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The Rachel Maddow Show, Transcript 10/13/2016

The Rachel Maddow Show, Transcript 10/13/2016

Show: THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW Date: October 13, 2016 Guest:

RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC ANCHOR: And thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. It`s good to have you with us here tonight on this fine Thursday evening.

The Lexington Hotel in Chicago was one of those awesome, sturdy, Chicago architectural showoffs in its day. It was built in the 1890s, was 10 stories tall. It had these cool rounded towers on the corners of the building. It had a big, grand, pillared entrance.

The Lexington Hotel announced itself on matchbooks, no less, as absolutely fireproof. See that on the middle of the matchbook, "absolutely fireproof". That turns out to be a good thing for the Lexington Hotel, because apparently, reportedly, there was a secret shooting range buried inside of it.

There is a secret shooting range buried in the bowels of that hotel because from 1928 to 1931, the famous gangster Al Capone lived at the Lexington Hotel. He ran his whole criminal empire out of the fourth and fifth floors of that building. And he reportedly maintained this secret shooting range for his gangster henchmen, as well as a gym for them to stay fit.

There were also reportedly secret tunnels underneath the hotel that they used to hide and move liquor and other contraband and even to move people who were hiding out or running from the fuzz. Al Capone was at that hotel from 1928 until 1931, and he had to move out in 1931 because he had to move to Alcatraz because they got him for tax evasion.

After Al Capone left the Lexington Hotel in 1931 so he could go to jail, the Lexington did hold on for a while, but eventually went into decline. At one point it was renamed the New Michigan Hotel, but after its days of being the New Michigan Hotel, it just became a giant 400-room brothel.

By the 1980s, what had been the Lexington Hotel and then the New Michigan Hotel, it was closing down, decrepit and started to fall in on itself.

And in that weird purgatory time for the old Lexington Hotel, when it was good for nothing but still standing, that is when Geraldo Rivera showed up. Sometime over the course of the death throes of that building, somebody discovered that underneath it, there was a sealed-off area walled off from the hotel`s basement underneath the city sidewalk. Once that sealed-off area was discovered, the guy from "The People`s Court," remember that show?

I kid you not, the guy from "The People`s Court," that guy, got an idea that because of the Al Capone connection to that hotel, maybe they could turn that basement room into a TV show. Suspense. They would call it Al Capone`s vaults and they would crack it open on live TV.

So, they dug up this guy, Geraldo Rivera, who had just been fired from ABC News. And no network wanted to produce this thing, but they got the idea that they would produce it as a syndicated special. So, any TV station willing to pay for it could buy the rights to this special and broadcast it live that night, as they blow open the vault.

It was a crazy idea. It was kind of a crazy genius idea, and they sold a heck of it. Watch this, this is one of the all-time great promos.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GERALDO RIVERA: This is the vault Al Capone my have guilt and nobody knows what`s in it. Some say money. Some say bodies. Some say it`s booby traps. And we`re going to open it.

What secret lies inside? It may be Scarface Al Capone`s biggest secret and we`re opening it on live television.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: Some say bodies. Some say money. Some say it`s a booby trap. It was a two-hour special that aired April 21st, 1986. I had just turned 13 and I remember watching it.

And honestly, it`s not that weird that I watched it, because statistically speaking, basically everybody watched it. Thirty million people watched "The Mystery of Al Capone`s Vault" that night in 1986, 30 million people.

It was and remains the highest rated syndicated special in all of TV history. And they did, on live television, crack open Al Capone`s vault. Or at least whatever you want to call that sealed-off space under the sidewalk of the old Lexington Hotel.

They did crack it open. They blew it open with explosives and then they knocked down all the debris with a bobcat, and then they charged in there, and what they found was -- bupkis. It was just dirt in there and pieces of the old sidewalk that had fallen from above.

I read one report they also found a stop sign down there, maybe, but I don`t remember that from when I watched it from when I was 13.

