five major pipeline spills or pipeline explosions just this month. What we just learned today about the biggest one of these spills is frickin` unbelievable. And that story is coming right up. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: Do you have excellent written and verbal communication skills? Do you have individual initiative and ability to work effectively with diverse groups of people? Are you adaptable to the Northern Plains climate? If you answered yes to all of those questions, then North Dakota needs you. North Dakota really, really needs you. This is a job listing on the state of North Dakota`s Web site, a job listing for a pipeline inspector. An inspector specifically for the smaller variety of pipelines that crisscross the state transferring oil and gas and saltwater and all other kinds of stuff related to drilling. There are 20,000 miles of what they call gathering pipelines, these smaller pipelines all across North Dakota, 20,000 miles. Already, state officials expect there will be 50,000 miles of those pipelines before long. And the total number of people currently employed by the state to inspect those pipelines is zero. The state has also posted a job listing for an inspector for the state`s larger natural pipelines. That department is doing a little better. They`ve got two inspector jobs and one of them`s filled. So, yes, maybe it`s not that surprising to learn that one of the five pipelines that has burst so far this month in this country, the one that spilled 3 million gallons of toxic drilling brine near the town of Williston, North Dakota, this month, that pipeline was never inspected. It has never had an inspection, ever. North Dakota`s in the midst of a drilling boom. Obviously oil and gas companies flooding that state in recent years. And naturally, the state has been crisscrossed with a number of pipelines large and small. I would show you a map what that looks like, particularly the gathering ones, the small pipelines, but those small pipelines, not the big long-distance ones that transport oil and gas to be sold, but all the tiny ones you need for local drilling infrastructure, state officials in North Dakota don`t actually know where all of those ones are, because until last year, if you were installing a smallish pipeline, you didn`t actually have to tell anyone. Just do it yourself. Knock yourself out. Last year, that rule changed, thanks to the North Dakota Industrial Commission. Here they are -- the three guys who oversee the gas and oil industry in the state. That`s Republican Governor Jack Dalrymple in the middle. The commission approved new rules last year that said if you install a pipeline, you do at least have to tell the state where it is. And while you`re at it, you have to tell the state that the pipeline is up to code, and installed properly. In order to tell the state that, what you have to do is submit this affidavit. You just promise, you just check that box right there next to where it says, the pipeline is in compliance with state rules. That`s how they ensure everything`s safe. You just sign this form. And you send it off to the industrial commission. I hereby swear my pipeline is installed properly. Love, Rachel. That`s it. That`s the rule. The commission did also improve three inspectors to check on those pipelines. But again, what is it? Do you have slept written and verbal communications? Ability to work effectively with diverse groups of people? Are you acclimatable to the Northern Plains climate? Those three positions for inspectors have remained unfilled since last summer. So, the new regulations went into effect in April. The four-inch brine pipeline in Williston was installed in June. Funding for the inspector was approved in July. And this month with no inspectors actually hired and on the job, that pipeline which has never been inspected not even once, that is the pipeline that ruptured and spilled 3 million gallons of toxic saltwater brine in the worst spill of its kind in the state`s history. In those April regulations, the company that operates that pipeline, they were required to submit information to the state about what safety mechanisms were in place, but under the rules, approved by the state, that information is not available to the general public. So we can`t even check to see what they said they had in place, even though all they had to do was say it, and nobody had to verify what they said was true. This is the sort of policy that exists right now around pipelines. That pipeline in North Dakota, that pipeline, as I said, was one of five to rupture or explode this month alone across the country. The latest one was this one, Monday, in West Virginia. And in the midst of that, in the midst of all these pipelines going kablooey across the country, that the pipelines we`ve got, even the new ones, are not particularly well-managed. The United States Senate took action staying at work late tonight in the hopes of building more pipelines. Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell held a vote-athon tonight for proposed amendments to the Keystone bill, so the Senate can vote on approving the Keystone pipeline itself tomorrow. The argument for the pipeline, of course, is that it will create jobs, and yes, maybe it will create a handful of jobs over time. But in North Dakota, right now, there are a handful of open jobs that really, really, really need to be filled whether or not they force the construction of keystone. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CINDY JACOBS, TELEVANGELIST: I see someone; you literally had a child that just died, and I speak to the spirit of death in that child in the name of Jesus, and I command you to lead that child. I speak to the spirit of infirmity that cause the child`s death, and I say live in Jesus` name. Live! I see a child coughing, waking up, we saw that in Pakistan. We saw a little boy raised from the dead just like that. God is on the move. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: That is Cindy Jacobs. She`s an evangelical activist who said she is a prophet. And that she can raise people from the dead. On Friday night`s show, we reported on Cindy Jacobs` role in Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal`s presidential campaign kickoff rally this weekend in Baton Rouge. But a funny thing has since happened to the relationship between the lady who said she can raise people from the dead, and Bobby Jindal who says he wants to be president. The story is fast moving. As it turns outs, some of it just happening tonight. But the news we have to break tonight is that beyond what just happened to Cindy Jacobs, after we reported the news about her involvement with Bobby Jindal`s big prayer rally, beyond Cindy Jacobs who most people have not heard of, it is also now tonight that one of the most well-known people on the far religious right in American politics has apparently also just lost his job tonight for a very surprising and surprisingly mainstream reason. We`ve got that reporting first here, next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: Behold Reince Priebus. Reince Priebus is chairman of the National Republican Party, just reelected to another term last week by a vote of 166-2. That huge vote in his reelection as party chairman put him on track to be the longest serving head of the National Republican Party in the history of the National Republican Party. So, Republicans generally think that Reince Priebus does a great job, and that may be true. But Reince Priebus has gotten himself and the RNC into a big mess. Now, the basis of the story was first reported about a month ago in "Time" magazine by Zeke Miller. But, today, it became a big problem for the Republican Party and for Reince Priebus. And I honestly don`t know how they`re going to get themselves out of it. The basic story here is a Republican Party organized trip to Israel. Reince Priebus sent out a letter to members of the RNC in late November inviting them to go with the RNC on an expenses paid trip to Israel. Now, going on a trip to Israel itself, not a problem. Going on this particular trip to Israel, I think this really is going to be a problem. One of the things from the 2012 presidential campaign that we reported on this show with keen interest was a stadium prayer rally that Texas Governor Rick Perry used as essentially the launch event for his presidential campaign for 2012. Now, the fact that he wanted to start his campaign with a prayer rally, not itself a newsworthy thing. What was newsworthy about it was who he organized that prayer rally with, because this is the organization that Rick Perry did that prayer rally with. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BRYAN FISCHER, AMERICAN FAMILY ASSOCIATION: Counterfeit religions, alternative religions of Christianity have no right to the free exercise of religion. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: That`s a man named Bryan Fischer with the American Family Association. The American Family Association is not your typical conservative religious right organization, even for our conservative religious right in this country, the American Family Association is pretty out there. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) FISCHER: Islam is like the Ebola virus. It`s deadly. It`s lethal. And all you can do with a virus like that, there`s no cure for it. I saw a video this morning kind of exploring the performance of Beyonce at last year`s halftime of the Super Bowl. And it`s very clear that she was using a number of satanic symbols. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: Beyonce? Satan? That`s Bryan Fischer from the American Family Association. The American Family Association is the group that organized Rick Perry`s prayer rally that kicked off his presidential campaign in 2012. That`s the same group that paid for and organized the prayer rally that Bobby Jindal just used to apparently kick off his 2016 presidential race this weekend, this past weekend at LSU. So, we reported on Friday, on the views of the American Family Association, the fact that they were underwriting this rally, and organizing this rally for Bobby Jindal and we reported on some of the other people participating in this event with Bobby Jindal and the American Family Association, including Cindy Jacobs who does claim that she is a living prophet who gets advance notice from God about terrorist attacks. She said she can stop those terrorist attacks if she wants to. She also claims she can raise children from the dead and says she has done so. We reported Friday about her role in convening the Bobby Jindal prayer event in Louisiana this past weekend. Sometimes since then, her video inviting people to come to the Bobby Jindal prayer event that has been taken down off the event`s Web site. People for the American Way noticed that Cindy Jacobs had been disappeared off the group`s Web site. They posted it about it this morning. It turns out you can still sign with the Cindy Jacobs video if you go through all cached versions of the Web site. But they apparently made that video private so you`re never going to come across it unless you know to look for it. It turns out I guess it`s one thing to tell people you can raise people from the dead, and to try to convince people of your status as a living prophet on earth. It`s another thing for you then to be associated with a campaign for the presidency of the United States. And so, Cindy Jacobs, as of today, has been disappeared from the Bobby Jindal presidential campaign`s online footprint. They didn`t do a very good job of disappearing her, but as of today, it appears that they tried. And now, the RNC, Republican National Committee, getting in bed with the same fringe folks, the American Family Association. That has caused another similar problem on the religious right, because of what Reince Priebus and the RNC are doing with the American Family Association is they`re having the American Family Association pay for and organize the National Republican Party to send its members, members of the RNC, to go on a trip to Israel. Israel. Even though Bryan Fischer from the American Family Association says Jews have no right to practice the faith of Judaism in the United States. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) FISCHER: Counterfeit religions, alternative religions to Christianity have no First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion. Hitler discovered that he could not get straight soldiers to be savage and brutal and vicious enough to carry out his orders, but that homosexual soldiers basically had no limits in the savagery and brutality they were willing to inflict on whoever Hitler sent them after. So, he surrounded himself virtually all of the storm troopers, the brown shirts, were male homosexuals. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: He can go on about this at length. Bryan Fischer at the American Family Association, long had this elaborate theory about how Nazism and Holocaust wasn`t so much a German thing or a Nazi thing, it was really a gay thing. You know, it`s one thing to try to sell that on talk radio in Mississippi, trying to get people to send you money for the American Family Association, it`s another thing to take that line of reasoning, say, to Israel. Well, today the Israeli press, specifically the newspaper "Haaretz", reported on Reince Priebus and the RNC taking a trip to Israel, that has been paid for by this group, that thinks that Jews don`t have a right to practice their religion, and it wasn`t really the Nazis that did the Holocaust, that was a gay thing. Today, that news got its first press in Israel, and perhaps coincidentally today, tonight, the American Family Association told us that they are firing Bryan Fischer. Bryan Fischer has been their director of issue analysis, the director of issue analysis for the American Family Association forever. He`s basically quoted everywhere for years now as the organization`s spokesman. All through the Rick Perry prayer rally controversy, all through the new Bobby Jindal controversy, all through all of the other controversies that they have gotten into, that the American Family Association has gotten itself into, which is very far right-wing politics over the years. But taking the chairman of the National Republican Party and a third of the membership of the Republican National Committee on a trip to Israel? And the Israeli press realizing that the Republican Party of the United States is coming to Israel as a guest of the Bryan Fischer group? Who says that Jews have no right to practice their religion in America? That apparently finally is a bridge too far for his long career. The president of the American Family Association telling us tonight, that as of day, Bryan Fischer should never be described as the director of issue analysis for that group, he should not be quoted as a spokesman for the group. As of today, the American Family Association tells us that Bryan Fischer is, and I quote, "just a talk show host." When we asked the American Family Association president what suddenly bothers them now about Bryan Fischer that didn`t bother them all these previous years that he`s been saying all these things, the president of the group specifically singled out Bryan Fischer`s comments on Hitler and homosexuality, which we highlighted on this show on Friday night. The American Family Association now says that even though Bryan Fischer made those remarks years ago, and has made them consistently over a period of years, they now says, quote, "we reject that." The American Family Association rejects that, officially as of today. Bryan Fischer is fired as of today. As of tonight this is what you get when you go to the American Family Association web page, the specific web page that used to feature Bryan Fischer. And the Republican Party, including a chairman, the chairman of the National Republican Party and third of the RNC`s members are due to go to Israel with that group that just fired Bryan Fischer today on a flight that leaves on Saturday. But here`s the ongoing problem for Reince Priebus and the National Republican Party, I mean, aside from the judgment it shows to put the Republican National Convention into bed with this group in the first place, aside from that. When reporter Debra Nussbaum Cohen called the American Family Association for their report, and the RNC, called he American Family Association, and called the RNC today to ask about the trip that these two groups are planning to Israel together, the American Family Association was smart enough to not put Bryan Fischer, their spokesperson until today, on the phone with her. After all, after today, he`s no longer a spokesman. They did, however, put her in touch with David Lane, who is the American Family Association guy who led the Bobby Jindal prayer rally this weekend and who is directly organizing this event in Israel, starting on Saturday. And he told Debra today about the basic premise of this trip that he is leading for the National Republican Party. What he told her for her report today is this, quote, "America was founded by Christians, for the glory of God and the Christian faith." Quote, "We were established as a Christian nation in the name of god and for the advancement of the Christian faith." If the United States is a country for Christians only and the purpose of the United States is specifically to advance the faith of Christians, and incidentally not Jews, how does that fly in Israel -- let alone among American Jews, and Muslims, and anybody else who`s not Christian, anybody? What is the Republican Party advertising about itself to be taking this kind of a trip with this kind of a group? Do they really think the firing of Bryan Fischer is going to end this story. Joining us now is Debra Nussbaum Cohen. She`s a reporter for "Haaretz Daily" and contributing editor at Forward.com. Ms. Nussbaum Cohen, thank you very much for being here. I appreciate it. DEBRA NUSSBAUM COHEN, HAARETZ: My pleasure. MADDOW: I have to ask you about your reporting process for this story. The American Family Association made Davis Lane available to you to explain his premise for the trip. Did