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The Rachel Maddow Show, Transcript 01/23/15

Guests: Kasie Hunt, Corey Mock, Aarti Patel

CHRIS HAYES, MSNBC ANCHOR: That is ALL IN for this evening. "THE RACHEL MADDOW" show starts right now. Good evening, Rachel. RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC HOST: Good evening, Chris. Happy Friday. Have a good weekend. Thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. This is going to be a big weird show I`ll tell you right now. Let`s start here. There is a pastor in Texas, an Evangelical pastor in Texas, who does not call herself a pastor. She says that she is a living profit, who has a direct line to God. She said specifically that God has given her special powers including the ability to raise people from the dead. She says that she has brought children back from the dead. For her she says it`s no big deal, she does it all the time. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CINDY JACOBS, TELEVANGELIST: I see you 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 leave that child. I speak to the spirit of infirmity, and I say live in Jesus name, and I see a child coughing, waking up, we saw that in Pakistan, a little boy raise from the dead just like that. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: That is Cindy Jacobs, an Evangelical activist in Texas, who says that she is a prophet. She says that God tells her things ahead of time so she can either stop them if she wants to or she can let them happen here on earth. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JACOBS: I remember being in a meeting with our pray leaders, and I said we had to pray for the navel commanders. Also we called for the Navy, I think it was, maybe in Norfolk, and you know, there were some occurrences. So when I said God, why is God giving these words because she a merciful God and He doesn`t want these things to happen. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: He doesn`t want these things to happen and so he tells Cindy about them ahead of time. She says she could not the Navy yard shooting in Washington, D.C., but she says she was able to limit the number of people who died in that shooting because God gave her advanced notice that the Navy Yard shooting was going to happen. Cindy Jacobs also believes and preaches that the "Don`t Ask Don`t Tell" policy was not just bad because of how it related to gay people, but she said it was bad policy because it killed birds and also maybe some fish. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JACOBS: The blackbirds fell to the ground in Arkansas. The governor of Arkansas` name is Bebe. And also there was something put out of Arkansas called "Don`t Ask Don`t Tell" by a former governor. This was proposed Bill Clinton. And so could there be a connection between this passage and the repeal of "Don`t Ask Don`t Tell." It could be because we have said it is OK for people who commit these acts to be recognized in our military for the first time in our history. It shows that there is something that actually happened in the land where 100,000 drum fish died, and also where these birds just fell out of the air. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: Could there be a connection. Is it possible that one of the policy consequences of the "Don`t Ask Don`t Tell" repeal was freak bird death in Arkansas? Cindy Jacobs says while eating chips and salsa one day, God interrupted her so she would avert a coup d`etat in Africa. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JACOBS: I might be eating Mexican food, between the chips and salsa, and I said look, do you know the president, and I said look, the military is going to do a coup. Call him up and tell him up they will start praying and it will be averted. I mean, it`s not hard. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: It`s not hard for Cindy Jacobs. She is a prophet she says who gets advance word about things from God and therefore, she is really the one who decides whether or not governments get overthrown in Africa. She is tie apparently natural phenomenon like fish kills and random bird deaths to legislation concerning gay people in the military. She says she can also raise people from the dead if need be and Cindy Jacobs this weekend she is helping Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal launch his campaign for president of the United States. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JACOBS: I`m Cindy Jacobs and I want to share with you an event happening in the state of Louisiana. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: Cindy Jacobs, one of the conveners for an event called "The Response," which Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal will be headlining tomorrow in Louisiana. You might remember if "The Response" sounds familiar is because in 2011, Texas Governor Rick Perry did this exact same event with all these same folks in Houston. Rick Perry in 2011 used this prayer rally thing, "The Response," basically to kick off his presidential campaign just a few days after he held this stadium prayer rally with Cindy Jacobs and a bunch of other Evangelical activists. He announced that he was making his run for president. So Bobby Jindal is now following in Rick Perry`s footsteps, doing the follow up event with all the same folks, big stadium prayer rally with Cindy Jacobs and all the rest of them. And even though the last one of these rallies did not launch Rick Perry on a successful bid for the White House, people like Cindy Jacobs and apparently Bobby Jindal, they see other signs in the world that the event, the Rick Perry one, should have been seen as a success watch. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JACOBS: In Texas here and all the coasts around Houston and Galveston, the Native American people were cannibals and they ate people so there has been a lot of prayer over that in Houston, Texas. They`ve done a lot of intercessions over that and broke the curses on the land, and we just had a prayer meeting a week ago. The governor of Texas, as an individual, instigated this, 35,000 people showed up to pray, so the land is starting to rejoice because of that prayer. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: Rick Perry`s 2011 prayer rally with Cindy Jacobs did not succeed in getting him into the White House, but it did succeed in cleansing Texas of the curse that was on Houston because of Native American cannibals. So in that sense it worked. Now Bobby Jindal is going to do it again, this time in Louisiana. The organization funding this event over all is called the American Family Association. The American Family Association, you probably heard of them. They are a surprisingly rich organization. They get people around the country to send them money so that the American Family Association can fight the demonic scourge of the gay and also Islam and also Beyonce. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are jack booted homofascists thugs, who want to use the tyrannical and totalitarian power of the state to send men of faith to jail and that sounds more like Nazi Germany than the United States of America. Islam is like the Ebola virus. It is deadly. It is lethal. All you can do with a virus like that there is no cure for it. I saw a video this morning 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: That`s the American Family Association. Their spokesman, Brian Fisher, the American Family Association is funding the Bobby Jindal event this weekend, which he pretty plainly is using to kick off his presidential campaign for 2016. It`s not like he is a moderate on social conservative issues rights or on gay rights. Bobby Jindal is really, really antigay rights. It is remarkable to see him kicking off his presidential campaign with a group that is so antigay, they once changed the name of Tyson Gay. Remember the sprinter, the guy in the Olympics, Tyson Gay, when the American Family Association posted an article on their web site about Tyson Gaye winning something in the Olympics, they changed his name to Tyson Homosexual because there is no such thing as gay. These are the people who said Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana not because of geography or weather. They say Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana because of gay people. Gay people did Hurricane Katrina somehow. That is how anti-gay they are. And that is how Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is kicking off what appears to be his 2016 presidential campaign. It is being held tomorrow on the campus of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. LSU, interestingly, does not seem all of that psyched about hosting this event. There have been protests already by student groups. There is a big all-day protest planned for tomorrow outside the venue on the LSU campus. The student organizers say they actually are hearing that people are going to come from all over the state. The LSU faculty senate took a vote yesterday on a resolution expressing displeasure that this event was being held on the LSU campus. The resolution was brought up for a vote yesterday. It passed the faculty senate by a vote of 15 to 1. But even as this event makes waves at home with his own constituents, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is going ahead with this event. He hosted an event at the governor`s mansion in Louisiana, a couple of weeks ago. It`s kind of a kick-off event for the prayer rally. His office has made multiple videos promoting the event, promoting Governor Jindal`s role in it. He may be annoying people in Louisiana by doing this. But when you are trying to build yourself a national profile as the most right wing, right? The most right wing religious of all of all the potential Republican presidential candidates of 2016. Apparently, you have to be willing to eat chips and salsa with self- proclaimed prophets in order to get there. So that`s what Bobby Jindal is doing tomorrow. Another candidate redoing what Rick Perry did to launch his presidential campaign back in 2012. If that is not confirmation enough that the 2016 Republican presidential primary is starting right now, starting this weekend, consider also that this weekend in California, it is the Koch brother`s donors