All In with Chris Hayes, Transcript 09/29/15

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CHRIS HAYES, MSNBC HOST (voice-over): Tonight on ALL IN -- AL GORE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: This is a bigger challenge than we`ve ever faced. HAYES: From the Climate Reality Project Conference in Miami, an ALL IN exclusive. GORE: There has been a very well-organized and well-funded effort on part of the anti-climate forces. HAYES: Tonight, former Vice President Al Gore on everything from the Republican Party to the Democratic fight for 2016. Plus, the state of the climate change fight. And why the tide keeps rising, the sinking state of Florida. Then, the Republican war on women. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t think we`re agreeing to disagree. I think you`re not answering my question. HAYES: The fight to defund Planned Parenthood gets nasty on Capitol Hill. CECILE RICHARDS, PLANNED PARENTHOOD PRESIDENT: If you would give me one moment to explain. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure. HAYES: ALL IN starts right now. (END VIDEOTAPE) HAYES: Good evening from Miami. I`m Chris Hayes. Tonight, my exclusive interview with former Vice President Al Gore. I`m here in Miami participating in a conference organized by the Climate Reality Project, non-profit chaired by Gore that in the last 18 months has trained thousands of people from over 100 countries the facts of our climate reality. And the backdrop for the conference could not be more appropriate. Yesterday, the streets of Miami Beach were hit with coastal flooding exacerbated by climate change. And a report this summer found that Florida faces more risk from the effects of climate change than any other state in the union. Joining me now is former vice president and climate activist, Al Gore. Wonderful to have you here. AL GORE, CHAIRMAN, THE CLIMATE REALITY PROJECT: Well, it`s great to be here. And thank you very much for participating in the conference. HAYES: You know, I was thinking to myself that you -- the last time you were running for office, you were in elected politics was 15 years ago. And, you know, we`re all watching this campaign happen. We`re all watching politics now. And there`s some sense things have gone off the rails or the center cannot hold. GORE: Yes. HAYES: What do you think when you watch this play out? Does it feel to you like we`re seeing some sort of seismic shifts? Is this something that seems vaguely recognizable? GORE: Well, vaguely, but the -- American democracy has been hacked. It no longer is operating the way it was intended to operate. And the principle reason for the degradation of the process is the influence of big money. And yet, the many proposals for campaign finance reform have been inadequate to solve this problem because the main underlying reason for the bigger role of money is that we know longer have the way of communicating with one another that existed when our Founders wrote the Constitution. The printing press created a public forum in which individuals could freely enter and participate. But the dominance of television since the last third of the 20th century put up barriers to individuals participating. Gatekeepers charge a lot of money for the kind of regular communication that comes in the campaign television commercials. But the good news is the Internet is now moving television off of center stage. A lot of it is video but the barriers to entry are very low once again. So, we have some hope of restoring the vitality of our democracy. HAYES: It does seem like there`s this kind of centrifugal force pulling and sometimes the center cannot hold. Sometimes for better or ill, I mean, when you look at the parties, the Democratic party, Republican Party as institutions seem to me -- and I`d be curious what you think -- incredibly weak right now as institutions, as things that can tell people do this, do that. Don`t do that, do this. GORE: Yes. And, again, that is principally because some of the power they used to exercise to keep the process orderly is now taken over by big money. You know, our elected officials and most candidates for office incredibly spend four, five, six hours every day begging special interests and wealthy individuals for money. HAYES: You used to have to do that. GORE: Well, when I first entered the process in 1970, I was elected the first time in 1976 -- HAYES: Right. GORE: -- I didn`t have a single fund-raiser. And I did -- I watched it build over time. HAYES: Eat up more of your schedule. GORE: That`s right. But it was not nearly as bad then as it is now. But the influence of money has to be curbed and Citizens United has made it even worse. The idea that corporations are people is, of course, absurd and ridiculous. But that is now what has happened. And it`s another layer of problems for the election process. HAYES: Hillary Clinton right now is trying to do something that you`re the last person who tried to do. She`s trying to run as the presumptive favorite nominee off of a successful and popular Democratic presidential two terms. What challenges are there in that position from your experience? GORE: Well, I`m not an expert on political punditry, but there does seem to be kind of a pendulum effect in American politics. But it`s probably a weak and there are people who have done the analyses that show it can be overcome. It`s not immutable. So I don`t think that`s an impassable barrier. HAYES: On the other side, you have a Republican Party right now where you don`t have a single person in this race, maybe I guess George Pataki said something the other day. GORE: Yes. HAYES: Historically large field, right? There`s some conflict about