The Rachel Maddow Show, Transcript 03/06/15

RACHEL MADDOW, HOST: All right. Thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. They thought they had a plan. They thought they knew what was going to happen. But then it all fell apart in the most public way possible. Last week, at exactly this time, you might remember we were in a count down to the shut down of the Department of Homeland Security, because Republicans thought they had a plan, but their plan did not work. Republicans in Congress thought they would get President Obama over a barrel. They would force him to change immigration policies by threatening to shut down the Homeland Security Department if he didn`t. Now, President Obama has faced these kinds of threats from congressional Republicans before. He`s basically now adopted a consistent policy of not blinking when they do stuff like this. He just waits for them to come to their senses and refuses to talk to them until they do. But the Republicans, they love this stuff. They love this tactic. I think they like how it plays with their base voters, even if voters at large don`t like it very much. But they appear to like trying to wield leverage against President Obama to try to use, you know, holding the government against the way by it`s throat, as a way of trying to force the president to do something he doesn`t want to do. And so, the Republicans love this stuff. They have a plan. The Republican leadership put forward their plan to keep the fight with President Obama going for another three weeks. They were going to push it back the homeland security shutdown for three more weeks so that they can keep this fight with President Obama going for three more weeks. So, they put forward their own bill, three weeks of funding, that was the Republican leadership`s bill. They took a recess in the House, they counted their votes, they whipped their votes on their side, to make sure they had enough votes to pass near own plan, and when they were sure they had enough votes to pass their own plan, they brought their own plan to the floor and their plan was not a good plan, it turns out because even they had counted, even though they were sure they had the votes, they didn`t have the votes. Nancy Pelosi had to weigh in to the Republicans mess and say, basically, you boys down here? You need them so help? And then, it was Nancy Pelosi who gave them the votes she needed to pass a short-term extension and then Republicans this week just gave up. They gave up. And so, yes, Homeland Security did not shut down, and the Republicans got nothing from President Obama in exchange for pushing it right to the brink of shutting down. They got nothing, zero. That was their leverage, nothing. And so, President Obama actually held a little signing ceremony and everything when it came time to finally sign on the dotted line for his total victory in this fight that the Republicans had picked. This fight that they picked and they not only lost, but they lost it on their own terms. The terms they set when they prove that they couldn`t even count their own votes on their own bill. Tada! The man who was in charge of counting the votes for the Republicans in the House, the man who they specifically picked for that job, supposedly because he would with so great at counting even the votes of the rabid guys who like messing with the leadership so much, the guy they picked to count the votes and whip the votes and make sure that the votes were lined up, so that anything they introduce, they would know whether it was going to pass or not. So, things like what happened this past week would never happen. The guy they picked for that job, his name is Steve Scalise, Republican congressman from Louisiana. Since Steve Scalise has been in charge of counting and wrangling votes for the Republicans in the House, they have introduced and then yanked at the last minute their own abortion bill, they have introduced and then yanked at the last minute their own border bill, they have introduced and then yanked at the last minute their own education bill, and then with hours to spare before shutting down the Department of Homeland Security, they introduce, didn`t yank, and failed to pass their own bill, much to their own surprise, which made them have to get rescued by Nancy Pelosi. And that`s why we have a Department of Homeland Security. Steve Scalise has only had this new leadership job counting votes for a couple months now. He appears to be terrible at this job. Now, Steve Scalise was a controversial choice for that leadership anyway, not because of his math skills, or how they might be proven or not on the floor, but because of what he now describes as a mistake in his past, when he spoke to a white supremacist gathering in his hometown of Louisiana. You know, David Duke, the Ku Klux Klan leader, the white supremacist guy, Steve Scalise spoke to David Duke`s group in Louisiana early in his political career. Steve Scalise at the time told the local press in Louisiana that they should see him, they should see him Steve Scalise, as David Duke without the baggage. "Roll Call" did an article about David Duke at the time. Again, David Duke who was a Klan leader, they did an article in 1999 about the prospect of David Duke making a KKK run for Congress from Louisiana. And "Roll Call" for that article, they talked to other Republicans in the state who might be interested in running for that same congressional seat. This is from the article from 1999, quote, "Another potential candidates, State Representative Steve Scalise says he embraces many of the same conservative views as David Duke, but he is far more viable." Scalise told "Roll