Two hours, right? So, like, epic advertising and hype, right? Two hours of on-air hype, 30 million people watching and there was nothing in there. It was -- in its own way, it was totally, nihilistically awesome.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RIVERA: It seems, as least up to now that we struck out with the vault, I`m disappointed by that, as I`m sure you are. This is the one time in life that a pot of gold would have been a lot more fun than chasing the rainbows. I don`t know, our seismic or sonic tests must have been slightly awry because we didn`t find the much heralded hollow spaces that we were led to believe were in there.

So what can I say? I`m sorry. All right, I`m going. I`ll see you.

Good night. I`m sorry! See you next time. Take it easy.

ANNOUNCER: "The Mystery of Al Capone`s Vault" has been brought to you by Budweiser, aged for that clean, crisp taste. This Bud`s for you. And for the good products and good people at the Quaker Oats Company.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: You have to wonder how Budweiser and Quaker Oats people felt about having their sponsors lines read at exactly that moment, as Geraldo Rivera just stumbles off the set mumbling. This massive televised failure brought to you by our excellent companies.

But that`s how we learned. There was nothing under the old Lexington Hotel anymore. Incidentally, that is also how we got Geraldo Rivera.

I mean, this thing is still remembered as one of the most embarrassing flops in the history of live TV. But freaking Budweiser and the Quaker Oats Company, they did sponsor it. Stroh`s beer and a bunch of other companies sponsored it, 30 million people watched. I mean, at base level, it was a huge success.

And it thereby taught us one very important and lasting lesson -- hype works. Even when it`s hype for what turns out to be nothing, hype works. And that is really a lesson that has stuck for Geraldo Rivera and for all the rest of us, too.

On Friday night, you know the "Washington Post" published that tape that it obtained mysteriously from the archives of NBC, unedited footage from a behind-the-scenes moment on the show "Access Hollywood" from 2005.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, BUSINESSMAN: You know, I moved on her actually. You know she was down on Palm Beach. I moved on her and I failed. I`ll admit it. I did try and (EXPLETIVE DELETED) her. She was married.

I moved on her like a (EXPLETIVE DELETED), but I couldn`t get there, and she was married.

Then, all of a sudden, I see her, she`s now got the big phony (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

Yes, that`s her, with the gold. I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know, I`m automatically attracted to beautiful -- I just start kissing them. It`s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don`t even wait.

And when you`re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.

BILLY BUSH: Whatever you want.

TRUMP: Grab them by the (EXPLETIVE DELETED). You can do anything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: That tape came out on Friday. On Sunday night, it was the night of the second presidential debate. It was still all anybody could talk about, right, including on the one cable news network that was least interested in talking about it on Friday night when that news first broke.

In the lead-up on Sunday, even on the FOX News Channel, they had to admit this was the story of the campaign. And in the middle of their pre-debate discussion that night, up popped -- hey, it`s Geraldo Rivera again.

And the firework that he set off on Sunday night on FOX News in the lead-up to their debate coverage that night was that, according to him, he said there are more Trump tapes of this kind. And you know who has them? Geraldo Rivera has them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RIVERA: I`ve interviewed Trump many times, been with him many times. There is tape that I have, Craig, my brother and I, have just started to go through the tapes now and there are some statements that in the context of the current climate would be, I think, would be embarrassing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: That was Sunday night. Kind of a bombshell, right? Tell me more.

Geraldo Rivera says he has more Trump tapes. They are embarrassing Trump tapes. I mean, is FOX News really going to release those tapes, FOX News of all places, really? Mr. Rivera, I`m hooked. I await your next pronouncement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RIVERA: I will open it on live television. Step inside the vault with me on April 21st.

ANNOUNCER: Discover the mystery.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: I want to discover the mystery. I am hooked. You`re good at this, sir. You`ve always been good at this.

But it turns out just like April 21st, 1986, it turns out once again it`s just dirt and maybe a stop sign. In the proverbial vault, no loot, no bodies.

Check out this climb-down from Mr. Rivera. Look at this, contrary to my on-air remarks, a search of my files found no relevant Trump tapes.