a bunch of different positions. There`s no one on climate. GORE: Yes, that`s odd, isn`t it? HAYES: In the entire lineup. GORE: Yes. HAYES: Last time around, you at least had Jon Huntsman who didn`t fare very well. GORE: Yes. HAYES: But there`s not a single person who stands up there and says, "Yes, it`s a real big problem. We really need to address it." GORE: Yes, Lindsey Graham has made some -- HAYES: Yes, that`s true. GORE: -- some appropriate noises from time to time. HAYES: I take that back. GORE: But you`re right. Those who are in the top tier, if you will, are all denying the science and are seemingly afraid to break ranks with the large carbon polluters. And that -- it`s astonishing on one level and it`s sad for our country because this is the biggest challenge that we face. We have to mobilize public opinion and we`re the only country in the world where one of the major political parties denies the reality of science. And it puts our country in a difficult situation because the kind of debate that we should be having about the best solutions, about how we can create the most jobs by installing solar panels on roofs and putting new LEDs and better windows and insulation, we could create tens of millions of new jobs if we had a legitimate debate about the best way to go about that. HAYES: You know, there`s -- Jonathan Chait wrote this the other day. There was a study about conservative parties across the world -- GORE: Yes. HAYES: -- finding that the American conservative party is the only one that has this position. GORE: Yes. HAYES: You know, you can imagine on health care, people say the market should handle this. GORE: Yes. HAYES: But there`s no one saying, well, no one gets sick. GORE: Yes. HAYES: It`s just doesn`t happen. But that`s what -- why -- do you have an understanding why that is the case? What`s the exceptionalism at play that -- GORE: Well, I think, in some ways, it`s not as big a mystery as it might seem. There`s an old saying in the South, if you see a turtle on top of a fence post, you can be pretty sure it didn`t get there by itself. And in this case, the carbon polluters made a calculated decision quite some time ago to spend a huge amount of money putting out false ideas, creating false doubts. They took their playbook from the tobacco industry. There`s a great book called "Merchants of Doubt" that documents this. Others have documented a big part of it. And, you know, the tobacco companies after the surgeon general`s report came out hired actors and dressed them up as doctors and put them in front of cameras with the script that said, "I`m a doctor. You don`t have to worry about any health problems with -- from smoking cigarettes." It was a lie. They knew it was a lie. They`ve been held to account now, but they delayed action for 40 years. So, the large carbon polluters have done essentially the same thing. And they have people pretending to be credentialed scientists in the relevant areas of science putting out totally false information. And we now know that ExxonMobil, for example, thanks to the investigators at "Inside Climate News", winners of the Pulitzer prize -- and, by the way, congratulations on your Emmy for the poverty series. HAYES: Thank you. GORE: But we now know from "Inside Climate News" that ExxonMobil, the largest of these companies, knew all the facts thoroughly as far as back as 1977 and chose to put out false information or to support those who put out false information. HAYES: OK. But here`s the thing, right? That applies as a sort of theory off American democracy is functioning the way it is, right? It applies to Germany, it applies in Australia. I mean, it applies across the globe, right? The fossil fuel companies have the same interests across the globe. They have tried to muddy the waters across the globe. It has been uniquely successful it seems to me here politically with the Republican Party. GORE: I think that`s right. The European oil companies just changed and abandoned that position and have formally as a group called for a price on carbon. They tried to get some of the American oil companies to go along with them. And the American oil companies said, "Sorry, we can`t do it." One of them, this is from information inside in the European industry shared with me, one of them said that they were scared of American political leaders -- in the United States Senate particularly -- some that protect the coal industry and want to have an alliance between coal and oil and gas, and they want to keep that together. I don`t think it can last. I think we are winning this debate. I think that the coal industry is on the ropes here in the U.S. And, by the way, we ought to help the people, the miners. We ought to help them. We`ve got jobs for them to do. Let`s don`t leave them stranded. But the financial assets are in danger of being stranded. And just today, the head of the Central Bank in England, Mark Carney, made a really powerful statement about how the British economy in his words is at dire risk because of continued large investments in carbon fuel companies -- oil, coal and gas. He said, "Look, we have to change. And we can`t wait." HAYES: We`ve got questions on our Facebook page. I want to ask you one of those about a big victory that happened recently. I want to ask you about Keystone if you`ll stick around for another block. GORE: Sure. Absolutely. HAYES: Don`t go anywhere. More with the former vice president. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TIM RUSSERT, NBC NEWS: All Al Gore needs is Florida. All George Bush needs Florida. They need Florida -- Florida, Florida, Florida. Let me show you one more time, this is it right here -- Florida, Florida, Florida. (LAUGHTER) RUSSERT: It`s that kind of night. (END VIDEO CLIP) HAYES: I`m here in the state that decided the 2000 election denying Al Gore the presidency, the same state that will likely be ground zero for climate change and the political fight over climate change as we head into the 2016 election cycle. Neither of the two Republican politicians from that state running for president or its current governor are putting forth any plan on climate change. But the mayor of South Miami is not in denial. He`s got some thoughts you`re definitely going to want to hear. That`s ahead. My interview with the former vice president continues next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There are other countries that are polluting in the atmosphere much greater than we are at this point -- China, India all these countries that are still growing. And they`re not going to stop doing what they`re doing. America is a country, it`s not a planet. GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We shouldn`t be destroying our economy in order to chase some wild left wing idea that somehow us by ourselves is going to fix the climate. CARLY FIORINA (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: A single nation acting alone can make no difference. So, why would we destroy all these jobs with regulation when the answer to climate change is innovation, not regulation? (END VIDEO CLIP) HAYES: All right. Back here in Miami with former vice president and climate activist, Al Gore. This is the new argument you hear. For a while, it was -- you know, it`s snowing in D.C. So, obvious -- you know, largely that has been abandoned by people that I think don`t want to seem ridiculous. You also have polling that shows that 50 percent of voters in the GOP primaries believe in, you know, human caused climate change. So, the next argument is the argument like that. Yes, it`s a problem. But it`s a big planet. Everyone`s going to try to game each other. We shouldn`t be the ones to go first and destroy American jobs and put people in Kentucky out of work when everyone else is just going to cheat. We can`t do anything about it. GORE: Well, of course, there are at least two big flaws in that argument. First of all, we can create jobs by taking on this challenge. And we can create jobs that cannot be outsourced, jobs like refurbishing buildings to make them energy efficient, installing solar panels on rooftops so individuals can have lower electricity bills. There are tens of millions of jobs in this, and it`s one of the few areas in our economy where the jobs are growing in number fairly rapidly. Eighty-eight percent growth in green jobs year over year over the past year. And secondly, since when did the United States abandon its traditional world leadership role, especially at a time when just this past week the president of China says, OK, we`re going to adopt a cap-and-trade program and we`re reducing our CO2 emissions and we want to create jobs and solar and wind and efficiency. So, the rest of the world still does look to the United States for leadership. This is the most serious global challenge we`ve ever faced. No other country can play the role that the U.S. can play. HAYES: One of the Facebook questions that came up a lot today when we were asking our viewers was people wanted to get to you respond to the Shell decision. GORE: Oh, yes. HAYES: In which Shell had invested $7 billion in this highly controversial plan to drill in the Arctic. They abandoned this week. There had been a tremendous outpouring of activism. What do you make of that decision? GORE: Well, first of all, I would like to express my thanks and give due honor to all of those activists and kayaktivists, as they call themselves, that helped to build resistance to drilling in the Arctic. It was insane to try to drill for oil in the Arctic. I hope this is the last effort. It may not be, of course, because other countries, other companies also have some interest in it. But I think that the main reason Shell pulled the plug is that oil prices are still staying at much lower levels than what would be required to justify the enormous expense of drilling in the Arctic. But, of course, the Arctic is almost a closed basin. The kind of catastrophic accident that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico with the BP Deepwater Horizon, if that kind of accident occurred in the Arctic Ocean, it would be utterly catastrophic for the world. So, it was a crazy idea in the first place. I`m glad they pulled the plug. I hope nobody else tries it. HAYES: Keystone has been one of the other sites of client activism that the pipeline that would bring carbon-intensive fuel oil, dirty sand oil. Hillary Clinton just announced she is opposing the pipeline. She was at secretary of state when State was involved in the negotiations around it. Bernie Sanders had already come out against it. Were you surprised by Clinton announcing that? GORE: No, I`m glad now that all three of the Democratic candidates have come out against it. I doubt it will go forward. I don`t think at this point the Canadians are even counting on it going forward. I could be wrong about that. But the process by which that tar sand resource is turned into oil produces way more greenhouse gas pollution and it also befouls the landscape and chews up beautiful areas in western Canada. It really -- I was asked about it several years ago in Alberta, and I made an intemperate comment when asked about it, I said, "Well, junkies find veins in their toes when the ones in their arms and legs no longer work." And it`s -- maybe it`s not the best way of saying it, but what it means is, if we are so addicted to fossil fuels