Call", quote, the voters in this district are smart enough to realize they need to get behind someone who only believes on the issues they care about, but also can get elected. David Duke has proven he can`t get elected." That is the end of the quote. David Duke has proven he can`t get elected. But he, Steve Scalise, could. And he did. And then Republicans this year, after the reports of him addressing the white supremacist were published, this year, the Republican Party made him their number three leader in Congress, because he so good at counting the votes -- which actually he is terrible at. They had never expressed any public concerns about his David Duke stuff. During that whole controversy, Republican leadership in Congress never said anything on the record that they ever have a problem with it. Tomorrow, when thousands of people converge on Selma, Alabama, to commemorate 50 years since the Bloody Sunday civil rights march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, President Obama will be there with his family for the commemoration and the march across that bridge. Congressman John Lewis who led the march back in 1965 and who was beaten to the point of a fractured skull at that march, John Lewis will be there as well, as he has at every commemoration year, year after year, always asking other members of Congress to please come with him to Selma, please come with him to be there in person to remember Selma. John Lewis has made a particular effort for this 50th anniversary commemoration this year, and indeed, more than 100 members of Congress are expected to be there this weekend to commemorate Selma. But from the House, from the Republican House-controlled out, as of this afternoon, none of their leaders were going. This was the headline all day at Politico.com today, "GOP leaders to skip Selma event." None of the leaders of the House, not Speaker John Boehner, or the majority leader, Kevin McCarthy, or Steve Scalise, the number three leader, I suppose it might be particularly awkward to send Steve Scalise. This was the word all day, no top Republicans going to Selma. Thanks very much. And then late tonight, it`s first reported by Dana Bash, at about 7:00 p.m. Eastern tonight, late tonight, Kevin McCarthy apparently had a change of heart. So, now, Kevin McCarthy has decided he will make the trip to Selma after all. We reached out to his office tonight, they confirmed the trip is now on his schedule, a bit of a late addition. The march in Selma 50 years ago was for voting rights. The blood spilled led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act. The conservative majority in the Supreme Court two years ago gutted that same Voting Rights Act, saying that if the country was ever going to get those protections back, the Congress would have to pass a new Voting Rights Act to do that. But Republicans in Congress have refused to do that. And so, we`re in a weird situation, where former President George W. Bush is going to be there at the Selma march, tomorrow. And President Obama will be there tomorrow with his family. And 100 members of Congress will be there. Up until tonight, none of the Republican leadership was going to be there. Mitch McConnell will not be there either. Mitch McConnell`s Republican-controlled Senate right now is busy slow-walking the nomination of the first every African-American woman nominated to be attorney general. She was nominated to be attorney general before a man named Ash Carter was nominated for defense secretary. She was nominated before him. No substantive objections have been raised to either of their confirmations. She was nominated first. He now is the secretary of defense, already serving at the Pentagon, but the Republicans in Congress won`t even let there be a vote on her yet. She has waited longer than any attorney general nominee in decades for a vote on her nomination. So, Mitch McConnell has been very busy with that in the Republican controlled Senate. He won`t with there this weekend. The last major national civil rights commemoration we had as a country where the president spoke and it was a true national event was August, 2013. A massive, massive event held at the Lincoln Memorial to honor the march on Washington from 50 years ago where Dr. Martin Luther King brought his "I Have a Dream" speech, one of the most famous speeches in human history. Republican leadership in Congress in total, the Republican leadership in Congress skipped that event as well. None of them went. MSNBC is going to have special coverage this weekend of the Selma march, the Selma commemoration, President Obama speech and all the rest of it. But honestly, there will not be equal time for Republican leaders, because apparently, they really do not care about this stuff. At least not enough to be here, save the last minute late add from Kevin McCarthy, after a whole day of reporting that none of them were going to be there. It is one thing to use these historic benchmarks to think about the progress made by our country on civil rights, right? The progress made by our country on civil rights and racial division and racial hate. It is one thing to use these things as a benchmark to think about our country`s uneven ragged dissatisfying progress on race. It is also hard to avoid this start modern fact though, that in one of the two major political parties right now -- they really don`t even care about the basic window dressing on this stuff any more. Steve Scalise, David Duke without the baggage? Sure, put him in the leadership. We won`t say anything about the David Duke stuff, we`re fine with it. Voting Rights Act? No. Selma? Busy. This should not be a Democratic or Republican