IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Transcript: Alex Wagner Tonight, 8/25/22

Guests: Ron Klain

Summary

President Biden hits the campaign trail ahead of midterm elections; Interview with White House chief of staff Ron Klain. A judge in Florida is going to release redacted FBI search warrant affidavit for Mar-a-Lago on Friday

Transcript

CHRIS HAYES, MSNBC HOST, "ALL IN": That is "ALL IN" on this Thursday night.

ALEX WAGNER TONIGHT starts right now.

Good evening, Alex

ALEX WAGNER, MSNBC HOST: Good evening, Chris. And such an important topic you`re talking about in the end. We`re actually be talking to Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff, and asking him a little bit more about the administration`s policy on those lawsuits and those orders in terms of protecting women`s reproductive freedoms.

HAYES: I did not know you had the White House chief of staff Ron Klain tonight. But that is very exciting, continues quite the booking run. The Elizabeth Warren interview last night was fantastic. I loved it when she rubbed her hands, not sure about what was going on --

WAGNER: I see you, I see you Mandela Barnes. I see you John Fetterman.

(LAUGHTER)

WAGNER: That was the best part, I agree. It should be a gif, a GIF, whatever you want to call it.

Thank you, Chris.

HAYES: Have a great night.

WAGNER: Stay tuned, the bookings are fantastic throughout the hour.

HAYES: I will.

WAGNER: And thank you all for joining us this hour.

Tonight, yes, in just moments we will be joined live by White House chief of staff Ron Klain and we will ask him about President Biden`s return to the campaign trail tonight, the new burst of Democratic momentum heading into the midterms and Donald Trump`s legal woes.

Plus, a judge says that by tomorrow, he will release a redacted version of the affidavit used to get that Mar-a-Lago search warrant as the D.A. investigating Trump in Georgia calls on more of his associates to testify. Former federal prosecutor and senior member of the Mueller investigation Andrew Weissmann is our guest.

And as conservatives take over the nation`s school boards, new reporting on who is funding those efforts and opening up a new front in the culture war.

But we start tonight with a president on a hot streak. President Biden at a rally tonight in Rockville, Maryland, is jumping back onto the campaign trail with his first political event of the midterm season.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For decades, these climate deniers blocked any meaningful progress in dealing with climate crisis but not this year this year the American people won and the climate deniers lost.

For decades, the biggest corporations and the wealthiest Americans who fought to block a fair tax code and for decades after decade, they won. This year, some of the biggest companies in America flooded Capitol Hill with lobbyists and money and campaign contributions, and they lost. The American people won.

Every single Republican in the House, every single Republican in the Senate, every single one, hear this America, every single Republican voted against lower prescription drug prices, against lower health care costs, against tackling the climate crisis, against lower energy costs, against creating good-paying jobs, against the fairer taxes, every single one. That`s not hyperbole, every -- every single American needs to return the favor when we vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WAGNER: At tonight`s political rally, the president also had some choice words for his political foes, people he repeatedly referred to under the umbrella of MAGA Republicans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: The alternative to the Democrats are the MAGA Republicans. The MAGA Republicans have awakened the powerful force in America, the women of this nation.

MAGA Republicans don`t have a clue about the power of women. Let me tell you something, they are about to find out.

The MAGA Republicans don`t just threaten our personal rights and economic security. They`re a threat to our very democracy. They refuse to accept the will of the people. They embrace, embrace political violence. They don`t believe in democracy.

This is why in this moment, those of you who love this country, Democrats, independents, mainstream Republicans, we must be stronger, more determined and more committed to saving America than the MAGA Republicans are destroying America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WAGNER: Tonight`s rally comes as a fired up Biden wraps up what can only be described as a summer of victories for him and his party. The president managed to pass a major health care and climate bill, the biggest investment in climate change in American history. He has snatched significant bipartisan accomplishments on gun safety, veterans health care and America manufacturing. He`s oversaw a successful military operation to take out a top al-Qaeda leader. He has shepherded an economy with record low unemployment and 70 straight days of falling gas prices.

And this week, he provided student loan relief for more than 40 million Americans, though not everyone in the party is happy about that.