And then, a few minutes later, quote, "I apologize to Donald Trump for piling on and adding fuel to the Trump tape scandal. You always treated me and mine with respect and friendship."

So, reflecting on that respect and friendship, Geraldo Rivera has decided he doesn`t have tapes of Donald Trump after all, despite what he and his brother found the other day.

Even if the FOX News Channel and Geraldo Rivera have changed their mind and decided they don`t now have tapes of Donald Trump, we do continue to anticipate that other tapes of Donald Trump`s on-camera behavior may surface at some point. A lot of people involved with him in various TV shows over the years have described behavior that happened -- alleged behavior that happened while cameras were rolling that presumably produced tape. If those tapes emerge, that will be a problem for his campaign, if those tapes surface in the next three weeks.

I have to say, it will be a problem for the whole country if he`s elected president whereupon any such tapes could lead him to vulnerable blackmail as the president of this country.

But honestly, even if there aren`t other tapes forthcoming soon or ever, the tape that we`ve got, the "Access Hollywood" tape itself has really driven the whole campaign around the bend. This has sort of slid through in the last couple days and not received that much attention. But even one of Donald Trump`s evangelical supporters is claiming the "Access Hollywood" tape is a conspiracy, it`s a plot, and the conspiratorial plot that is that tape was hatched by none other than Paul Ryan.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

JERRY FALWELL, JR./LIBERTY UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT: You know, I think this whole tape, videotape thing was planned, I think it was timed. I think it might have even been a conspiracy, you know, among the establishment Republicans who have known about it for weeks and who tried to time it to do the maximum damage to Donald Trump.

I just think some of the establishment Republicans -- I`m not going to name any names. I`ve got some independent information, but I`m not going to reveal it on the air, but I just -- I think some of the establishment folks who reluctantly endorsed him had this planned all along as a way to slither out of the endorsements. I just really believe that it was all -- it wasn`t a coincidence that it came out right before Trump was supposed to appear with Paul Ryan at a rally and conveniently gave Paul Ryan a way to disinvite Trump.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

MADDOW: Jerry Falwell Jr. has it on good authority, he`s got good information he`s not going to reveal on the air, but he`s got good information that Paul Ryan and the Republican Party, they were the ones who leaked the "Access Hollywood" tapes. Which sounds insane to most people, but now, Trump himself is floating the idea himself.

Now that he`s the one floating it, all of his supporters will presumably start to believe that Paul Ryan is the one who made that tape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Wouldn`t you think that Paul Ryan would call and say, "good going" in front of just about the largest audience for a second night debate in the history of the country? So, you know, you would think they would go, "great going, Don, let`s go. Let`s beat this crook. She`s a crook, let`s beat her, we got to stop her."

No, he doesn`t do that. There is a whole deal going on, I mean, you know, there`s a whole deal going on, we`re going to figure it out. I always figure things out. But there is a whole sinister deal going on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: Donald Trump speaking last night about a sinister plot, a sinister deal going on between Paul Ryan and Hillary Clinton. And he, Donald Trump, is going to figure it out because I always figure things out.

Last night, the "New York Times" and the "Palm Beach Post" published allegations from three different women who say that Donald Trump groped them without their consent. One on an airplane, one when she was at work at Trump Tower, and one when she was with a friend, who was working at Donald Trump`s Florida estate.

The Trump campaign vehemently denies all the women`s allegations. The denials quickly today turned into threats of litigation. A Trump campaign official saying last night, quote, "New York Times" editors, reporters, politically motivated accusers all better lawyer up. Trump has now threatened to sue both of the newspapers who published those accounts.

It should also be noted that Trump threatened to sue the "New York Times" three weeks ago when they published pages of his tax return. Nothing seems to have come from that threat, and I should tell you that neither paper seems all that worried about the new threats of lawsuits from the Trump campaign either.