thing. Honestly, you would think that it would be. But it is true and it is hard and it is gross to see that in 2015, it inarguably is. Joining us now is Congressman G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina. He`s chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. Congressman, thank you so much for being with us tonight. It`s a real pleasure to have you here. REP. G.K. BUTTERFIELD (D), NORTH CAROLINA: Thank you very much, Rachel. MADDOW: Congressman, I know that you are going to be in Alabama, you`re going to be Selma this weekend for the 50th anniversary. Can you talk just a little bit about what it means for you as chairman of the CBC, as a long serving member of Congress, at this time in our country, what it means to you to be at this commemoration? BUTTERFIELD: Thank you, Rachel. I bring greetings to you from Montgomery, Alabama. More than 100 members of Congress came in this afternoon. It is a bipartisan delegation. We are here this weekend to commemorate the 50th anniversary not only the voting rights act, but the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. This great event this weekend is going to hopefully inspire and encourage many of my Republican friends to understand the history of the voting rights movement and what it meant to the African-Americans and eventually what it meant to the country. It`s going to be a great weekend. MADDOW: There is this troubling contemporary fact right now, which is that there is a commemoration, what people bled to get to the Voting Rights Act 15 years ago. And you got over 100 members of Congress there. As you said, it is a bipartisan delegation, even one member of he leadership joining -- Mr. Kevin McCarthy saying late tonight that he will be attending, even though he hadn`t previously planned to. There is a show of support while the actual Voting Rights Act languishes, there really does not seem to be any move from the Republicans to try to rescue it, try to bring it back. Do you think that this weekend, will be focused on that, we`ll put specific pressure on that part of it? BUTTERFIELD: Well, it`s good to hear that the majority leader Kevin McCarthy is coming tomorrow to be part of this historic event. We want to make a case to our Republican friends that the Voting Rights Act needs to be repaired. Two years ago, the Supreme Court dealt a very severe blow. It eliminated Section 5, which is that part of the law which protects African-American communities all across the community from discriminatory voting changes. That part of the law has been found to be unconstitutional and now, we`re waiting on Congress to amend that part of the law so that we can continue to enforce Section 5. We have communities all across the country who would engage in discriminatory practices if we were not to resurrect Section 5. And so, we`ve got to have a strong voting rights act. This weekend is to commemorate Bloody Sunday, but it`s also to make a case that a strong Voting Rights Act is needed. MADDOW: Are you optimistic about that, sir? I just have to ask you, you are a man who practices real politics, you are a good vote counter and I know you`ve been very pragmatic in the way that you`ve approached not just civil rights issues but everything that you`ve worked on in your career. Do you feel optimistic about the prospect that`s going to happen? I did at one point. I don`t anymore. BUTTERFIELD: Well, you know, Rachel, you and I talked about this about a year ago, and let me tell you. I believe after this weekend, my Republican colleagues are going to witness firsthand what African-Americans and the South went through 50 years ago. And I believe that this will be enlightening to enough of our Republican friends to begin a movement when we return to Washington. And so, I`m going to remain hopeful and trusting that we can get movement on the amendment of the Voting Rights Act. And hopefully, this weekend, it would be that turning point that will make it happen. MADDOW: Congressman J.K. Butterfield of North Carolina, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, thank you so much for your time tonight, sir. I know it`s going to be a powerful weekend, a powerful event there. Good luck to you this weekend. Enjoy. BUTTERFIELD: Thank you. MADDOW: Thank you, sir. All right. We`ve got a lot to get to tonight, including yet another oil train explosion. Some very good news that came out unexpectedly this morning. And we found out that somebody has been watching our show over the FOX News Channel. We didn`t know, turns out they`re mad. We`ve got more on that ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: So, another thing that we`re keeping an eye on tonight from Congress is a developing story concerning Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey. Word leaked out today from unnamed sources that Senator Menendez may soon be indicted by the Justice Department on federal corruption charges. Now, the indictment of a serving U.S. senator is a very big deal. The investigation reportedly focuses on whether Senator Menendez used his office to help a donor friend of his in exchange for gifts or contributions from that friend. Senator Menendez for his part, he defended himself angrily at a brief conference tonight. He said that he`s done nothing wrong and he has no plans to step down. Justice Department officials have not commented on this story on the record. The sources again for this again are unnamed sources, and it should be pointed out that Senator Menendez has been the subject of rumors of prosecution in the past, rumors that have not panned out in reality. But, still, multiple sources tonight. It was CNN first, and then multiple other news outlets thereafter, reporting that these charges against the senator are pending and they could come within weeks. We still got no word on exactly what those charges might be. And no official word from justice. We`ll keep you posted as we learn more. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: When an oil train with over 100 cars full of crude derailed yesterday in Northwestern Illinois, right with the Iowa state line, some of those tanker cars full of 70,000 gallons of North Dakota crude each, some of those tanker cars punctured, or split open, and exploded into flames, as you see here. The brave firefighters of the Galena, Illinois, fire department, they were there on site within half an hour, but those firefighters fairly quickly determine that their capabilities as a fire department were no match for the huge inferno of these burning exploding train cars. So, the fire department retreated. They left thousands of dollars of equipment behind. But they retreated yesterday. They left the oil train fire to basically burn itself out. It has not burn itself out. That oil train is still burning right now. The derailment was yesterday afternoon. It is still on fire. You can also see from these photos that the rail company`s initial report yesterday that just of the trains 105 cars have gone off the tracks, that estimate was way off. Today, we learned it was not six cars, it was 21 cars that went off of the tracks. As of this afternoon, the railway says that of those 21 cars that went off of the tracks, 14 of them were basically in a pig pile, all piled on top of each other. And of those 14 oil tanker cars, all piled on top of each other, they said they knew that 7 of the 14 were punctured already, and, of course, some of them have already been on fire. Firefighters now believe that two cars initially exploded, a fire then spread to five cars. But the fire department said that the burning oil was pooling under the cars, making it hard to confirm exactly how many cars were on fire. And, of course, they`re all risk. Right now, the cars are still burning well over 24 hours later. Nobody knows how long it`s going to take to get this fire put out. But here is the part where they start talking about a controlled burn, and it starts to all seem kind of nuts. Listen to this -- we got this from the local sheriff`s department today. OK. Apparently, one of the oil tanker cars that is obviously ripped opened and has been burning, it`s a car that they have been spraying down with water all day today, to try to keep it from not just burning, but blowing up like a giant bomb. That`s been their strategy for dealing with one of the burning cars. The problem is, that the runoff from the water they were spraying on the ripped open tanker car, the runoff that is water and oil from the breached burning car, that runoff is running off into a little makeshift pond along side the wreck on the train tracks. And that pond is getting full. And so, they don`t want to keep spraying more water under that burning car to keep that burning car from exploding if that means the pond of oil runoff water is going to breach its banks and go flooding into the Galena River, and then presumably into the Mississippi River, and the big wildlife refuge that they`re near. They can`t just keep dumping water on this burning car without polluting the river with all that oil. And so, they made the decision this afternoon to stop spraying water -- stop spraying the water keeping that is keeping that burning car from blowing up. They`re stopping doing that so that car is going to blow up. They`re making a deliberate decision about it. Look at this from the local sheriff today, about the plan. Fire responders will retreat to a safe distance after water is no longer sprayed on the burning tank car. The cessation of the water being sprayed on the tank will lead to a heat-induced tear of the already breached tank car, thereby protecting the waterway, thereby protecting the waterway, but also setting the thing off like a bomb, that car full of 70,000 gallons of crude oil that they have no way to safely put out. This is how we deal with bomb strains, with oil trains, when they blow up in our towns and our communities. We let them burn because we have no choice. We let them blow up and just hope they don`t take too much with them when they go. That`s the strategy. Remember, the last oil train explosion in West Virginia less than a month ago, they have to let that one just burned, too. That one burned for four days. We also now know that just like that train that burned for four days in West Virginia, this new train, this one that`s just derailed in Galena, Illinois, this one that`s still on fire now tonight, this train, too, was one of the ones with the new and improved rail cars that are supposed to keep this sort of thing from happening, this new safer cars supposedly designed not to just split open when they derail, those were the cars involved in yesterday`s crash, they were also the cars involved in last month`s crash, in West Virginia, they were also the cars used in the crash a few days before that one in Ontario, Canada. They were also the cars used in the oil train crash in Lynchburg, Virginia, last May. All of these giant conflagrations involved the new safer rail cars the industry volunteered to start using, to try to stop so many oil train explosions from happening. This is all the new and improved stuff. And right now, as the Obama administration works on new regulations for oil trains, these cars are the standard that the rail car industry wants to be used for those rules. If our big national plan for fixing this problem is to put more of these new and improved rail cars on the rails for these oil trains. Honestly, as we watch them blow up all across the country week after week after week, if our new plan is to make sure that everybody uses these kinds of cars -- that`s not much of a plan. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: That rarest of all things. Here is some good news. I know. Economists thought that in February this year, the economy would get clobbered, for a variety of reasons, including terrible weather. Economists thought that the job creation numbers in February would -- to use a technical term -- stink. They did not stink. In fact, much to the contrary, look at this -- look. There was, in fact, terrible weather all through February and that usually means jobs are going to kick in the teeth. But not this time, jobs are up way more than they were expected to be, and that is great news. It is continued great news. This is the 12th straight month of the economy creating more than 200,000 jobs a month. We have not had a stretch this good since 1995, since the Clinton boom years. And with the news today that the unemployment has dropped to 5.5 percent that means big picture, this is what has happened to the unemployment over the course of the Obama presidency. Clip and save, right? And with the most recent data coming in the middle of a terrible winter, which would usually have a depressive economic effect. This really is great news. We`re doing great. Yay! But don`t worry -- we can still screw it up. Today, just as the excellent jobs numbers were coming in, excellent economic numbers, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew sent House Speaker John Boehner this letter, letting him know formally that the debt ceiling is upon us again. Oh, God! The debt ceiling is upon us as of March 16th, which is a week from Monday. As of that date, if Congress does not vote to raise the debt ceiling, the government will have to start taking extraordinary measures, again, to keep the country from defaulting on the debt and ruining our credit and crashing the economy. So, treasury secretary in this letter today pleading with John Boehner for the Congress to not let the government go into default, to not deliberately crash the economy, and to take care of this most basic business without, quote, "controversy or brinksmanship." So, everything is going great right now. Unless we deliberately screw it up in Congress starting in a week. What could possibly go wrong? (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: Here`s a thing that I learned today. There is a whole TV show dedicated to people who pan for gold. Not like historically, but today. It`s called "Gold Rush." It airs on the Discovery Channel. It has been for five seasons now while I apparently have been under a rock. But the whole thing is literally about people who pan for gold in Alaska, which is apparently big business there. It is also apparently captivating to watch it done -- get done. Millions of people watch the show "Gold Rush" every week, seriously millions of people. The same goes for something called "Talking Dead." You heard about the TV show about the zombies called "Walking Dead." This is not that. I mean, there is "Walking Dead", but then there`s also an after show called "Talking Dead", that millions and millions of people watch every week after they watch "The Walking Dead." Millions of people, even more millions that watch the "Gold Rush" thing all on cable TV. The whole new world out there. This show you`re watching right now is also on cable TV, but you know what? Nobody in cable news has anything that can compete with like the gold mining show, or the show that is a talk show about the episode that just aired of the zombie show. In cable news, we just don`t operate in that stratosphere. We all get swamped by things like the zombie after show. And a concern in the world of cable news right now is that the closest anybody in cable news gets to good ratings, the closest anybody in cable news gets to the ratings of like "Gold Rush" or the recap show for "The Walking Dead" is the guy who`s the main anchor at the FOX News Channel, his name is Bill O`Reilly. The FOX News Channel is all conservative all the time. They`re the Big Kahuna of cable news. And their big Kahuna, their flagship anchor, their biggest star, the face of their network is Mr. O`Reilly, and there is a problem now with Mr. O`Reilly that FOX apparently has not figured out what to do with. FOX News so far has issued two corrections/clarifications in cases where Mr. O`Reilly has said that he was an eyewitness to nuns being shot in the head in El Salvador, and that he saw Irish terrorists killing people in Belfast. FOX News corrected/clarified both of those remarks to say that Mr. O`Reilly hadn`t actually seen either of those things, he had only seen pictures of them. But they have not so far corrected. They have not touched at all. What appears to be Mr. O`Reilly`s repeated false claim to have been present at the suicide of a figure relative to the JFK assassination. They have not touched that at all, despite the fact that his repeated claims about that story really do appear to be just false. And he has made those apparently false claims on the FOX News Channel as recently as this past November. Instead of correcting or apologizing for it or even just publicly addressing the substantive issues that have been raised about whether their star anchor has repeatedly, insistently misrepresented his own role in news stories, the initial instinct there when faced with this real problem they have with their star anchor`s credibility, their initial instinct has been to stand