Just tonight, Ohio Democratic Senate candidate Tim Ryan pushed back on Biden`s student loan decision, saying it, quote, sends the wrong message to the millions of Ohioans working with -- sorry -- without a degree, working just as hard to make ends meet.

And Tim Ryan is not the only one. NBC News reports today that Democrats in tough races have begun distancing themselves from Biden`s student loan decision ahead of crucial midterm elections and yet, despite the criticism, it sort of looks like President Biden`s accomplishments are finally starting to break through with voters.

This week, President Biden`s approval rating ticked up for the first time in months according to two new polls. And while voters may just be starting to warm back up to the president, they are downright excited about other members of his party.

On Tuesday, Democrats won a closely watched swing district in New York validating their midterm message on reproductive rights. On top of that, new polling out today from Pennsylvania shows Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman with a whopping -point lead over his opponent, TV doctor and crudite enthusiast, Mehmet Oz.

And in the race for governor in Pennsylvania, Democrat Josh Shapiro now has an 11-point lead over his far right Trump-backed opponent Doug Mastriano.

All of this comes at a time when the de facto leader of the Republican Party continues to plunge deeper and deeper into a well of legal dramas. Sometime within the next 15 hours, we expect to get our first look at a partially redacted version of the affidavit that the justice department submitted in order to get the go-ahead to search Trump`s Florida home for top secret documents and while we are not sure exactly what or how much we will learn when that document is publicly released.

We do know that it will keep the former president`s alleged mishandling of classified information front and center.

At the same time, the current president has gotten bolder about criticizing the Trumpest influence in the Republican Party and is now predicting its demise, we think.

Ahead of tonight`s rally in Maryland, Biden told reporters: What we`re seeing now is the beginning or the death knell of an extreme MAGA philosophy. It is not just Trump. It`s the entire philosophy. It`s like semi-fascism.

It is a wild state of affairs here among our two political parties, especially given where we were just a few months ago when Republicans looked poised to sweep both houses of Congress. With just 75 days left to go until the midterms, can the Biden administration keep up the momentum and how do they plan to deal with an erratic former president whose scandals keep stealing headlines?

I know just the person to ask. Joining us now is Ron Klain, White House chief of staff for the Biden administration, a man who has been working very, very, very, very, very, very hard.

Mr. Ron Klain, thank you for being here.

RON KLAIN, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Alex, thank you so much for having me. Good luck on the new show. Great to be a guest.

WAGNER: Well, good luck to us both here on the same show.

Ron, let me just start with the words -- the words of the president hours ago about semi-fascism. Is it the president`s belief that fascism lies at the root of the current Republican Party?

KLAIN: Look, I think you heard the president tonight explain in his own words the difference between what he and the Democrats are fighting for and what the MAGA Republicans are fighting for.

He and the Democrats are fighting for standing up to special interests, saving our democracy, bringing down costs, protecting a woman`s right to choose, getting guns off our streets.

And the Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans are fighting to reverse all those things. They`re fighting to -- they oppose the Inflation Reduction Act. Every single Republican in the House and Senate, they stand -- Rick Scott, the head of their campaign committee, he`s talked about getting rid of Social Security, Medicare, putting it on the chopping block every five years, and the list goes on and on and on. You heard the president detail it tonight in his speech in Rockville.

So, the contrast, the gap between what Joe Biden and the Democrats are fighting for, what Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans are fighting for, that gap just couldn`t be wider.

WAGNER: Well, Ron, he`s using the word fascism to describe the Republican Party. I guess my question is, does he -- does he see a meaningful difference between --

KLAIN: Well, he`s using --

WAGNER: -- MAGA Republicans and Republicans or is that all one and the same?

KLAIN: No, he made that very clear in his remarks tonight. There are mainstream Republicans, referred to Governor Hogan in Maryland where he was speaking this night as a -- as a mainstream Republican, as a Republican more traditional kind of Republican.

But we -- what we are clearly seeing on the campaign trail are MAGA Republicans engaging in the big lie, refusing to accept the outcome of elections, threatening to overturn the will of the voters in subsequent elections. That`s what the president`s referring to, that`s the threat to our democracy. I thought the president was quite clear and quite eloquent about it tonight.