that we have to go to such absurd extremes at such heavy environmental cost, it`s time to re-examine our whole relationship to fossil fuels. Now, here`s -- here`s the good news, Chris. And you`re aware of this I know, but I want to be sure to say this: the cost of electricity from solar energy is coming down so fast now, it is bringing with it an energy revolution that is unprecedented in the history of the world. Solar PV on rooftops, plus more affordable batteries is changing everything. And this state of Florida is going to be a battleground in next year in the election year where a bipartisan coalition that includes the some of the Tea Party groups, the Christian coalition, Democrats, progressives, Republicans, conservatives, it`s across the board, they`re saying, we want to be able to buy electricity from solar panels on our rooftops. HAYES: Right. GORE: This is one of only four states where the government in cahoots with the big monopoly -- HAYES: Stops you from doing it. GORE: -- coal-burning utility says it is illegal for you to buy electricity from somebody that puts solar panels on your roof. And they go beyond that and put a tax on the solar panels. It is -- it`s unacceptable. And there`s going to be a political revolution here in the state of Florida, mark my words. HAYES: Are you done with public life politics? GORE: I`m enjoying what I`m doing now. I`ve often said, perhaps once too often, but I`m a recovering politician and the longer I go without a relapse, the less likely one becomes. HAYES: It must be -- in the universe of Citizens United, I can`t imagine it feels more appealing to be in a campaign now than it would have -- I mean, as time goes by, the structural way a campaign is run must be least appealing, or maybe I`m wrong. GORE: Well, I do think that the influence of money we talked about earlier does degrade the process but I have a lot of respect for those who choose to go through this process. I`ve run four national campaigns, two for president, two for vice president. I know what they`re going through, and I deeply respect what individuals in both parties are doing. And there are things that I miss about it. But I would like to see reforms in the process. I would like to see democracy restored to good health. I do think our system`s been hacked. I think it needs to be restored. We need a kind of occupied democracy movement in this country. And I think the kind of grassroots activism that we`re seeing across ideological lines to promote renewable energy is one of the ways we can get our democracy back in good working order. HAYES: Are you going to endorse? GORE: So far -- you know, we get the impression from this coverage that the election is next week. HAYES: It is, it`s next week. GORE: Yes. (LAUGHTER) GORE: It`s a long way off. And I`ll wait on that decision. HAYES: All right. Former Vice President Al Gore, really, a great pleasure to have you here. GORE: Thank you very much for having me. Absolutely. HAYES: Thank you. Coming up, the spectacle of today`s Planned Parenthood hearing. Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman was in that chamber and she will join me live, ahead. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. BONNIE WATSON COLEMAN (D), NEW JERSEY: Thank you, Ms. Richards, for enduring -- enduring what I consider to be a very offensive approach on the part of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, as they`ve badgered you with questions. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) HAYES: Soon to be ex-Speaker of the House John Boehner may have vowed no government shutdown over Planned Parenthood, but today, Republican lawmakers got perhaps the next best thing -- a high profile, highly dramatic congressional hearing on Capitol Hill which at times morphed into a bona fide public shaming of Planned Parenthood and its president, Cecile Richards. Ms. Richards is testifying before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, fielding hours of questioning and defending the women`s health care organization over its use of federal funding. At issue, a series of heavily edited undercover videos release by anti-abortion activists, implying that Planned Parenthood officials were illegally selling fetal tissue for profit. Planned Parenthood has said those accusations are false and the organization follows all laws and ethical guidelines. And yet, the first question from Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz of Utah had nothing to do with those videos. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. JASON CHAFFETZ (R), UTAH: Ms. Richards, Planned Parenthood has sent $32-plus million in grants overseas. Does any of these funds go to the Democratic Republic of the Congo? RICHARDS: Congressman, let me tell you. CHAFFETZ: No, no, no, we don`t have the time for a big narrative. (END VIDEO CLIP) HAYES: Chaffetz at times demonstrated also a fundamental misunderstanding of how women actually receive care. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHAFFETZ: That`s part of the challenge is that you don`t do mammograms. So, if you -- RICHARDS: We -- CHAFFETZ: Go ahead. RICHARDS: I`m sorry. I never -- CHAFFETZ: You don`t do mammograms. There`s one or two places that does them. You don`t do mammograms. RICHARDS: If you would give me one moment to explain. CHAFFETZ: Sure. RICHARDS: Planned Parenthood is a women`s health center just like where I go for my breast exams every year. If you need a mammogram, you`re referred to a radiological center. And that`s how women actually receive their care. (END VIDEO CLIP) HAYES: Planned Parenthood which provides medical services to 2.7 million women and men a year, a majority of them low income, receives over $500 million in federal funding. None of that money used for abortion. Chaffetz pointed out that Planned Parenthood shouldn`t need any federal money because of Ms. Richards` salary, remarks that earned him a strong rebuke from Democratic Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. JASON CHAFFETZ, (R) UTAH: Your compensation in 2009 was $353,000. Is that correct? CECILE RICHARDS, PLANNED PARENTHOOD: I don`t have the figures with me, but I`m... CHAFFETZ: It was, congratulations. In 2013, your compensation went up some $240,000. Your compensation we`re showing baseline tax returns is $590,000. Correct? RICHARDS: That`s not my annual compensation. Actually my annual compensation is $520,000 a year. REP. CAROLYN MAHONEY, (D) NEW YORK: The entire time I`ve been in congress, I`ve never seen a witness beaten up and questioned about their salary. Miss Richards heads a distinguished organization providing health care services to millions of Americans. And I find it totally inappropriate and discriminatory. (END VIDEO CLIP) HAYES: The real piece de resistance came when Chaffetz presented a slide to Ms. Richards claiming it came from Planned Parenthood`s reports. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RICHARDS: Again, you created this slide. I have no idea what it is. CHAFFETZ: Well, it`s the reduction over the course of years in pink, that`s the reduction in the breast exams and the red is the increase in the abortions. That`s what`s going on in your organization. RICHARDS: this is a slide that has never been shown to me before. I`m happy to look at it. And it absolutely does not reflect what`s happening at Planned Parenthood. CHAFFETZ: You`re going to deny that if we take those numbers out of your report. RICHARDS: I`m going to deny the slide that you`ve just shown me that no one has ever provided us before. We have provided you all the information about everything, all the services that Planned Parenthood provides. And it doesn`t feel like we`re trying to get to the truth here. You just showed me this. I`m happy to look at it. CHAFFETZ: I pulled those numbers directly out of your corporate reports. RICHARDS: Oh, excuse me, my lawyers are informing me that the source of this is actually Americans United for Life, which is an anti-abortion group. So, I would check your source. CHAFFETZ: Then we will get to the bottom of the truth of that. (END VIDEO CLIP) HAYES: all right. That slide, that slide that was a centerpiece of the dig dramatic confrontation came from an anti-abortion group Americans United for Life. And just take a look the at it for a moment. The numbers as they are presented on this graphic make no sense. The bigger number is below the smaller number. The chart implies that Planned Parenthood has been providing more abortions while cutting service on other services which is not true. In fact, the number of STD tests and treatments the organization has given has actually gone up. Here`s how that graphic, which is about cancer treatment, how that should look as Vox (ph) pointed out using the Planned Parenthood figures. You see the purple line is above the red line, because that number on top is bigger than the number on the bottom. Now, there`s a lot about today`s hearing that didn`t make a whole lot of sense. Next, I`ll talk with two women on the front lines of this fight, including a Democratic lawmaker who was in the room. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. BONNIE WATSON COLEMAN, (D) NEW JERSEY: Are we here simply because the ideological right wing of this Republican conference here in congress, the dysfunction that`s manifested simply so anti-women`s right to choose that they would bring you here for a fourth hearing? Or are we here because somebody believes that Planned Parenthood doesn`t need federal reimbursement for the health care that it gives? (END VIDEO CLIP) HAYES: That was Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman defending the president of Planned Parenthood Cecile Richards at today`s congressional hearing. Congresswoman, I -- it was a pretty remarkable scene in that committee room just the level of tension, the tone that certain of your colleagues seemed to take towards the witness. Obviously, heated exchanges aren`t completely out of the ordinary. What did you make of it? COLEMAN: Well, I thought the tone that was established from the very beginning with our chairman sort of signaled to us that we were going to be going downhill for the rest of the day. I don`t think that there was any issue of truth seeking there. Certainly wasn`t any investigation going on there. We had one witness. We had Cecile Richards who handled herself in an exemplary manner who was treated disrespectfully, wasn`t given the opportunity to ask questions. And you know what I think that this was today? This was an illustration of what to do when you can`t figure out what you`re supposed to be doing as a majority. They`re in disarray. They`re dysfunctional. The only thing they can seem to agree on is that the right wing minority within that conference is holding them hostage. And the only thing they can agree on is this fight against women. So we get to this hearing. First, we thought the hearing was about the videos. We know that`s blowing up and how bogus that has been and there have been forensic studies that have established that you can`t even rely upon those videos. So then the questioning got to be, well, are you -- do you really need money from federal government to issue your services to women? And so they were all over the place because they did not have any rational reason for being in that hearing. And I asked them, how are you going to make