When "People Magazine" last night published another woman`s account of reportedly being forcibly kissed by Trump, and that threat was brought by Donald Trump`s wife, Melania Trump, threatening to sue "People" magazine and the woman who said Donald Trump groped her.

And threatening lawsuits is something that Donald Trump has done throughout his business career, throughout his career as a celebrity. I don`t think it`s going to work to stop these reports in the presidential campaign. We`re now at an interesting place because of that, because if this cascade of allegations against Donald Trump can`t be stopped now by the campaign denying it, and it can`t be stopped now by threats to sue these women or by threats to sue the news outlets that publish these allegations from these women?

And if many people expect that new tapes of Trump will likely emerge before the election, well, how are they going to handle this? Because it`s not working for them as it is now. It`s really thrown them off the rails. How are they going to handle this? How are they going to handle this new reality?

If Donald Trump`s speech in Florida today is any indication of how they`re going to handle it, the answer is not well. What he did in Florida is being called the single most extreme and angry speech of his entire extreme and angry campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: This is not simply another four-year election. This is a crossroads in the history of our civilization.

Hillary Clinton meets in secret with international banks to plot the destruction of U.S. sovereignty in order to enrich these global financial powers, her special interest friends and her donors.

AUDIENCE: Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!

TRUMP: Honestly, she should be locked up. Should be. Should be locked up.

This is a struggle for the survival of our nation, believe me. And this will be our last chance to save it on November 8.

This election will determine whether we`re a free nation or whether we have only the illusion of democracy, but are, in fact, controlled by a small handful of global, special interests rigging the system.

They will attack you. They will slander you. They will seek to destroy your career and your family. They will seek to destroy everything about you, including your reputation.

They will lie, lie, lie, and then again, they will do worse than that. They will do whatever is necessary.

The Clintons are criminals, remember that. They`re criminals. This is well-documented, and the establishment that protects them has engaged in a massive cover-up.

I take all of these slings and arrows gladly for you. I take them for our movement so that we can have our country back. Our great civilization here in America and across the civilized world has come upon a moment of reckoning.

I knew these false attacks would come. I knew this day would arrive. It was only a question of when.

This is a conspiracy against you, the American people, and we cannot let this happen or continue. This is our moment of reckoning as a society and as a civilization itself.

Many of my friends and many political experts warned me that this campaign would be a journey to hell. They said that. But they`re wrong. It will be a journey to heaven. I`m the only one that can fix it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: A journey to heaven. I will take their slings and arrows for you. And this is a conspiracy, a conspiracy against you by the international banks and the secret financial and global elite. You know who they are, right?

We knew this thing would get down to base level before too long. We did not know there were secret chambers off the basement that it could continue to descend into even after the thing had already bottomed out.

We`ll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MADDOW: So, here`s a story that has not yet broken in a big way, but I think it`s about to. So, heads up on this.

NBC News has obtained letters, two separate letters from two Donald Trump donors who are demanding refunds of their Trump donations, because of the "Access Hollywood" video that was published on Friday.

Quote, "I regret coming to the Trump support event and in particular, allowing my son to be part of it. I respectfully request that my money be refunded." And this is from the other letter, quote, "I have three young children and will not support a crude, sexist man. I expect a refund of my donation. Please process immediately."

I don`t have any special insight into NBC`s sourcing on this and who these donors are, but the bundler to whom these letters were sent, a big time fundraiser for Donald Trump, that person also tells NBC News that he has raised nearly a million dollars for Donald Trump this year, but he will not raise another dime for him now. Quote, "I give up. I`m totally walking out and disappointed. I`m embarrassed, I`m really embarrassed. I shook hands with him last week and now, I want to wash my hands."

So, two donors demanding their donations back. We`re told that between them, they`re donations amounted to tens of thousands of dollars. One major bundler in addition saying he`s out. In addition to that, staffers at four of the five super PACs that are backing Donald Trump now tell NBC that fundraising for Trump is a, quote, "struggle" right now.