summit in Palm Springs with multiple Republican presidential wanna-bes. This time they are going to allow a web stream of one of their events instead of keeping the whole thing secret. The thing they are going to stream will be a panel featuring Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Rand Paul. It`s actually going to be moderated by ABC reporter, Jonathan Karl. ABC News is like getting behind this Koch brothers thing. They`re touting this as the first Republican candidates` forum of the 2016 presidential race. That is this weekend. In addition to that, tonight in Iowa, a 1,250 seat venue is sold out. There is a 1,000 seat waiting list of people trying to get in. It is an Iowa Republican event called the Iowa Freedom Summit hosted by the very well-known anti-immigration Republican Congressman Steve King. Steve King honestly used to be thought as of the very far right fringe of the Republican Party, but his event tonight in Iowa has attracted no fewer than 10 likely Republican presidential candidates. Everybody said the 2012 Republican presidential primaries were sort of -- in terms of Republican primaries putting fringy conservatism on display for the nation. Everybody thought they sort of hit that in 2012 and then they were maybe moving away. It turns out 2016 is going to be the same kind of thing, but maybe even better. Joining us now from Steve King Fest in Des Moines, Iowa is MSNBC`s political correspondent, Kasie Hunt. Kasie, it`s great to see you. Thanks for being here. KASIE HUNT, MSNBC POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Rachel. MADDOW: So I`m not going to have you talk about Bobby Jindal`s event much as I would love to pick you into that. HUNT: Thank you, I appreciate that. MADDOW: Trust me, the calls you get back from people when you`re calling to confirm the details that make the hair stand up on the back of your head. But in Iowa tonight, can you just describe the basics of what`s happening in Iowa this weekend? And why like ten presidential candidates are there? HUNT: Sure, these kinds of forums cattle calls as they refer to them casually are not uncommon in Iowa. They happen all the time. They are usually hosted by either in this case you have conservative Steve King, often they`ll be hosted by the family leader, which is one of the conservative Evangelical groups. And in this case, we have the bulk of what we, at this point, consider to be the 2016 presidential field. You particularly are represented on the sort of conservative side. The field is in some ways dividing between establishment candidates who are fighting with each other and more conservatives who are arguing over this, you know, Evangelical Christian vote, the more typical base side of the party. So from that group, you have Mike Huckabee who really is this sort of revered figure here and he is going to be closing out the conference. You have Rick Santorum. You have Ted Cruz. You have Ben Carson who captured a lot of excitement on that side. On the more establishment side, you basically only have Chris Christie. Mitt Romney is not making an appearance. Jeb Bush is not planning to make an appearance, and then you also have Rand Paul who is not coming to this and I would put him in a category by himself. Because he is going to have a base of support here in Iowa that comes from what his father laid the ground work when he ran for president. So we are going to hear from all of them today. We`ll hear some of them are doing. It is sort of the kick-off of this season. Santorum and Huckabee will be staying in Iowa afterwards -- Huckabee will do a book tour and Santorum is making some campaign stops. MADDOW: I mean, on the one hand, it feels early. On the other hand, we`re basically a year out from the Iowa caucuses, and I guess, people feel like they need a year`s worth of runway to potentially take off there. I mean, Iowa is a pretty specific place in terms of its political preferences and its Republican activists, and what they like and what they like to be told, and how they like to be courted. Can you tell which potential candidates are doing themselves the most good by being there with Steve King this weekend, by showing their faces and by starting to do this work? HUNT: So I actually would throw a little bit of a curve ball at you and I`d say that I think that the person to watch this weekend is New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. He actually has a personal relationship with Congressman Steve King that goes back to when King stood up for him at a hearing a few years ago. And Christie has since been into raised money for him, and I watch for how King introduces Christie, if he is sort of positive and effusive because while they differ on some policies, Christie was asked about immigration last time he was in Iowa. He said, I`m not getting into immigration in Iowa. I don`t think that will stand up for very long. But at the same time, the fact that you have King in some ways vouching for him. And Christie coming in with this sort of persona, as someone who is fearless, who will go anywhere, you know, I think that watching how the crowd reacts to him is going to be