a decision about whether or not to defund Planned Parenthood when you don`t even know why you`re here today. HAYES: Well, it also struck me that part of the issue here is there`s such tremendous bad faith around the whole thing. I mean, the members -- your Republican colleagues on that committee, they for the most part I think unanimously are as opposed to abortion being legal. They think abortion is a great moral transgression, Planned Parenthood is an organization committed to insuring that it`s legal, safe. It provides the service to women. And so they don`t like that. But because that is not an avenue they can productively go down, instead what you get is an attack on the organization as a whole from every direction as if it`s some big con game being run on its patients. COLEMAN: So Planned Parenthood treated at least 2.7 million women last year -- and men and men, please let me add that they also treat men. Those patients primarily came from underserved areas, areas where it`s difficult to have access to health care. And they`re very poor patients. So this Republican majority would choose to put that whole cohort of people in peril just to further its ideological dark age manifestation of fighting against a woman`s right to choose. It is absolutely ludicrous, but when you fail to do your job which is to help create jobs, to pass the civil rights -- voting rights legislation, when you fail to bring an infrastructure bill creating jobs that way, creating export/import banks so that we could create an economy, when you can`t come together around issues that people actually need you to address, then you go to something that is so far extreme that represents to people who are paying attention that this is a dysfunctional majority that doesn`t know how the to govern. HAYES: Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, thank you very much. Joining me now is Ilyse Hogue, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. And Elise, it`s interesting. I`ve been seeing a lot of head scratching among conservative writers and folks opposed to abortion rights about why Planned Parenthood has not taken a bigger hit. Here`s the latest NBC News poll showing that the net favorability of Planned Parenthood is better than Barack Obama, the Democratic Party, the Republican Party and Donald Trump among others. Is it surprising to you the resilience in the popularity of Planned Parenthood after these last few months? ILYSE HOGUE, PRESIDENT, NARAL PRO-CHOICE AMERICA: No, it`s not surprising at all. It`s not surprising because seven in ten Americans believe in legal abortion, actually trust women and our families to make our own decisions. And it`s not surprising because of the number of lives that Planned Parenthood has touched. Cecile Richards in that room today has done more women and Americans` health than anyone else sitting there. And Americans know that, therefore, they`re going to continue to be there. We were part of a coalition that delivered 2 million petitions to congress to stand with Planned Parenthood today. Where are there 2 million petition? Where is their Cecile Richards? They won`t let the David Daleiden, who is the guy behind these bogus videos, testify because they know he can`t withstand the truth. HAYES: Yeah. I was sort of surprised by that actually, that the organization that conducted this fairly sophisticated operation of setting up sort of fake organizations and getting in with cameras to produce these videos the person who runs that, that you would think the Republican committee would want to hear from him also. HOGUE: You know, if the Republicans -- what was interesting about today is it was a perfect pageant of the extreme GOP priorities, right? There was a total disregard for facts. There was a complete denigration and disdain for women, Cecile most specifically but women in general. And there is this obsession with outlawing abortion at the expense of everything else that needs to happen in this country. David Daleiden is the perfect example of that, but he can`t actually testify because the GOP knows he`s a house of cards that will fold. HAYES: You know, the other context that struck me as relevant here, this is some data in the Guttmacher Institute -- you know, unwanted pregnancies and abortions are actually trending downward. There`s seeing great movement in the teen pregnancy rate, as well. So there`s actually been positive movement in the direction towards people being able to control their own reproductive health and choose affirmatively when they want to bear a child. That is totally removed from the kind of reality that is being painted inside that committee room. HOGUE: Absolutely removed and that`s because you know, what I say all the time is these folks are not actually anti-abortion. If they were they would join hands with us and fight for universal access to contraception, paid parental leave, the kinds of things that support working families. What they are is anti-any woman living her life any way different from what they see fit. And that`s just completely out of step with how most Americans live today. So, they`re going to get theirs. HAYES: All right, Ilyse Hogue, great thanks. Don`t miss Cecile Richards who will sit down exclusively with Rachel Maddow coming up at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. Up next, some people I truly admire were named recipients of the MacArthur Genius Grant, some you may have heard of, one of them, but you almost certainly haven`t heard of another. I`ll introduce her ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) HAYES: All right, so last night a little after midnight, I was looking at my phone in bed which I shouldn`t