WAGNER: You mentioned Larry Hogan and I think it`s worth mentioning that the guy that`s running for the governorship in Maryland is Dan Cox, very much a MAGA Republican. The president said it`s either the beginning or the death knell of this MAGA Republican fascism. Which is it? Those are two very different roads, one would think divergent the start of this or the end of this?

[21:10:02]

Which one is it in the White House`s opinion?

KLAIN: Look, I think again, the president is quite clear about this tonight. Voters have to see the clear difference between the two political parties. They have to see -- the American people have to see where the Democrats stand fighting for things like, you know, making education more affordable, fighting to protect Social Security, Medicare, fighting to bring down the costs of everyday goods, lower the cost of prescription drugs, standing up to the special interests, making corporations pay their fair share in taxes and defending a woman`s right to choose versus where the MAGA Republicans are, which includes you know trying to push a nationwide ban on abortion in all cases including rape and incest.

That difference just I guess I said before it just couldn`t be a wider difference.

WAGNER: Let`s talk about where the Democrats are. We know that there was yesterday, a lot of Trumpets sounded. I think we had Elizabeth Warren on the show. We were talking about student loan relief, the 40 million Americans who will see some relief because of what the president has decided to do.

But there are people in your own party who are in critical races as far as the Democratic control of Congress who are not it seems on board and I will draw your attention to Tim Ryan who said: While there`s no doubt that a college education should be about opening opportunities, waiving debt for those already on a trajectory to financial security sends the wrong message to the millions of Ohioans -- Ohioans without a degree working just as hard to make ends meet.

It bears mentioning that 53 percent of Ohioans without a college degree voted for Barack Obama in 2012, 58 with some college or less voted for Donald Trump in 2020. Ohio is a difficult climb for Tim Ryan, for Democrats. He has some momentum right now.

Are you worried that this choice to alleviate student debt for 40 million Americans could hurt key Democrats in key races in November?

KLAIN: Look, what Tim Ryan and Joe Biden share in common is a dedication to making sure that every person in this country, whether they went to college or not, has a chance for a better life, to put -- to make more money, to improve their life and their family`s life. That`s why Joe Biden has led the fight to bring back manufacturing jobs to this country. We`ve brought more manufacturing jobs to this country, most of which pay well and don`t require a college degree, we`ve done more of that in 18 months than we have in the past 10 years in this country. And that`s why Joe Biden fought so hard to get the CHIPS Act passed so we can build more and more of these manufacturing jobs, that benefit people, again whether or not they have a college degree.

At the same time, we also want to have opportunity for people who do go to college. As the president noted yesterday, about 40 percent of the beneficiaries of his student loan plan are people who have the worst of both worlds. They have a lot of debt and they never got their degree. Maybe they went to colleges that weren`t -- that that defrauded them. Maybe they just didn`t have the money to finish their degree. So helping those people get out of the hole they are in and get back on track in life, enabling them to buy homes and raise families, that`s good for our economy, that`s good for our country and that`s good for their economic opportunity.

WAGNER: And you think that the Catherine Cortez Mastos in Nevada, the Tim Ryans in Ohio, they have enough sort of wins that they can propose to their voters that the student loan debt does not become a liability in November?

KLAIN: Look, I think -- obviously, they have their point of view. We`re a big party. We have diversity of views in our party, but core shared values. And the core shared value here I think is a belief that everyone, whether they went to college or not should have the opportunity for a better life.

You know, we invest in public schools. We invest in programs for community colleges, we invest in programs for training -- for trade schools, Pell grants to help students get to college. We have a whole array of educational programs of which the student loan plan is just one part of.

And you take all those plans together, look what we`re doing to promote education, look at what we`re doing to give people economic opportunity, whether or not you have a college degree. The fact that we`ve got the unemployment rate down to 3.5 percent, which matches the lost in years. You`ve got an administration that is creating economic opportunities for all Americans, whether they went to college or not.

WAGNER: I want to talk about abortion, Ron, because after the primary in New York on Tuesday, there`s a lot of talk about how much Democrats should be messaging on choice going into November. I`m speaking of course of Pat Ryan in New York`s 19th district and his win there, largely on a pro-choice messaging platform.

The president has been reluctant to talk about abortion in months and years past. He -- there`s even I think a website say about whether or not Joe Biden has used the word abortion.org.