And now, here`s an interesting thing, because the fundraising numbers for last month are out on the Clinton side. The Clinton side has reported what they got last month and you can see why they`re eager to get their numbers out. Hillary Clinton has more cash on hand than any presidential candidate has ever had at this point in the race.

But the Trump campaign so far has said nothing about their fundraising numbers from last month, or their cash on hand. They have to disclose it by next week, but so far, they have not said beep.

And we`ve got this other granular information about Mike Pence. There are a few things you really need to do as a vice president candidate. You`re supposed to carry your state, you`re supposed to attack the other side a lot and you`re supposed to raise money.

As we reported two nights ago, Mike Pence has had two fundraisers this week canceled for a notable specific reason: lack of interest. And lack of interest on the part of donors is not a reason that a presidential campaign should be cancelling its fundraisers with less than four weeks to go until Election Day.

We reported this earlier this week about Mike Pence apparently not being able to fill a room for some of his fundraisers. We`ve put in calls for comment or confirmation from the campaign. They have told us nothing. They have not responded to us at all.

But think about what this means, right? If the Republican Party, if its donors have shut off the Trump campaign in terms of raising money -- I mean, yes, I know it`s interesting to cover the personality dispute between the nominee and other Republican leaders, like, oh, why does Paul Ryan say no and Mitch McConnell say yes and what does Reince really think?

I mean, I know that that like tiger beat style personality based reporting. And this stuff is fund. But if the money spigot is shut off between the Republican Party and their candidate, that`s a big deal. I want to know if that`s really what`s happening. It seems like it is.

Trump campaign, Pence folks, please. Call us back. Let us know what`s going on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MADDOW: OK. Fair warning. We are about to blow things up a little bit. We don`t do this very often. I will tell you why we don`t do it very often in just a second, but this requires a lot of negotiation in the building. That negotiation happened over the course of the day.

I got what I wanted, so we are about to kind of blow this show up a little bit. Right after this break, we`re going to come back and do something that`s really hard to do that I really think is important. It`s something that happened in politics today that I think requires more than the usual way we talk about news stories, and we`re going to do all that right here next.

So, if you need to finish washing the dishes or something, you have this commercial break to do it. When we come back from this break, you are going to want to be seated down.

OK. See you in a second.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MADDOW: OK. We`ve only done this a couple other times in the eight-plus- year history of this show, and that`s because it`s really hard to persuade the people who run this network, right, the people who are responsible for paying the bills around here, it`s really hard to persuade them to let me do something like this. But they listened to me today and I got the green light.

So, first, I want to say thank you to my boss, Phil Griffin, also to Andy Lack in the corner office, and to the other big deal suits here who had to sign off on this and for whom I realize this is a very difficult, very expensive ask. But I asked and they said yes. So here goes. Commercial breaks be damned.

All right. You probably heard today that the first lady, Michelle Obama, gave a big speech. You might have heard clips from that speech today. You might have read headlines about it. But if you were at work or at school when this happened, if you have not actually heard it the way she gave it, you should.

And I have a favor to ask. I want you to change your plan for how you were going to watch TV tonight. Just trust me. Stop what you were doing, hit pause if you need to, to get organized because you`re not going to want to get up in the middle of this. Just -- I have cut out of this speech, I`ll tell you, the partisan part, the part about promoting Hillary Clinton`s candidacy. That is findable online if you want to hear it. It is stuff you have heard before.

What you have not heard before and what I really think you should watch, what I sort of moved heaven and earth so that you can watch in full is the rest of her remarks. So, if you`re watching on your own right now, go grab your roommate or your mom. Or go get your kids. If you have kids in particular, I mean, you may have been feeling skeeved out and embarrassed about letting your kids see politics the last couple days because of the subject matter it has turned to.

If you have been feeling that way, now, go get the kids and have them watch it with you, because this is not the cure to the grotty, sexualized violent turn this campaign has taken, but this speech today from the first lady should be seen. It is the most powerful things I have seen anybody say about it in any context. It is not a cure, but it helps. It is not a normal thing we`re going to play this big piece of tape uninterrupted, but I totally think it`s worth it for you to watch it, and I would not ask you to watch it if I did not think that was true, so trust me.