they ever put you in touch with Bryan Fischer or any other member of the organization? COHEN: No, and I tried for a week to get through to them and the RNC, and got kind of strung along for a week. And finally, at that point, David Lane was made available to me. He runs a different group. It`s called the American Renewal Project. It`s housed in and contributions to it are funneled through the American Family Association. MADDOW: I think it`s -- yes, that`s important to clarify. I think it`s fair and the American Family Association would consider them to be essentially a subsidiary organization, given especially that they`re housed within. David Lane was also the organizer of those American Family Association prayer rallies we reported on previously. Did the RNC give you a comment on this? COHEN: No, they didn`t. MADDOW: Do you know if there`s any connection between Bryan Fischer being fired and your inquiries around this story? COHEN: I don`t. It would be awfully nice to think so. But no, I have no idea. MADDOW: You gasped when I said so. (LAUGHTER) COHEN: I was surprised, because as you pointed out he`s been around for a long time saying essentially the same thing for many years. So it does seem surprising that at this juncture, at this moment, he would be fired. MADDOW: Can I ask you about the quote that David Lane gave you? Again, he`s the organizer of this event with the RNC. And his group is paying for a third of the members of the RNC and the chairman to go to Israel. He told you, "America was founded for the glory of God and the Christian faith." Do you have the sense that there`s any cognizance that that might be a little oogy for a group traveling to Israel? Was he cognizant of that context? Was he telling you this is going to be a controversial thing but I`m willing to -- COHEN: No, look, we all live in our own bubbles in many ways. And this is true for that community. The community that he`s part of. So, he was -- he seemed completely unaware of how that would play in the American Jewish community. MADDOW: Have you had any evident response thus far in the American- Jewish community, from Israeli groups, in the Israeli press, more widely? Has there been any response to this yet, or do you think it`s just sinking in today? COHEN: Well, the Jewish Democratic group here in the States just at the end of the day today put out a statement calling on the RNC to no longer go with this group, on an Israel trip funded by them. But other than that, I think it`s beginning to roll out and we`ll see in the coming days. MADDOW: Debra Nussbaum Cohen, reporter for "Haaretz Daily", contributing editor of Forward.com -- thanks for this reporting, which advanced the story in a very dramatic way today. Thanks for keeping us apprise. I appreciate it. COHEN: My pleasure. MADDOW: All right. We`ll be right back. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SUBTITLE: Inside Rachel`s office -- MADDOW: Programming note from my office. Those are all the clothes that I keep in my office to wear on TV. Susan calls that all the colors of the German rainbow. Tonight, I`m going to be on the David Letterman show on CBS, which is very exciting. And to interrupt my usual -- I don`t know, array of gray, I`m going to be wearing these shoes. Ta-dah! You heard it here first. (END VIDEO CLIP) (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: I`ve mentioned a few times on the show before that I come from a family that is rich in nuns. That`s occasionally caused me some trouble over the years, given some of the un-nunly subject matter we sometimes cover. But not tonight. Tonight, we have excellence and nationally important nun news. That`s straight ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: Best new thing in the world. This is the Web site for a Benedictine monastery in Arizona called Our Lady of Guadalupe. It`s run by the sisters of St. Benedict. Their religious mission is contemplation, and prayer and providing for the needy. That`s one great thing already -- nuns running a beautiful retreat from the world, doing good works, maintaining this lovely, out of the way peaceful space for contemplation. Right under their nice mission statement on their Web site, though, is something that, combined with the nuns, is better than either one of these things could be alone -- football, specifically, this weekend`s Super Bowl. It turns out Our Lady of Guadalupe monastery is about five miles from the stadium in Glendale where the Super Bowl will be played this year. The nuns, it turns out, are psyched about that. The monastery`s prioress is Sister Linda Campbell. She`s a huge football fan. A football fan of the highest order. When the local paper asked her about the Patriots and the deflated football scandal, she had a ready opinion, quote, she said, "It doesn`t make any sense that Tom Brady wouldn`t have known it when he felt it." Sister Linda Campbell, football fan, and the sisters of St. Benedict, they have now decided if you`re going to Glendale to watch the Super Bowl, you can rent their monastery for your stay. For 300 bucks a night, you get a nice bed, a bathroom you have to share, free Wi-Fi, peace and tranquility, no alcohol, no smoking, no swearing. The last time Phoenix hosted the Super Bowl, Sister Linda says the girls made about $12,000 by renting out the monastery to fans. They put that money back into the community through their work with the poor and under-privilege. We asked Sister Linda today if she has any rooms available since the game is this weekend. She said, yes, you can still get a room, as of tonight. So, come on, football and nuns! Chaos and contemplation, best vacation ever, best new thing in the world today. If you need Sister Linda`s number, because you`re going to Glendale, please let us know. She`ll look you up, as long as you don`t swear. Now, it`s time for "THE LAST WORD WITH LAWRENCE O`DONNELL." Good evening, Lawrence. THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. END <Copy: Content and programming copyright 2015 MSNBC. 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