[21:15:02]

He is now talking about abortion. He talked about it tonight. Is this something we`re going to see more of from the president? Do you feel like abortion is a major plank of the campaigning we`re going to see the president do in the coming months?

KLAIN: Look, I think the issue of reproductive rights, the issue of abortion, the issue of other rights. You heard the president talk about abortion tonight. You played a clip earlier Alex of him saying if the MAGA Republicans don`t realize the force they`ve unleashed here, the power of American women who are registering in record numbers and voting in record numbers, you know, we`re going to see that force uh in the elections this year.

And you`re going to hear the president talk about that and talk about other rights that the Supreme Court`s decision puts on the chopping block, marriage equality he mentioned tonight, the right to contraception he mentioned tonight.

So we`re working very hard to do what we can on an executive basis to protect reproductive freedom, but ultimately, the way we`re going to protect a woman`s right to choose is to pass a federal law to enshrine Roe v. Wade into the law of the land. To do that, we are going to need two more Democratic senators and a pro-choice majority in the House. That new Congress can pass that law put it on the president`s desk and he will sign it.

WAGNER: I got to ask as you -- we talk about the sort of string of victories the president has had in recent weeks and we talk about the battle ahead we talk about abortion and many other issues. How concerned are you about the oxygen sucking from Florida, Mar-a-Lago and the orbit of Donald Trump more generally? Right? He has I think one -- 17 or one trillion some precise number of investigations swirling around him.

And as you are trying to cut through the noise, how much of a hindrance is that given the sort of historic nature of these investigations of a former president and the way in which indeed people seem to be drawn to the sensational scandal of Trump world? Is that a problem for the Biden administration as you try and make your case and also reiterate to the American public the stakes at hand in November?

KLAIN: Well, look, I think that it`s understandable people have an interest in these things, but I also think that you know how much coverage it gets is a choice the cable executives make, not us here at the White House. I actually think fewer talking head panels about Mar-a-Lago and more explaining to people about how they can get the tax benefits in the Inflation Reduction Act, how they can get um you know new appliances and new things for their home with rebates that bring down their costs, I think people are interested in that too, and I wish there was more of that on cable TV.

I`ll leave it to the cable executives to decide what they show on TV. What I know is that the Democrats are -- what the Democrats are delivering and I think that is registering with the American people.

WAGNER: Yes, and I knew that there was going to be a cable dig in there, Ron, fair game. But I got to say, you know, we have reporting that White House officials are concerned about the classified information that may have been in possession, in Donald Trump`s possession in Mar-a-Lago. This is not a nothingburger, right?

And do you have an opinion on that? Is it something you are concerned about? Is this an investigation you`re following?

KLAIN: This is an investigation we are not involved in. We have no briefings on it. We aren`t -- we didn`t approve or have any advance notice of the serving of this search warrant.

We`re letting the Justice Department do its business. We`re doing our business at the White House, which is continuing to work to protect the rights and freedoms of the American people, continuing work to deliver, to bring down costs, to lower the cost health care. We`re doing our jobs. We`re going to let the Justice Department do its job.

WAGNER: The busiest man in Washington, D.C. other than Joe Biden, Biden White House chief of staff Ron Klain -- thank you for being my guest tonight, Ron. Keep doing the hard work. Thanks for your time.

KLAIN: Thanks for having me, Alex.

WAGNER: Up next, the judge who authorized the search of Donald Trump`s Florida home says he will release a redacted document, detailing why it all went down tomorrow. Former prosecutor Andrew Weissmann joins us next.

A new reporting tonight on who is behind the latest front in right-wing culture wars, the effort to take over the nation`s school boards and control what teachers can say.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:24:06]

WAGNER: In a matter of hours or really any minute now, our understanding of the Justice Department`s investigation into Trump and the classified documents found in his Palm Beach estate -- well, our understanding might just grow by a lot or maybe not by much. I am of course talking about the FBI`s affidavit that convinced a federal judge to approve the Mar-a-Lago search warrant.

The affidavit, to use the Justice Department`s own language, is a road map to their ongoing criminal investigation that currently sealed document holds all the secrets of the investigation. It lays out their argument as to why the Justice Department believed evidence of crimes would be found at Mar-a-Lago.