Sit down. Watch this in full.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: So I`m going to get a little serious here, because I think we can all agree that this has been a rough week in an already rough election. This week has been particularly interesting for me personally because it has been a week of profound contrast.

See, on Tuesday, at the White House, we celebrated the International Day of the Girl and Let Girls Learn.

(APPLAUSE)

And it was a wonderful celebration. It was the last event that I`m going to be doing as First Lady for Let Girls Learn. And I had the pleasure of spending hours talking to some of the most amazing young women you will ever meet, young girls here in the U.S. and all around the world.

I walked away feeling so inspired, just like I`m inspired by all the young people here

(APPLAUSE)

And I was so uplifted by these girls. That was Tuesday.

And now, here I am, out on the campaign trail in an election where we have consistently been hearing hurtful, hateful language about women -- language that has been painful for so many of us, not just as women, but as parents trying to protect our children and raise them to be caring, respectful adults, and as citizens who think that our nation`s leaders should meet basic standards of human decency.

(APPLAUSE)

The fact is that in this election, we have a candidate for president of the United States who, over the course of his lifetime and the course of this campaign, has said things about women that are so shocking, so demeaning that I simply will not repeat anything here today. And last week, we saw this candidate actually bragging about sexually assaulting women. And I can`t believe that I`m saying that a candidate for president of the United States has bragged about sexually assaulting women.

And I have to tell you that I can`t stop thinking about this. It has shaken me to my core in a way that I couldn`t have predicted. So while I`d love nothing more than to pretend like this isn`t happening, and to come out here and do my normal campaign speech, it would be dishonest and disingenuous to me to just move on to the next thing like this was all just a bad dream.

This is not something that we can ignore. It`s not something we can just sweep under the rug as just another disturbing footnote in a sad election season, because this was not just a "lewd conversation". This wasn`t just locker-room banter. This was a powerful individual speaking freely and openly about sexually predatory behavior, and actually bragging about kissing and groping women, using language so obscene that many of us were worried about our children hearing it when we turn on the TV.

And to make matters worse, it now seems very clear that this isn`t an isolated incident. It`s one of countless examples of how he has treated women his whole life. And I have to tell you that I listen to all of this and I feel it so personally, and I`m sure that many of you do too, particularly the women. The shameful comments about our bodies. The disrespect of our ambitions and intellect. The belief that you can do anything you want to a woman.

It is cruel. It`s frightening. And the truth is, it hurts. It hurts. It`s like that sick, sinking feeling you get when you`re walking down the street minding your own business and some guy yells out vulgar words about your body. Or when you see that guy at work that stands just a little too close, stares a little too long, and makes you feel uncomfortable in your own skin.

It`s that feeling of terror and violation that too many women have felt when someone has grabbed them, or forced himself on them and they`ve said no but he didn`t listen -- something that we know happens on college campuses and countless other places every single day. It reminds us of stories we heard from our mothers and grandmothers about how, back in their day, the boss could say and do whatever he pleased to the women in the office, and even though they worked so hard, jumped over every hurdle to prove themselves, it was never enough.

We thought all of that was ancient history, didn`t we? And so many have worked for so many years to end this kind of violence and abuse and disrespect, but here we are, in 2016, and we`re hearing these exact same things every day on the campaign trail. We are drowning in it.

And all of us are doing what women have always done -- we`re trying to keep our heads above water, just trying to get through it, trying to pretend like this doesn`t really bother us, maybe because we think that admitting how much it hurts makes us as women look weak. Maybe we`re afraid to be that vulnerable.

Maybe we`ve grown accustomed to swallowing these emotions and staying quiet, because we`ve seen that people often won`t take our word over his. Or maybe we don`t want to believe that there are still people out there who think so little of us as women. Too many are treating this as just another day`s headline, as if our outrage is overblown or unwarranted, as if this is normal, just politics as usual.