by him while he attacked reporters who are covering the story. He has literally threatened reporters who have covered the story, even though FOX employs lots of reporters themselves. And presumably does not take kindly to their reporters being threatened just for doing their job. So, that was sort of strategy round one for how FOX News was handling this crisis surrounding their star anchor. Now, they have moved on to strategy round two. Their new strategy for trying to paper over this big problem that`s happening with their biggest personality, with the most valuable person in cable news, with the highest profile guy in this whole part of our national media, their strategy is essentially to say who cares? He has great ratings. When the media watchdog Web site, iMediaEthics.org, asked FOX News this week about the growing list of allegations being made against Mr. O`Reilly`s reporting, this is what they got back, quote, "When asked for comment on the latest series of questions about O`Reilly, a FOX News spokesperson told iMediaEthics by email that O`Reilly`s ratings have gone up." FOX News also provided a statement to the Web site that did not address the substance of the allegations against Mr. O`Reilly. So, nothing to say about the substance, but his ratings are awesome. When we reported on this story earlier this week, that`s what they told us, too. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: We contacted the FOX News channel again to ask if they would give us any comment on the substance of these allegations. In what was a very unexpected and sort of amusing development, they didn`t -- we asked them for comment on the substance of the allegations. What they sent us was a lot of information about how great Bill O`Reilly`s ratings are. (LAUGHTER) And yes, your ratings are great. I have seen your ratings shoot my ratings right in the head -- well, I`ve seen pictures of that, I should say. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: Since I said on Wednesday night, FOX has gotten very, very mad at me, and mad at MSNBC apparently. The conservative Web site Mediaite asked FOX for comment. FOX told them that I, quote, "completely misrepresented their communication with this program." For the record, what I said on Wednesday night is quite literally true. We asked for a comment from FOX on the substance of these new allegations about Mr. O`Reilly, to which they have not yet issued any substantive response, in response to that request from us. They sent us a previous statement defending Bill O`Reilly that they had previously sent us already and that we had previously read in full on the air. They sent us contact information for Mr. O`Reilly`s book publishers which is nice, but we were asking for a FOX News comment. They also sent us links to other people`s articles about Bill O`Reilly, which is also news but does not constitute from FOX News, which is what we asked for. What we asked for was new comment about the substance of these new allegations that they have never address. They gave us no new comment. What they did give us unsolicited was all of that junk and a cash of data on how great Bill O`Reilly`s ratings are. And, yes, your ratings are great. Stipulated. Out of all of us in cable news, you get the closest to the zombie after show and the gold rush guys. Mazel tov! Excellent for you, truly. But seriously, that cannot be the response of a news network to substantive allegations that your talent is lying repeatedly on the air about news stories, repeatedly, and recently, and did I mention repeatedly? Their response so far is essentially, ah, well, it turns out lying is good business for us. It is untenable for a news organization to let one of its employees other news reporters for doing their jobs. It is also untenable for a news organization to say that the facts of what gets said on their air, as news, do not matter. Not if the ratings are good. Honestly, that cannot be your position. People treat FOX News like it is sort of a news organization, right? The FOX News Channel and its anchors are about to host a bunch of major party presidential debates coming up as if they`re a news organizations. There are real news people who work at the FOX News Channel, and the FOX News Channel wants to be seen as a real news organization. In fact, they demand to be seen as a real news organization. But if they`re defense is that it`s OK if they lie on the air as long as it rates -- this cannot hold. And maybe it is getting to them. Last night, Mr. O`Reilly spent a good portion of his show, a very good portion of his show attacking MSNBC on the basis of his superior ratings. Yes, what you are selling your audience is working quantitatively. Congratulations. Woo-hoo! But the substance of the allegations is still unanswered. And honestly, the FOX News Channel really cannot be seen as a news channel, as long as that continues to be true. And ultimately, maybe that`s what it was (ph). (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRICIA MCKINNEY, TRMS SENIOR PLANNING PRODUCER: News dump day. MADDOW: OK. MCKINNEY: Here is some swag that we found to give away. This, Sanita Shanani (ph), one of our producers, gave this to me, she said give this away. I think it`s cluttering her desk. It`s like one of those view masters, but it doesn`t have a -- MADDOW: It`s a view master without anything to view. MCKINNEY: It has a view. MADDOW: This is the saddest view master in the world. We don`t have any view master. It says it is 3D. MCKINNEY: Yes, I know. MADDOW: OK. Do you want a broken toy -- MCKINNEY: I think that fits with the mission of getting crap out of our office. I found this, seems vintage MSNBC