And because of the sensitive sources and methods detailed in that document laying out not just what the government knows but how it knows, it makes sense that the government did not want the public or the press to see that document while the government continues its investigation. Doing so, the DOJ argued, the DOJ argued could compromise the investigation even if the public and especially the press want to very badly to see said document.

So, today, the department offered the judge an edited, a highly redacted version of the affidavit, one that they felt would not basically give up the goods on their case. And today, the judge in that case said, okay, fine. Specifically he wrote in his order, quote, based on my independent review of the affidavit, I find the government has met its burden of showing that its proposed redactions are narrowly tailored to serve the government`s legitimate interest in the integrity of the ongoing investigation and are the least onerous alternative to sealing the entire affidavit.

The judge gave the government until noon tomorrow to upload the redacted version of that affidavit publicly. But in reality, that filing could come any minute now. We don`t know how much of the affidavit will be redacted but the fact that the public is going to see even a part of it, even if it`s just how many pages of evidence the government presented to make a case for what might be found at Trump`s home -- well, that alone is historic.

Joining us now is Andrew Weissmann, former FBI general counsel and former senior member of special counsel Robert Mueller`s investigative team. He is currently a professor at NYU law school.

Andrew, thank you for being with us tonight as we guess -- educated guesses about what might be on the horizon. How are you thinking about this affidavit?

ANDREW WEISSMANN, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: So I divided into the sort of educated guesses and what do we sort of really know. And the things that we really know are that whatever is disclosed is not going to be good for Donald Trump. This is a situation where disclosure of what the government has amassed as proof is not something that is going to be exculpatory of the president. It`s going to be inculpatory. We know that not just because a judge looked at this and says it establishes probable cause.

But just remember, the former president knows exactly what he took to Mar- a-Lago and if there was anything exculpatory about it, he`s free any day of the week to have made that public and said, I never took documents, or I never took classified documents and here`s exactly what was it Mar-a-Lago and here`s what it wasn`t.

So I think what we can expect is anything that we actually learn about. I don`t think is going to be good for him, precisely because he hasn`t spoken about this in any definitive way about what he was doing.

The second way I look at this is really, as you said, sort of educated guesses and I sort of divide the world into sort of what are the key questions that I have. One is a question of what was taken from Mar-a- Lago, why was it taken by the president, and what was he planning to do with it?

And I think on those -- the former president hasn`t spoken to those and I think about what we might get from the unsealed partially redacted affidavit is a bit of an answer to the first of what was taken, not by specifics but in terms of at least classification, in other words that it was top secret, et cetera, and I think that isn`t going to be all that new because we have some of that from the archives, but it will be additional data.

I think the second area that I think when I think about this is I think about why did the Department of Justice need to use a search warrant I think that`s like a big question that`s been asked and it`s a legitimate question, and I think that`s the area where we really might get actual information, m because the back and forth with Donald Trump and his colleagues and representatives is the kind of thing that I could see the department of just saying that at least some of that can be revealed without actually revealing classified information, without really damaging the ongoing criminal investigation.

So if we`re going to get anything, I think it`s going to be something that helps answer that question.

WAGNER: Yeah, the back and forth is what we read about in reporting but we haven`t heard of it. We haven`t heard about it officially, right? And that could be revealed, not a good data point for Donald Trump who`s said over and over again, I cooperated, I cooperated, I cooperated, and here we may have the case being made by the Department of Justice that no indeed he did not.

WEISSMANN: Yeah, and the reason I think that that that`s not going to be good news is it`s not like the department just willy-nilly did a search warrant. I mean, they could have done that on day, you know, one or two, and they waited so long. And so, as we`ve been hearing and reporting but don`t happen really hard evidence from the Department of Justice is exactly what the back and forth was and why they waited and all of the various ways in which they tried to do this short of a search warrant, which to me seems like a very natural thing for the department to have undertaken.

And again that`s not going to be good for Donald Trump because it doesn`t just show that he didn`t cooperate, but I think it could really be damaging in terms of his intent to not just that he took these documents, but he intended to keep them and he may have been quite deceptive in what he turned back over to the archives and what he kept, you know, hidden at Mar- a-Lago.

So it could be quite a damning document.