But, New Hampshire, be clear: This is not normal. This is not politics as usual.

(APPLAUSE)

This is disgraceful. It is intolerable. And it doesn`t matter what party you belong to -- Democrat, Republican, independent -- no woman deserves to be treated this way. None of us deserves this kind of abuse.

(APPLAUSE)

And I know it`s a campaign, but this isn`t about politics. It`s about basic human decency. It`s about right and wrong.

(APPLAUSE)

And we simply cannot endure this, or expose our children to this any longer -- not for another minute, and let alone for four years.

(APPLAUSE)

Now is the time for all of us to stand up and say enough is enough.

(APPLAUSE)

This has got to stop right now.

(APPLAUSE)

Because consider this: If all of this is painful to us as grown women, what do you think this is doing to our children? What message are our little girls hearing about who they should look like, how they should act? What lessons are they learning about their value as professionals, as human beings, about their dreams and aspirations?

And how is this affecting men and boys in this country? Because I can tell you that the men in my life do not talk about women like this. And I know that my family is not unusual.

(APPLAUSE)

And to dismiss this as everyday locker-room talk is an insult to decent men everywhere.

(APPLAUSE)

The men that you and I know don`t treat women this way. They are loving fathers who are sickened by the thought of their daughters being exposed to this kind of vicious language about women. They are husbands and brothers and sons who don`t tolerate women being treated and demeaned and disrespected.

(APPLAUSE)

And like us, these men are worried about the impact this election is having on our boys who are looking for role models of what it means to be a man.

(APPLAUSE)

Because let`s be very clear: Strong men -- men who are truly role models -- don`t need to put down women to make themselves feel powerful.

(APPLAUSE)

People who are truly strong lift others up. People who are truly powerful bring others together. And that is what we need in our next president. We need someone who is a uniting force in this country. We need someone who will heal the wounds that divide us, someone who truly cares about us and our children, someone with strength and compassion to lead this country forward.

(APPLAUSE)

And let me tell you, I`m here today because I believe with all of my heart that Hillary Clinton will be that president.

(APPLAUSE)

In our hearts, we all know that if we let Hillary`s opponent win this election, then we are sending a clear message to our kids that everything they`re seeing and hearing is perfectly okay. We are validating it. We are endorsing it.

We`re telling our sons that it`s okay to humiliate women. We`re telling our daughters that this is how they deserve to be treated. We`re telling all our kids that bigotry and bullying are perfectly acceptable in the leader of their country. Is that what we want for our children?

AUDIENCE: No!

OBAMA: And remember, we won`t just be setting a bad example for our kids, but for our entire world. Because for so long, America has been a model for countries across the globe, pushing them to educate their girls, insisting that they give more rights to their women. But if we have a President who routinely degrades women, who brags about sexually assaulting women, then how can we maintain our moral authority in the world? How can we continue to be a beacon of freedom and justice and human dignity?

(APPLAUSE)

Well, fortunately, New Hampshire, here`s the beauty: We have everything we need to stop this madness. You see, while our mothers and grandmothers were often powerless to change their circumstances, today, we as women have all the power we need to determine the outcome of this election.

(APPLAUSE)

We have knowledge. We have a voice. We have a vote. And on November the 8th, we as women, we as Americans, we as decent human beings can come together and declare that enough is enough, and we do not tolerate this kind of behavior in this country.

(APPLAUSE)

We cannot allow ourselves to be so disgusted that we just shut off the TV and walk away. And we can`t just sit around wringing our hands. Now, we need to recover from our shock and depression and do what women have always done in this country. We need you to roll up your sleeves. We need to get to work.

(APPLAUSE)

Because remember this: When they go low, we go --

AUDIENCE: High!

OBAMA: Yes, we do.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MADDOW: I want to say thank you again to my boss, to the president of this network for allowing me to break format and kill commercials so I could play that at such length tonight, but I figured that because of the time of day it happened, a lot of you might not have seen it, and you can see why I wanted you to see it, right?