do, but we all do, right. And I saw a tweet from someone who had congratulated Ta-Nehisi Coates, my good friend and friend of the show, for winning the esteemed MacArthur genius grant, that is of course, the award given out every year by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. And the idea is to reward genius in all its many forms: writers and scientists, dancers and economists. The award comes with this stipend of $625,000 to be paid out over five years so that the recipients can pursue whatever they want. And I was so thrilled that Ta-Nehisi won, that he was one of the 24 genius grant recipients. And then I saw another tweet that my friend from high school Lin- Manuel Miranda, the writer and star of the hit Broadway musical "Hamilton" also won the MacArthur genius grant which is fitting since we here on the show highlighted him back in March as part of MSNBC`s seven days of genius. So, two friends, two genius awards. And that`s when I got curious. Well, who else is on the list? And I went to the MacArthur Foundation`s web page to see who else was there. I scrolled down and my aunt is there. Alex Truesdel. That`s my aunt. I was like holy crap. Aunt Alex. I was literally jumping up and down in my room because there is not a single person I could think of more deserving. Alex runs this amazing organization called Adaptive Design Association. And they make custom built adaptive furniture for children with disabilities. Each thing they build, from a desk that allows a child to sit for the first time in class comfortably with her school mates, to a custom tricycle that gives the child the thrill of mobility, each of those items is specified to the minute needs of each child. And the stuff is affordable because it`s made out of cardboard and glue, and they open source their technology because they want to share it with as many as others as possible. And they have made incredible, tangible life changing improvements in the lives of hundreds of kids. And if that is not genius, I don`t know what is. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) HAYES: Two nights ago, everyone across the country was watching the supermoon. Here in Miami it was a source of wonder, in part because of the lunar eclipse, but the supermoon was also a source of headaches because it caused a lot of flooding. You see, the moon was uncharacteristically close to the earth and the tide, referred to as a king tide, was uncharacteristically high. There was flooding yesterday in Fort Lauderdale Beach, as well and other parts of south Florida`s coastline, flooding that may well not have happened as recently as a decade ago when sea levels were considerably lower. Florida has more people living less than four feet above sea level than any other state except Louisiana and rising sea levels produced by climate change threaten the estimated $15 billion of beachfront property. NASA recently warned that rising sea levels could threaten its launch sites, including the Kennedy Space Center. All of which clarifies for the residents of Florida, that climate change is not some abstract thing in the future, but is literally flooding their streets right now. And you would think it would affect the policy proposals of the two gentlemen from the state of Florida who are running for President, former governor Jeb Bush and Senator Marco Rubio. But Rubio is pretty solidly in the camp of why should we take action when we know the Chinese won`t, ignoring the fact the Chinese have entered into an historic agreement with the U.S. to curb emissions. And today, Jeb Bush unveiled his energy plan, which would basically put a whole lot more carbon in the air by policy prescriptions such as ending the 40 year ban on crude oil exports and rolling back restrictions on natural gas exports. But not every Florida politician is as blind. In fact, one mayor in this area happens to be a biologist who has strong words for his fellow Floridians who are touring the country right on a campaign of evasion and denial. I asked him what he would say to Bush and Rubio. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MAYOR PHILIP STODDARD, SOUTH MIAMI: Your arguments are complete (EXPLETIVE DELETED). I mean, that the idea you don`t want to harm the economy by engaging the problems with sea level rise, what do you think sea level rise is going to do to our economy? It`s going to destroy it. (END VIDEO CLIP) HAYES: That mayor just ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) HAYES: Earlier today I spoke with Mayor Philip Stoddard of South Miami about Florida`s place on the frontline of climate change in this country. Because the mayor of South Miami also happens to be a biology professor at Florida International University, I asked him about the rarity of being both a scientist and a politician. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GODDARD; It`s not common. Scientists love being scientists so much they rarely run for elected office, but you know I was a sucker. I went for it. So, here I am today. HAYES: And you know I keep thinking you`ve got two people in the Republican field who many are saying the two most likely to actually get the nomination when the whole thing is done -- Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, both from Florida, both from Miami, both going around saying basically, shrugging at climate change, not hardcore denialists, but well, the jury`s still out. And even if it isn`t, what can we really do? As someone who lives here, represents constituents here and is a biologist, what`s your reaction. GODDARD: Well, my first reaction is disappointment. I mean, we expect our elected leaders to be the adults in the room, to take responsibility