WAGNER: Let me just turn us to another investigation that`s ongoing, the criminal investigation Trump is facing in Fulton County, Georgia. There are a lot of them admittedly. They are now seeking testimony from Mark Meadows and Sidney Powell.

What does that signal to you in terms of the crescendo of this investigation?

WEISSMANN: Yeah, I think as you pointed out, the sort of level of people that they`re speaking to, the Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, Sidney Powell, to me, those are all sort of the key people that we`ve heard about, people who were involved in the phone calls, plural, to Raffensperger, to put pressure on him to find just enough votes for Donald Trump to have won Georgia.

Those are the key people to be trying to speak to. We know that they`ve certainly done a very active grand jury investigation and they`re doing pretty well on the courts in getting their subpoenas enforced.

So, to me, this shows that this is really not a sort of incipient budding investigation but I think we`re coming down to the home stretch.

WAGNER: Not a budding investigation indeed. Andrew Weissmann, former FBI general counsel and former senior member of special counsel Robert Mueller`s investigative team, always full of wisdom and very educated guesses. Thank you so much for your time tonight, Andrew.

WEISSMANN: Nice to be here.

WAGNER: Way down the ballot in Florida`s primary elections this week were races for school board. These elections which have traditionally been nonpartisan sort of ho-hum affairs, they have turned into heated contests this cycle courtesy of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis. He endorsed 30 candidates for school board races and even stumped for some of them and as hand-picked candidates pledged to align with DeSantis on restricting the way race, gender and sexual orientation are taught in schools, public schools.

Nineteen of DeSantis`s hand-picked school board candidates won their races and six more still have a chance to win runoffs in November. Only five out of the 30 candidates lost outright. That is at minimum a 60 success rate.

Governor DeSantis experiment in meddling with down ballot races is getting results, but he is not the only one. Some incredible new reporting about who else wants to try their hand at indoctrination, coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:37:26]

WAGNER: The day before school started in the Keller Independent School District outside Fort Worth, Texas, last week, all of the district principals got some last minute orders from the school board. They were instructed to remove all copies of 41 different books from their libraries and classrooms by the end of the day, books like "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison and a graphic novel adaptation of Anne Frank`s diary, books they deemed inappropriate.

Just last year, a committee of community members had decided that some of these books were fine and should be left in schools, but the day before classes started this year, the Keller School Board decided otherwise. This week in the neighboring Grapevine-Colleyville Independence School District, the school board voted four to three to implement a far-reaching set of policies that restrict how students can discuss race and gender.

The policies prohibit teachers from teaching or discussing the 1619 Project or critical race theory, and they require schools to restrict bathroom and locker room use to the biological sex listed on students birth certificates.

Now when you hear those stories and you look at those two school districts on a map, you might think that this is just a particularly conservative area getting on board the anti-CRT and anti-LGBT bandwagon. But at the Grapevine-Colleyville school board meeting where they passed those policies this week, the majority of the community members who showed up they spoke out against those policies, and the county that both of those school districts are in in Texas actually narrowly went for Joe Biden in 2020, going blue for the first time in nearly six decades.

Believe it or not, the connective tissue between the school boards in these two counties the thing that explains their recent hyper-conservative agendas thing that explains all that is a cell phone company.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AD NARRATOR: Open borders, shameful abandonment, disregard for human life, the prospect of more mandates and lockdowns, and the list goes on. Now, more than ever, we need to stick together, voting alone is not enough. We must use our dollars to support like-minded companies fight for our rights and our beliefs.

Patriot mobile is America`s only Christian conservative wireless provider who shares your values.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WAGNER: You heard that correctly. Patriot Mobile, America`s only Christian conservative wireless provider.

But they aren`t just a wireless provider, they are a political movement. Up to five percent of every patriot mobile phone bill goes directly to supporting Patriot Mobile`s political action committee, Patriot Mobile Action.

[21:40:02]

To give you a sense of the politics of this group, here is their executive director speaking at a conservative women`s event this summer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEIGH WAMBSGANSS, PATRIOT MOBILE ACTION EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: My name is Lee Wambsganss, and my pronouns are Bible believer, Jesus lover, gun carrier, and mama bear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WAGNER: Now, this political action committee, this PAC, is less than a year old and in the past year, it has done something of a test run. The PAC poured $600,000 to the four, traditionally nonpartisan school board races in the Fort Worth suburbs. It hired heavyhitter right wing consulting firms, firms that worked on huge campaigns, for candidates like Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, and turned those local nonpartisan races incredibly partisan. The PAC sent thousands of fliers like this one, falsely claiming that politics and critical race theory have led to a recent school shooting in Texas.