clipboard. MADDOW: This is not a press pass. MCKINNEY: I can`t locate that logo in time, but it doesn`t look fresh and new. MADDOW: This is like a `90s, look at it, it says on the little fake ticker, broadcasting around the globe on the worldwide Internet machine super highway. MCKINNEY: This could be worth something. MADDOW: OK. MCKINNEY: And this actually was from the show, remember John Boehner? MADDOW: Oh, yes. MCKINNEY: The 1995 John Boehner giving out checks from tobacco companies on the floor on the House. MADDOW: He apologized for that, didn`t he? MCKINNEY: With the (INAUDIBLE) players. He apologized for it. He`s sorry he did it on the House floor. MADDOW: How many of these we have? How many checks, like a dozen? MCKINNEY: Yes, so ten. MADDOW: Yes. I think, clearly. And this is a -- we have to fix this. (END VIDEO CLIP) (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: More legal chaos in Alabama this week. Last month, the federal judge ordered the state to start letting same sex couples marry. And then the Alabama chief justice told the counties to not to do that. And then the federal judge weighed back in and said, he really, I meant it. And little by little, most of the counties in the Alabama, did start granting gay couples marriage licenses. But then this week, they have stopped it again. The full Alabama Supreme Court told the Alabama counties again to stop letting people get married. And so, now, it is not clear in Alabama who will be able to get married, where, or when. In some cases, it is not even clear who in Alabama is married right at this moment. When that new decision came out this week from the Alabama Supreme Court, the great and good George Takei decided that there ought to be a public response. The idea was to raise, not your middle finger, but your ring finger, your wedding ring finger to Alabama. Sort of the vision fun, right. At first glance, it looks like one thing, then you realize it`s another. The hashtag is also kind of a fun. The hashtag is #LuvUAlabama. You can here that as sarcastic, right? LuvUAlabama, flip off. Or you can hear that as love you Alabama, you`re going to get this, you know? Sending love to you Alabama from Pennsylvania, or Ohio or Utah or wherever. Love you, Alabama. We`re gong to love you through this. On this show, we have made a real effort to do stories from states where sometimes it can be difficult to just leave the basics of your life if your politics res not well to the right. So, we`ve talked about like the crazy interruptor lady in Texas who hassles the Muslim school kids, or the Idaho legislator who thinks a woman`s mouth is connected to her uterus. And honestly, we do these stories, not a lot of news shows do. But we do these stories, and then often, we hear back from the world, some version of, you know, go ahead and let Texas secede from the Union. Or, do the rest of us really need Idaho anymore? We hear that a lot. This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama, where those marchers set off into the teeth of the segregationist state government there, demanding the right to vote. They`re going to be marching across the bridge again in Selma again this weekend. It will be a big commemoration. When we see those historical pictures this weekend, when we see the reply this weekend of those images from Alabama, from what those heroes went up against on that march, it`s a good reminder that a lot of the people who first walked into those police lines and into those police dogs, a lot of those people were not just marching on Alabama, they were from Alabama, marching in their own segregationist state to change their own terrible, violent segregationist government. And maybe it was the worst place in the country, but people from there fought to change it. And we celebrate it as a national turning point, a national victory that they did. When you look at where things are terrible, it is probably natural to say forget them, right? Say, never mind, Alabama, you`re a waste of space. But back in the day, the people on the receiving end of those blows and those cloud of tear gas, they were also Alabama, every bit as much. And when you see all of that memorialized this weekend in Selma, you might think to yourself, you know, instead of who needs Alabama, right? You might instead think, love you, Alabama. Love you, Alabama. You are going to get this. We`re going to love you through this. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: Happy Friday. Happy Friday. Splat. I`m going to need the help of my producer, Julia Nutter. Hello, Julia. JULIA NUTTER, PRODUCER: Hello. MADDOW: This is a first for the Friday night news dump game. We have a repeat player basically. We were supposed to have him on last week, but we had to bump him for breaking news. You might remember that Congress waited until late Friday night last week to not shut down the Homeland Security Department at the last second. We had to cover that live until wicked late, so we ended up taping the game last week. We posted it online, but we had so much fun with our contestant, we wanted to give him another shot at glory on basic cable. So, Julia, tell everybody who is our first ever repeat Friday night news dump guest? NUTTER: That would be Eddie Gutierrez of Los Banos, California. He`s a graphic designer, a movie buff, he loves to cook but says he`s not good at it. Great to meet Eddie again. MADDOW: Eddie, my old friend, welcome back. It`s nice to see you again. EDDIE GUTIERREZ, CONTESTANT: Hi, Rachel. MADDOW: I`m also terrible at cooking. The difference between you and I is I don`t like it. All right. You know how this works, Eddie. I`m going to ask you three