to look after everybody`s best actions. And they`re not doing it, frankly. It`s a puzzle coming from Jeb Bush because he has such strong connections to the real estate community. They`re the ones with the most to lose. So why isn`t he engaging this issue like all of the big banks are and like the big financial houses and now like the underwriters? I mean, that`s a mystery. Marco Rubio is a different mystery. Marco Rubio has got young children. This is going to be their future. He should be looking out for the future of his own family and his own kids. And that means taking a firm hard look at the best science and doing what`s best for the next generation. HAYES: And it`s not -- I mean, really down here in Miami. It is not remote or abstract at all. I mean, there is a tide for the super moon just two nights ago. GODDARD: Yeah, there was. HAYES: That created flooding. You guys are right here on the water. There`s all sorts of studies that suggest Miami is the city the most immediately imperiled by the effects of climate change. GODDARD: Yeah, and Thomas Edison was the one who predicted that the industrial revolution would put enough carbon into the atmosphere to change our climate. This is not a new idea. We`ve depended on Edison science and technology for everything we`ve done. And he predicted climate change back then. And here it is today. So, it`s no big surprise. HAYES: Well, I mean, so what is your explanation? Is there -- is there -- in Florida politics as a whole doesn`t seem to be particularly worked up about something that is so obviously manifestly a threat to not just people but as you said billions of dollars. GODDARD: Well, as a whole, it`s not worked out. As a half it is worked up. I mean, you`ve got people on the take, obviously, from some very specific moneyed concerns saying it`s no big deal or we can`t do anything about it even if it is a big deal. And you`ve got the rest of the world who is listening to the scientists and saying this is the largest crisis that mankind has yet engaged. And we have to engage it with everything we`ve got. HAYES: Do you guys see it here? Do you see the front edge effects here? GODDARD; Of course we do. Of course we do. I mean, we`ve seen our summer season extending by a month over the past few decades. We see saltwater coming up out of the storm drains when it didn`t used to do it. HAYES: Saltwater coming out of the storm drains? GODDARD: Yeah, saltwater coming out of the storm drains. So, particularly along the coastal reaches, when the tides come in, especially when there`s a full moon, all the drains become suppliers of saltwater into the streets. And that`s what we call rainy day flooding. You can have a beautiful -- beg your pardon, that`s what we call sunny day flooding. You can have a beautiful day and the streets fill up with water. And everybody is saying where is it coming from? You stick your finger down there and you taste it and you go that`s saltwater. That`s not rain water. HAYES: So, a beautiful sunny day, you sea level rise. There`s already been significant sea level rise and high tide sucks in the saltwater into the storm drainage system. GODDARD: Pushes it right in. HAYES: Pushes it right in. And you get actual flooding in the streets. GODDARD: You get flooding in the streets. Sea water out of the storm drains. And in fact, the sea level has risen five inches in Miami in the past five years, an inch a year. And that`s not global sea level rise, that`s local sea level rise so there`s differences and changes in the ocean currents that can shift the water this way, that way. HAYES: five inches in five years? GODDARD: Five inches in five years. HAYES: That`s a lot. GODDARD: It is a lot. HAYES: It seems to me still a puzzle. I mean, you talk about -- well, he`s close to real estate. And I was talking to someone earlier today about you have an entire industry around assessing risk particularly in places like this, they`re subject to hurricanes and to flooding. You would think that all of this concentrated money and power would be grabbing people by the lapels in the Florida state legislature or the two gentlemen who were running for office and saying... GODDARD: Yeah, you would think so. But it`s happening in New York. I mean, the financial markets in New York are waking up and they`re dealing with it. But Florida is years behind the rest of the country. HAYES: The former governor of your state, resident here, the current U.S. senator represents you, you`re one of his constituents. He represents your constituents of 14,000 residents of South Miami. I mean, if you could sit down with either of these gentlemen in a coffee shop in South Miami, what would say to them? GODDARD: I would say your arguments are complete (EXPLETIVE DELETED). I mean, the idea that you don`t want to harm the economy by engaging the problems with sea level rise, what do you think sea level rise is going to do to our economy? It`s going to destroy it. I mean, you have -- we`re going to be underwater for heaven`s sakes. How can you give these specious arguments about wanting to protect the economy when the biggest threat to the economy we`ve seen is coming down on us like a truck. I mean, that`s what I would say to them. HAYES: Well, maybe if they`re watching you`ll get it across. Mayor Stoddard, it`s been a great pleasure. GODDARD: Thank you. HAYES: Thank you so much. (END VIDEO CLIP) HAYES; That is All In for this evening. The Rachel Maddow Show starts right now. 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 NBC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2015 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. 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