All in all, this political action committee handpicked 11 candidates, supercharged their campaigns with tons of cash, and it has successfully won majorities on all four of the Fort Worth suburban school boards that they targeted. That means more than 100,000 students now go to schools controlled by people elected by this weird conservative cell phone company.

That is why the Keller Independent School District decided to pull the books from the shelf. And that is why the Grapevine-Colleyville independent school district is forcing kids to prove their biological gender to use the bathroom. Money and politics is not a new thing, but this kind of money in teeny tiny traditionally nonpartisan local races, that is new, and it is all being supercharged by big players in national conservative politics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DON TRUMP JR., SON OF FORMER PRESIDENT TRUMP: You can give your money to AT&T, the parent company of CNN, and you can pay the salary of Don Lemon, or you could support Patriot Mobile, and give back to causes that they believe in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WAGNER: And Patriot Mobile`s booth at this month`s Conservative Political Action Committee, CPAC, at that meeting, they hosted meet and greets with conservative politicians like Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, Ben Carson, and Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

Now the reason we know about any of this is because of incredible reporting that came out today by NBC News reporter Mike Hixenbaugh. It is a remarkable piece that you should absolutely read. But don`t just take my word for it.

Here is Steve Bannon speaking earlier today with Patriot Mobile`s founder and chief marketing officer about Mike Hixenbaugh`s reporting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE BANNON, PODCAST HOST: With NBC and the mainstream is most concerned about, is your guy`s engagement and backing these candidates and not just the ones that one in flipping a whole districts, but the fact that you`re not going to give up. This is just the opening round.

SCOTT COBURN, PATRIOT MOBILE: We`re focused on school boards here for now, but our goal is to spread this as large as we can in other states, other communities that are wanting what we are doing here in their communities, and so your point about the article, yes, we are going to continue to do this. We are going to continue to grow this and get the message out there and help others like us that want to get involved.

BANNON: It`s actually a great piece. NBC made it to be a great piece for us. OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WAGNER: The author of that great piece, Mike Hixenbaugh, joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:48:08]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BANNON: Scott, I want to make sure we get this article up, because it`s really in detail, and everyone should read it about the schools. What is NBC? What is the theory of the case? They are blaming you guys for, what, to supporting school board members who would get in, and had a biblical point of view, but their number one purpose was to make sure that the teaching, and the academics and the school system got better. Is that essentially, Scott?

COBURN: That is, Stephen. I will say this. It is a sad day in our country when protecting our children is being unable to far-right. The left has been injecting ideology and tour schools now, you know, whether it`d be critical race theory or gender fluidity, or pornographic literature, and what have you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WAGNER: That is former Trump advisor, Steve Bannon, on his podcast today, talking about this story published by NBC`s Mike Hixenbaugh this morning. His new piece, Hixenbaugh explains how a far right, Christian nationalist phone company is using national Republican strategist and consultants to take over school boards in Texas. They do not plan on stopping there.

Joining us now is Mike Hixenbaugh, senior investigative reporter for NBC News. Mike spent years covering how education it`s become a battleground for conservatives. You can see him here reporting for his Peabody Award- winning podcast, "South Lake". Mike and co-host Antonia Hylton uncovering how America`s racial history is felt today, that`s what that podcast is all about, and how it`s taught to kids in suburban classrooms, and how the right is responding to it.

Mike, thank you for being here tonight. And thank you for that reporting that both I, and Steve Bannon, have enjoyed reading. Not something that I can say often.

What was the catalyst for this odd conservative phone company setting its sights on this Fort Worth area in Texas, and its school boards?

MIKE HIXENBAUGH, NBC NEWS SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Well, Alex, thank you so much for having me.

[21:50:01]

So, Patriot Mobile is based in Tarrant County, and what we saw in 2020, and 2021, with this backlash to teachings about racism, and was described as critical race theory by conservatives, we saw that backlash shift in the past several months to become inter tangled with this kind of growing movement by far right, Christian conservatives it, to try and insert Christian values in schools.