a pretty significant tell for how he could do in sort of a broader context of the caucuses. I think there has been a lot of consumptions about the fact that, you know, people say Christie can`t play in Iowa because he is so moderate on x, y, and z issue. I`m not sure that what I`m picking up from people on the ground says that that`s really not the case. MADDOW: MSNBC political correspondent, Kasie Hunt, it is amazing to me that you have to win Steve King in order to be viable for the presidency. I mean, 5 minutes ago, Steve King was like the Republican Party`s, you know, someone that they were trying to hide away from the rest of the country. Now he is a kingmaker in addition to being a congressman. Amazing. Kasie Hunt, thank you so much. Have a great time this weekend. HUNT: Thanks, Rachel. MADDOW: All right, we have lots more ahead including one of the most spectacular parades you will ever see, and later we have a hot dog. We have a bunch of other weird stuff because it has been a weird news day today, stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: We got a statement. We got a call back. All right, while I was on the air just moments ago talking about Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and this event he is doing this weekend with the American Family Association, an event that has a lot of protestors turning out tomorrow at the LSU campus. While I was doing that segment, Bobby Jindal`s office sent us a statement about what he was doing. This is the statement, "The Response is an event for people of faith to come together and pray for the future of our country. It is a prayer event, not a political rally, it is free and open to everyone." Thank you, Governor, for sending that statement. All of that obviously true, it is also true that the governor will be appearing at that event with a woman who says she can raise people from the dead. That`s also true. I`ll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: I don`t know why this has not received more press in this country. But President Obama is going to India tomorrow and he is going for this. Every year India holds a giant parade to celebrate India gaining its independence after years of British rule. It is called the Republic Day Parade and it includes three full days of celebrations. We have big parades in this country, but India has over a billion people in its population. Their big parade celebrations go on for three days. President Obama is going to be attending this year. He leaves tomorrow morning. He`ll be at the parade on Monday. This is amazing. Today, they held a full dress rehearsal for the parade complete with daredevil motorcycle riders and fighter planes and tanks, missiles, floats, it`s a big deal. President Obama is going to be, look at the parade, President Obama will be the first U.S. president to visit the nation of India twice as president. When he was there in Mumbai in 2010, it basically brought that city of 20 million people to a complete halt. Mumbai is basically the financial capital of India. This time President Obama is going to be in New Delhi, in the political capital, but once again his presence is expected to basically shut down that city. He is going to be visiting the president`s resident. He will visit the memorial to Mahatma Gandhi. He`ll meet with the new Indian prime minister. He will have a state dinner, and he will be out in the open for the Giant Republic Day Parade, which the Indian press now reports will result in the shutdown of no fewer than 71 high-rise buildings in New Delhi. Buildings from which you conceivably could get a site line to President Obama at that parade. The last trip that President Obama took to India was seen as a big landmark trip in terms of relations between our two countries. You might remember Congresswoman Michelle Bachman said she had it on good authority that that trip to India cost $200 million a day? It did not cost $200 million a day, but it will involve the president going to the most off the hook parade I have ever seen a rehearsal for let alone the real thing. Wheels up on Air Force One at 6:00 a.m. for this trip. Watch the space. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (VIDEO CLIP) (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: While you were in the arms of Morpheus last night, your Congress was busy pulling an all-nighter. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MAJORITY LEADER: Mr. President, what is the pending business? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Amendment 25 offered by the senator from Massachusetts. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, Mr. President, Mr. President -- UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there is sufficient second? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now that we have purged the calendar of five of the six Democratic amendments, the majority leader tells us it is time to vote. MCCONNELL: We just had votes on Democratic amendments that your members offered and didn`t want to agree to have a vote on. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You would not even give the authors 60 seconds to describe what was in the amendment. MCCONNELL: If I`m correct the senator from Illinois is going to object to this Senate agreement. (END VIDEOTAPE) MADDOW: What the Senate was debating last night past midnight, aside from the fascinating minutia of Senate procedure, was whether or not to approve the construction of the Keystone pipeline. The congressional Republicans have made it their top priority this year. Job one, that they want to force construction of the Keystone pipeline. They surprised the Democrats last night when they cut off debate on the Keystone bill around midnight. They cut off debate and said they will move toward a final vote on the issue sometime early next week. Let`s hurry. But because the lord of coincidence is a merciful lord, while the Congress has been up late trying to hurry up this pipeline through the midsection of the country, the region where this construction would be set to take place has been hit by not one, not two, but three major pipeline spills in the course of a few days while the debate has been happening. There was the Yellow Stone river oil spill that happened on Saturday, a 12- inch oil pipeline that cross underneath the Yellow Stone suddenly burst and spewed 40,000 gallons of oil right into that prestine river. The Keystone pipeline would be in the same area under the same river so that was pipeline spill number one. Pipeline spills number two and three we learned about yesterday. Just over the Montana border into North Dakota, one was a spill of 100,000 gallons of a toxic drilling by-product, the chemical laden brine, a salt water and petroleum mix. That spill took place in what has become the epicenter of the North Dakota oil boom over the last decade. But that 100,000 gallon spill was nothing compared to the spill of three million gallons of the same kind of toxic brine that took place just a few miles away in Williston, North Dakota. Williston has had the misfortune of being downstream now of the Yellow Stone River spill in Montana, and now they have this three million gallon spill in their backyard. And in terms of cleaning up spill like this, consider for a moment North Dakota`s history with this sort of thing, this new spill we just found out about, the three million gallon spill that we just learned about this week, it is believed to be the single, largest spill of this kind in state history. The spill that held the record before this one happened in 2006. An oil company called Zenergy spilled about a million gallons worth of toxic brine into a creek in the same area of North Dakota, a worker discovered that spill by accident. It turned out to be probably the worst environmental disaster in state history at that time. That spill again was back in 2006, a million gallons, it is still being cleaned up today nearly a decade later. That was one million gallons of brine. This latest one we just learned about is three million gallons of brine. In the years after that spill in 2006 and a few more just like it. North Dakota lawmakers attempted a legislative fix to try to fix this recurring problem. They tried to pass legislation to mandate that oil companies should put certain devices in place along pipelines that would make transporting all these toxic liquids safer. That bill was first introduced by a Republican in North Dakota and nevertheless got clobbered in the state legislature. It got beaten 86 to 4. But in the wake of this latest spill in North Dakota, this largest ever spill in North Dakota, Democrats in the state now say they`re trying to bring that bill back. They say they may reintroduce it as early as Monday. Joining us now is North Dakota State Rep Corey Mock. He`s a Democrat. He is on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Representative Mock, it`s nice to have you here. Thanks for joining us. STATE REPRESENTATIVE COREY MOCK (D), NORTH DAKOTA: Thank you, Rachel. MADDOW: Finding out that this is the largest spill in state history, and the previous one is still being cleaned up a decade later, how worried you are about the scale of these new pipeline spills and what they are going to do to North Dakota? MOCK: Well, Rachel, you have to take any pipeline spill very seriously. What we`re learning about was three million gallons of produced water and contaminants getting into the Missouri river system. It makes a lot of us nervous. We have to think of putting North Dakota families first and the safety and security of not only people that live along these watersheds, but then also doing what is best so that this volatile industry, that is so sensitive to disruption, such as a spill, doesn`t create long-term effects for our economy. MADDOW: Now obviously, the energy industry is hugely central to the North Dakota economy, it`s not the entire economy, but it`s been a major part of the way that the economy in your state has just taken off like a rocket. People don`t want to harness it in a way to hurt the industry in a long- term way. But I got to ask, I mean, after the million gallon spill a few years ago, I`m surprised that the vote was 86-4 against a Republican introduced bill to try to add more safety measures. Why was it beaten so