Michelle Obama, first lady for 100 more days exactly. I`ll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MADDOW: Have you ever seen a catamaran? You know what a catamaran is? You`ve got your cruising catamarans like this one. There are also racing catamarans, those are used in ocean racing, that`s what they race at the Olympics.

But when the U.S. Navy does a catamaran, it`s a different kind of thing. This hybrid souped up catamaran is a ship called the HSV-2 Swift. HSV part of that stands for "high speed vessel."

This is a super fast ship. It`s a wave-piercing catamaran. It has a helicopter plight deck, a vehicle deck. This is a fast, versatile warship.

This particular one was built in 2003. It was part of the United States Navy until last year. And then last year, we leased this particular ship to the United Arab Emirates.

And two weekends ago on October 1, that ship got blown up. It was destroyed. It was hit by a missile as it was traveling between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, went up in flames. Again, a former U.S. Navy ship being operated by the UAE, that happened two weeks ago.

On Sunday this past weekend and again yesterday, cruise missile were launched at a Navy vessel that is still a U.S. ship. The USS Mason, which is a U.S. Navy destroyer, the Mason was off the coast of the Red Sea, in international waters, when the Navy says it was shot at by cruise missiles that came at it from Yemen.

Now, the destroyer was not hit, they say they shot back, defensively. But the strike on that former U.S. Navy catamaran and both Sunday and yesterday`s strike against the USS Mason, the U.S. says all of those strikes come from the Houthis that`s fighting the Yemeni government in the civil war in that country. The Houthis are in a civil war with the government in Yemen. They control a great deal of territory in Yemen.

Early this morning, the U.S. navy fired five tomahawk missiles at three radar sites that U.S. officials believe the rebels were using to track the movements of American ships and launch these missiles that hit that catamaran and that were shot at our destroyer. And with these tomahawk missiles being shots, this is the first shot the U.S. military has fired in the ongoing civil war in Yemen.

We`re told that these strikes were personally authorized by President Obama.

Now, the Houthis, these rebel group fighting the Yemeni government, they are Shiite Muslims. They are reportedly backed by Iran. Today, after a U.S. Navy ship fired tomahawks at these Houthi radar sites, Iran`s semi- official news agency reported that now, coincidentally, Iran is deploying two of its own Iranian warships off the same coast where our ships are now.

You might remember Republican candidate Donald Trump said in an offhanded remark during the campaign that if Iranian ships got too close to American ships and if Iranian sailors made rude gestures toward our American sailors under him, under President Trump, we`d blow those Iranian ships out of the water. Well, Iranian ships and U.S. ships are now in the same waters off the coast of Yemen in the middle of a war with tomahawk missiles and cruise missiles already flying. Steady on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MADDOW: Debunktion Junction, what`s my function?

A headline at Politico.com today, RNC TV ad spending for Trump, zero dollars. National party breaks with tradition of spending on ads supporting its nominees. That`s how this was received today. RNC deprives Trump of ad expenditure.

The Republican Party is starving Donald Trump of TV ad this is election cycle. Is that true or is that false?

(BUZZER)

False. Interesting story. Now, the RNC did run ads for McCain in `08 and for Romney in 2012, but their decision to not do that again this year, really, I swear, had nothing to do with Donald Trump. I can tell you that for sure because they announced they wouldn`t run ads for their nominee this year three years ago in 2013. They said it was bad strategy.

And so, yes, Trump supporters are calling this no ads thing shameful evidence that the Republican Party hates Donald Trump. It might hate Donald Trump. But if you`re looking for evidence of that, this story about the RNC not spending any money on TV ads for Trump, this is not that evidence. They weren`t going to run TV ads for their nominee this year no matter who their nominee was. I swear. I know you don`t believe me, but I swear.

That does it for us tonight. We`ll see you again tomorrow.

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

Good evening, Lawrence. I`m sorry, I took 34 of your seconds.

END

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. END