questions, you get two or more, right, and, Julia will show you the not very amazing prize that you could win. No, not that one. There you, that`s what you win. And if you get all three right, or if you -- I`m docking your pay -- if you get all three right, or if you do very poorly and we feel sorry for you, we will send you something random that we found squirreled away in our office. Julia, this is tonight`s -- NUTTER: This is the random thing. These are the big checks from big tobacco to a member of Congress for many, many dollars. MADDOW: That were handed out by -- NUTTER: They were handed out by John Boehner on the floor of the house. MADDOW: This is our prop version. NUTTER: Yes. So, this is our prop version use by the TRMS player. MADDOW: So, there you have it. You get a worthless prop. Ta-dah. OK, Eddie, are you ready? GUTIERREZ: Ready. MADDOW: We also need to bring in the disembodied voice of Steve Benen, lord of Maddow Blog. He will determine whether or not you got the right answer. Steve, Eddie, Eddie, Steve. STEVE BENEN, MADDOW BLOG: Welcome back, Eddie. GUTIERREZ: Hi, Steve. MADDOW: OK. We`re going to get right to it. Question one. Monday`s show, on Monday`s show, we reported that Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland will not run for re-election next year. Which of the following is not true about Senator Barbara Mikulski? A, she is the longest serving woman in Congress. B, she refuses to wear pantsuits. C, she has a super nova named after her. Or D, her receptionist is Maryland Governor Martin O`Malley`s mother. GUTIERREZ: Which is not true? MADDOW: Which of those items is not true about Barbara Mikulski? GUTIERREZ: Umm, B. MADDOW: B as in boy? GUTIERREZ: Yes, B as in boy -- refuses to wear pantsuits. MADDOW: All right. Steve, did Eddie get that one right? BENEN: Let`s check the segment from Monday`s show. MADDOW: OK. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: In 1993, she and Senator Carol Moseley Braun broke the dress code in the Senate by refusing to wear a skirt or a dress. It was the pantsuit rebellion. (END VIDEO CLIP) BENEN: Yes, the rebellion, and the answer is B. MADDOW: She loves pant suits too much. Yes, you got that one correct. Well done. You got to get two right to win the prize, Eddie. We`re going to go to question two. This is from Wednesday`s show. Wednesday, we reported on the oral arguments at the Supreme Court in that pending case that basically could scrap Obamacare all together and dump millions of Americans off their health insurance. During the oral arguments, Justice Kennedy made a comment that seemed to indicate that he had some constitutional concerns about what would happen if Obamacare got dumped. Here`s the question, what happened in the world after Justice Kennedy made that comment in court? Was it, A, Justice Antonin Scalia got up and walked out? B, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg popped him one in the kisser? C, news organizations mistakenly reported that Justice Kennedy had actually issued a ruling in the case? Or D, hospital stocks spiked? They shot way up. Which of those things happened after Justice Kennedy`s remarks during oral arguments? GUTIERREZ: D, hospital stocks shot up. MADDOW: Steve, what`s the right answer? BENEN: Let`s check Wednesday`s segment. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: After he said that today in the oral arguments on this case, look what happened in the outside world. Hospital stocks surge after Justice Kennedy criticizes Obamacare challenge. (END VIDEO CLIP) BENEN: Yes, health care stocks shot up way up on Wednesday. The answer is D, and Eddie is correct. MADDOW: Eddie, you`re a ringer. Your last question, I have to warn you, I think this is sort of a difficult question, but I also have great faith in you now that we`re old friends. It is from Tuesday`s show. Are you ready? GUTIERREZ: Yes. MADDOW: OK. Tuesday`s show, we talked about retired four-star general former CIA Director David Petraeus pleading guilty to mishandling classified information. General Petraeus apparently gave that information to a woman he was shtupping who was also writing a biography of him. What is the awkwardly MSNBC-like name of that biography she was writing about him? Was it A, All In: The Education of David Petraeus? B, Hardball: The Wars of David Petraeus? C, The Last Word: The Triumph of David Petraeus. Or D, The Ed Show with David Petraeus? (LAUGHTER) GUTIERREZ: Oh, boy. I`ll say -- yes, it is a hard one. OK. Any other questions? MADDOW: It`s not D. It`s not the Ed Show. So, it`s either All In, Hardball or The Last Word. GUTIERREZ: Hardball. MADDOW: Steve, do you have the answer for us? BENEN: You know, I would really like read a book called the Ed Show of David Petraeus. (LAUGHTER) BENEN: But nevertheless, that is not the correct answer. I`m afraid Hardball is also the incorrect answer. The correct answer is A, "All In with the Education of David Petraeus". I`m afraid, Eddie, it`s incorrect. MADDOW: Eddie, you made a seriously -- you made a yeomen`s effort to get that. Julia, we know that Eddie won the cocktail shaker. I hereby make an executive decision that you also get the worth also prop. GUTIERREZ: Thank you. Love you. MADDOW: Eddie, you`re the best. Say hi to everybody in Los Banos. Nice to see you. GUTIERREZ: Bye-bye. I love you. MADDOW: I love you. If you want to play the most awesome game in basic cable news, send us an e-mail Rachel@msnbc.com. Just tell us who you are, where you`re from, why you want to play. We have so much garbage in our offices that we need to get rid of. Please help us. But now, go to prison. THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. END