badly? MOCK: Well, in full disclosure, I wish we would go back and reconsider what we did two years ago or more importantly didn`t do. I voted against the bill. I had every intention of supporting it, but what we had is we had a room full of industry professionals. And I`ll even mention, we had our own chief regulator. He is the director of our Department of Mineral Resources, he along with many industry officials came in and opposed the bill saying that -- requiring that flow meters and automatic shut off valves on every pipeline was a costly mistake to the industry. They offered the committee assurances that the industry would put the precautions in place. But that mandate was an unfortunate step in the wrong direction for the industry. It caused a lot of the committee members to reconsider that decision to support the bill. MADDOW: Do you think that you could win the argument in the other direction now? Obviously you are going to support the bill if you`re going to be part of reintroducing it now. Do you think the argument will go the other way? MOCK: Well, you know we have to do something -- we have to address a lot of the concerns brought forward two years ago. The best time to put in this protection, this measurement, these requirements was four years ago. The second best time to do it is this season. We have to do something that is comprehensive. Right now, North Dakota, any pipeline, they are not required to have any bond. So there is no insurance or financial backing of any of these pipelines. So what we`re looking at is a comprehensive bill really looking after the safety and security of those living out in western North Dakota to have bonding for these pipelines. To have flow meters and automatic shut off valves for every new pipeline, and slowly phase in the same technology to the existing pipelines. I think that`s the right to do and we`re starting to get more and more bipartisan support on this proposal. MADDOW: North Dakota State Representative Corey Mock, please stay in touch with us. It`s a matter of national interest what you guys are doing there. I really appreciate your time. Thank you. MOCK: Yes, thank you, Rachel. MADDOW: All right, lots still to come including the Friday News Dump tonight and some unexpectedly constructive news from Washington. Meanwhile during the commercial break, I`ll content myself with my personal pop up hotdog toaster. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: I have a few questions. The first one, is do you want a hotdog? Using this device, I can cook the hotdogs and toast the buns at the same time. This will be ready in just a minute. Next question, do you need to grow more hair? Do you need a cane is that has a cobra for a handle. Do you not want to turn the light, but you do want to find the toilet seat? Do you want to turn a tree in your backyard and do a scary tree with this face on it or a cute little squirrel climbing the tree in a helmet? He is hand painted. Do you want this fake do to cram your wine bottle down on its fake throat? Why would you pour wine like a normal person when you could do pour it like this? Do you want your real dog to poop inside the house? Do you want your cat to poop inside this nice end table? Do you want to hold hands with someone using one big mitten, a backyard tiny yeti? Is the problem with your paper towel holder that you can`t plug your phone into it or use it as a wine stopper? Want your shower to be a color? How about a giant plunger that covers the whole toilet seat? How about this thing that plays music and pumps oxygen up your nose? But I think you have to bring your own wig. Well, I`m sorry to say that the answer to all of these things is too bad. Because Sky Mall, the greatest catalogue on earth, the only free phone call you could make from the Sky phone before there was internet or planes, or people had cell phones. Sky Mall that brought us the machine that cooks the hotdog and toasts the buns at the same time went bankrupt today. I promise to make it up to you right at the end of the show tonight on the Friday night news stop. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: You know one person really can make a difference and I mean that in a bad way. Behold a man who is no longer a United States senator. Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn left the Senate last year. The new Congress does not have him in it, and because of that, because of his absence, some stuff is getting done know. It is kind of an inspirational story, him leaving. Since the new Congress took over there has been a lot of noise about the abortion bill that the Republicans pulled this week after their own female Republican House members got skived out by its rape provisions. But there have been other votes on other anti-abortion bills in this Congress so far. There have been votes on a number of things related to the Keystone pipeline, on climate change and some elements of Obamacare, but for all of the noise and all the procedural votes on the way to other procedural votes, there is only one thing that has passed so far. That has been signed into law. It is the terrorism risk insurance act. This is