And so, Patriot Mobile is part of that story. They saw the success that some of these smaller political action committees had and flipping control of school boards in the initial fights over critical race theory. And so, they this year decided to make school boards their thing, rather than focusing on Congress, and other new offices, they poured $600,000 into flipping local school boards in Tarrant County. As you mentioned, a county, they say, is traditionally a red county, but flipped to Biden. And in their minds, keeping Tarrant red is the key to keeping Texas red.

WAGNER: I mean, I did some reporting on this very subject in Florida, and what`s so haunting are the similarities, and the language, and the goals, and the text, and the lessons, and the standards, it all feels very much part of this broader, conservative movement that`s been incredibly efficient, within indoctrination installed in public schools.

I just want to call everybody`s attention to it, specifically, is happening, in the policies, in the school boards, and on race, for example. And the Grapevine-Colleyville independent school district. The policy say, in accordance to the Texas education code, the district, including its teachers and administrators shall not instruct employees or students that meritocracy, or trade such as hard work ethic are racist, or sexist, or created by members of a particular racer group to oppress members of other race or group.

The advent of slavery in the territory that is now the U.S. constituted the true founding of the United States. That is a specific dig at the 1619 Project. Nor shell teachers instruct employees, our students, that with respect to their relationship to American values, slavery, and racism, or anything other than deviations from, betrayals of, or failures to live up to, the authentic founding principles of the United States, which include liberty, or equality.

This is all under the rubric of patriotism, isn`t it, Mike? But it`s more than that. More specifically, it is furthering the Christian nationalist agenda that seeks to effectively whitewash Americas history on race, and institutional racism.

HIXENBAUGH: That`s absolutely right. And in the piece, we touch on this once fringe Christianity theology, and political philosophy, known as the Seven Mountains mandate, or Christian dominion-ism. It`s been around since the `70s, or even longer, that true biblical Christians are called to assert their biblical values in seven key areas of public life, including government, business, the media, church, and education.

And when I was talking to religious scholars, and historians, the election of Donald Trump in 2016, of all people, brought to that worldview, and philosophy, and made it mainstream. Only, just now, are we starting to understand just how pervasive this is. I think we see it now in the school boards where, as one scholar told me, this is -- if you are waging a spiritual war over what is America, what better place than the schools where we teach our history, where we teach kids what is okay and isn`t?

So, you know, part of this, you cannot separate this, you know, part of this Christian conservative ideology is standing firm that you will not make my kids except LGBTQ students. You will not force us, or any teachers, to address kids by their chosen pronouns. That is part of what`s happening here.

WAGNER: It is -- it is a piece that everyone should read, it is something that is happening across the country, not just in Texas.

Mike Hixenbaugh, Peabody Award-wining senior investigative reporter for NBC News -- Mike, thanks so much for being here tonight. Thanks for the reporting.

HIXENBAUGH: Thank you.

WAGNER: Up next, the state that has led the way in so many of the progressive moves this country has made takes a very bold move to fight climate change.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:59:06]

WAGNER: The statistics are always kind of staggering. Los Angeles drives spend something like 60 hours a year stuck in traffic, never mind all the other time spent on the road. Then there are the visuals, crowded California highways lit up in red and white bumper-to-bumper traffic ahead of any major holiday. Or on a Tuesday.

There are a lot of cars in California. In fact, the state is home to the largest car market in the United States. One that is now, like Bob Dylan in 1965, going electric.

Today, California regulators approved a sweeping plan that will ultimately ban the sale of gas powered vehicles in the state requiring all new cars, trucks and SUVs to run on electricity or hydrogen by 2035. Not only will this drastically change the landscape in California. It is expected to push the rest of the country in this direction as well.

If past is precedent, a dozen other states are expected to follow California`s lead. Washington State Governor Jay Inslee has already tweeted that his state is ready to adopt California`s regulations by the end of this year.

And while zero emission vehicles are still more expensive than gas powered ones, officials in California are betting that they will become more affordable in the near future, thanks to federal credits and the overall direction in which the country is headed.

Now, it`s time for "THE LAST WORD WITH LAWRENCE O`DONNELL".

Good evening, Lawrence.