kind of a noncontroversial housekeeping sort of bill. It is a thing that needed today be reauthorized after being in place for years. Congress was able to get that passed and signed into law because of Tom Coburn specifically because Tom Coburn poofed. While he had been in Congress he was blocking that, personally, for reasons that were persuasive only to him. He didn`t succeed in persuading a single other member of Congress to agree with him on whenever he thought was wrong with that bill. He just blocked it alone until he could not anymore because he left Congress. Now because he is gone that bill has passed. That`s the one thing they have done so far that has actually been signed by President Obama and has become law. The absence of Tom Coburn is strong. It can do more than that. The other thing Tom Coburn devoted himself to before leaving Congress was singlehandedly blocking a bipartisan small scale bill that veterans groups have devised to try to prevent veterans suicide. Honestly, this is a little bill. It is a best practices bill about trying to keep vets from falling through the cracks. We have 22 veterans a day committing suicide in our country right now. This bill had unanimous support in the House. It had all but unanimous support in the Senate, but the support in the Senate did not include one senator, did not include Tom Coburn and again, he failed to convince a single senator, a single member of Congress to agree with whatever his objections were. Totally unpersuasive to all other humans, but that apparently created zero doubt in the mind of Tom Coburn. His ego could take it and he stood alone. His arguments were persuasive to no one else. He had no counter proposal for what to do about veteran suicide. He just blocked it alone and so it failed last year because of him. But now he is gone and so the Clay Hunt Veteran Suicide Prevention bill is going to happen. It is not a done deal, but thanks to Tom Coburn no longer holding a position of power in our country, it really does look like it`s going to happen. The newly revived bill passed the House last week by a vote of 403 to zero. This week, the bill took another big step forward when the Veterans Committee in the Senate met for the first time and at first meeting they too passed the bill by a vote of 15-0. The chairman of that committee, Senator Johnny Isaac, senator of Georgia called this thing emergency legislation. Now that that veteran`s bill will head, very soon it looks like, to the Senate floor, it looks like it is going to go. The absence of Tom Coburn will mean that it will get a vote, and by virtue of Tom Coburn not being there, it will pass, probably unanimously. And our nation`s veterans will get some of what they think they need to kick this terrible, terrible problem. Don`t let anyone tell you that one person cannot make a difference. A man named Tom Coburn has made a huge difference in the lives of America`s veterans. And not for the better and now finally with him gone, the rest of the country is getting a chance to clean up the disgrace of what he left behind. This thing should be getting done soon. We will keep you posted as we learn more. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: All right, it`s time to see if you have been paying attention to the news all week. Yes, Friday Night News Dump time. Our producer is here with tonight`s player and tonight`s prizes. Hello, Julia. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello. MADDOW: Who is playing tonight? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tonight, we have Dr. Aarti Patel from New Jersey. She likes to sail. Her nickname is "The Dancing Doctor." She practices clinical cardiac electrophysiology. MADDOW: Clinical cardiac electrophysiology, really? DR. AARTI PATEL: It`s basically like being the electrician of the heart. So if there is a wacky rhythm, I put in pacemakers, pretty fun. MADDOW: Does it have a hyphen? PATEL: EP. MADDOW: So you can do it as two different words or you could hyphenate it or you could do as all one word. PATEL: Exactly. It depends on how lazy you are. MADDOW: Why do they call you the dancing doctor? PATEL: Because I dance a lot. I get excited. It`s a lot better to do something in your everyday life if you`re dancing around or singing than not, right? MADDOW: If my heart ever needs an electrician, I would be comforted knowing my doctor had glee in their work. All right, Dr. Patel, I`m going to ask you three questions. You get two or more of them right and you win something that`s not really worth winning. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s beautiful. MADDOW: It`s pitiful. We do have another prize that you can win, if you get all of the questions right tonight or if we just feel sorry for you if you do poorly -- PATEL: Thank you. MADDOW: What is this? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is a hotdog/hotdog bun toaster. MADDOW: We might give this to you. I don`t know. I don`t know if you like hotdogs, but there you have it. PATEL: I think every hospital needs one. MADDOW: The thing is it doesn`t apply to any other food stuff. It`s a thing that cooks the hotdog and the bun at the same time. There`s nothing else you can cook in it because nothing is in those shapes. PATEL: It`s specialized so it must be very good, right? MADDOW: Yes, or at least expensive. We also need to bring in the voice of Steve Bennen. He determines whether or not you got the right answer. Hello, Steve. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good evening. PATEL: Hi, good evening. MADDOW: Very good. Are ready for the first question? PATEL: Yes. MADDOW: On Monday, as all 50 states were celebrating the federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr., three states also celebrated another holiday on the same day. Another holiday that, at least at first glance, kind of seems to be the opposite of MLK Day, in Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama, whose memory was also celebrated on Monday alongside Martin Luther King. Was it, A. Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forest, B. Confederate General Robert E. Lee, C. Confederate President Jefferson Davis, or D. Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise? PATEL: I`m going to go with B. General Robert E. Lee. MADDOW: Steve, did she get that one right? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let`s take a look at the segment from Monday. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Robert E. Lee Day in Alabama and Mississippi and Arkansas. (END VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, 150 years later, Robert E. Lee`s birthday is still being honored. MADDOW: Excellent. Well done. PATEL: God bless America. MADDOW: God bless Arkansas in particular. You have to get two to win the bad prize. Question two, on Wednesday`s show, we reported that Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, the top Democrat in the Senate, is going to have to undergo surgery next week to try to protect the eyesight in his right eye after he was injured over the holidays. How was Senator Reid injured over the Senate`s Christmas break? Was it, A. complications during laser eye surgery? Was it B., he got punched in the eye during a charity boxing match? Was it C, a piece of exercise equipment broke while he was working out or D, bar fight in Alaska? PATEL: As much as I would want to say D, I think it`s C. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let`s take a look at the footage from the Senator Reid`s press conference from this week. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SENATOR HARRY REID (D), MINORITY LEADER: I was doing exercises that I`ve been doing for many years with those large rubber bands, and one of them broke and spun me around and I crashed into these cabinets. (END VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As much as I like the idea of Harry Reid getting into a bar fight also, I`m also going to say the correct answer is C, and Aarti is correct again. MADDOW: Excellent, well done. Did you also -- he obviously busted his eye and that`s terrible, but he also broke his ribs and he was asked what about your ribs? He said his ribs were meaningless. PATEL: I know. It`s like are you made of Jell-O? MADDOW: OK, so ready for the last question? PATEL: I`m so excited. MADDOW: You have already won, but this is for the super goofy prize. On last night`s show, we`ve learned about yet another very powerful politician, who has just been arrested and indicted on felony corruption charges. Which of the following states has not seen its speaker of the House indicted within the last year, A. New York, B. Massachusetts, C. Alabama or D. South Carolina? PATEL: That`s hard. MADDOW: It is hard. PATEL: Wow. MADDOW: Three of those states have had their speaker of the House indicted within the last year. One of them hasn`t. PATEL: You know, I`m stuck between C or D. I`m probably wrong so I`m going to go with, I don`t know, C. Alabama. MADDOW: Steve, do you have the answer for us? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do. This is a tricky one because Massachusetts had three convicted speakers in a row, but not within the last year. So the correct answer is C, Massachusetts. Aarti, did not get this one correct. MADDOW: It`s totally a hard question. They had three speakers in a row that did get convicted of felony charges. Massachusetts is good at that one, but they`ve been all right for a couple of years. All right, Julie, doing the math, did Dr. Aarti Patel win? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She won the beautiful cocktail shaker. MADDOW: And we have no idea what to do with that freaking hotdog thing, so you won that, too. PATEL: Yes! MADDOW: I was going to take host privilege here. Thank you so much for playing and good luck with being an electrician for people`s hearts. It`s really nice to meet you. Thank you. PATEL: Thank you. It`s nice to meet you, too. MADDOW: That was great. Awesome. All right, if you at home think that you would like to give the news dump a shot, you never know what you might win. Sometimes you win stuff even if you don`t really win. Just send an e-mail to Rachel@msnbc.com, let us know who you are, where you live and why you want to play. THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. END