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Ready, set, forward.

Good evening and welcome to the weeknight.

I'm Alicia Menendez with Michael Steele and Jackie El Mani in Personone.

Breaking tonight, Donald Trump is desperate to change the subject

from his war of choice with Iran,

but it's increasingly becoming a major liability for the GOP

that they cannot escape.

Then Pete Hexeth turns the Pentagon into a home for Christian nationalism.

Using the Bible to attack the press,

former CIA director John Brennan is here to react.

And a Republican Senator says the quiet part out loud,

admitting the party has done nothing with their majorities.

Congresswoman Ayanna Presley joins the table soon.

But folks, let's begin with breaking tonight.

Donald Trump is desperately trying and failing

to divert attention away from the economic blowback sparked by his war of choice with Iran.

Right now, Trump is moments away from holding a roundtable event in Las Vegas.

He wants you to forget about sky-high gas prices and an uptick in inflation.

Instead, he's touting his limited no-tax on tips policy,

which sunsets, goes away, disappear, stops, ends before he leaves office.

When Trump departed the White House today,

he told reporters gas prices are, quote, not very high.

Reality check, the national average for a regular gallon of gas,

stands at $4.09, a gallon.

That's more than a dollar higher than before the war.

And voters are, yeah, feeling it.

A new Ipsos poll shows that 24% of Americans say the cost and benefits of Trump's war are worth it.

For nearly seven weeks now, Trump has failed to effectively explain why America is at war.

And yet he seems more focused on a petty, one-sided feud with Pope.

A publicist spat, if you will, that's dividing just parts of MAGA and the country.

But after days of taunting the Pope for daring to criticize the war, Trump now claims

there's no feud at all.

I'm not fighting with him.

I have a right to disagree with the Pope.

The Pope can say what he wants.

And I want him to say what he wants, but I can disagree.

If the Pope would allow a rent to have a nuclear weapon, you can't do that.

I have nothing against the Pope. His brother is MAGA all the way.

I like his brother, Lewis.

It's like the Holy Spirit found him, Michael.

I don't know what spirit that was, but that wasn't Holy,

because I have for that was a lot of gobbledygook.

I mean, ending it with the president's brother's MAGA, what does that mean?

First off, the Pope has never said he wants Iran to have a weapon of mass destruction

like nuclear weapons. What he said is he wants peace.

And Donald Trump claiming that the Pope can say whatever he wants,

we're clearly not because it seemed to really get under your skin

when he said something that you didn't agree with.

So which is it?

And like everything that we've seen Jackie,

this president is all over the map. There is no effective way for him to have the kind of

conversation about anything, because from one moment to the next, we don't know where he stands.

That's right. I mean, you had this White House. You had the president take the rare step

of deciding to delete a tweet after there was so much blowback that figures on the religious right

even came out and criticized him. And then in the very next breath, doubling down on why he

decided to compare himself to Jesus Pete Hegseth, taking to the podium today to again compare the

president to Jesus and compare reporters to the Pharisees, JD Vance, challenging the Pope as well,

telling him to be better versed in what he was talking about and to stay out of politics.

So obviously a ton of mixed messaging coming from the White House, but at the end of the day,

all of these people speaking to the audience of one.

Well, let's bring in Angela Korson, president and CEO of Media Matters and Charlie Sykes,

he writes the sub-stacked newsletter to the contrary to help us unpack the crazy.

Angela, in the absence of a coherent narrative coming from the White House, what is it that

right-wing media is currently running with?

Well, I mean, they're running with Trump is doing a bad job and they're mad at him.

That's what a large segment of the more. I mean, Tucker Carlson, who you know used to introduce

Trump at rallies, right, was a big supporter. It's not just that he's been criticizing. I mean,

he recently questioned whether or not he was the Antichrist.

And I think the more significant thing that he's been saying is that Trump is lawless.

And then on the other hand, there's a small segment, the traditional right-wing media,

that are trying to figure out how to defend him on gas prices, because that's ultimately

what this is about. But I think at its core, what you're basically seeing is a coalition that is

fracturing. And they're really not deciding how to attack Trump, but they've already,

they think the more important thing is they've mostly decided that they're not going to be defending

him or carrying water for him anymore. That's to me the big takeaway from it.

And it feels like really up until this week, we hadn't seen though the MAGA coalition really

start to fracture, at least with regards to attitudes about Iran. This week seems to be the first

week where those numbers are starting to cradle. How long in your experience do usually see sort

of the trickle down from people who take their opinion cues from people like Tucker Carlson,

Megan Kelly, and when it actually becomes their true opinion that's showing up in surveys?

Look, I think what we're seeing right now is the cumulative effect of a bunch of fault lines

that had been tweaked for the past eight or nine months. It started with Epstein last spring,

people started to question, then there was that flip flare up in the fall, then it was gas prices

in Iran. It's really been sort of this cumulative effect. It takes time, and it is bearing out,

because one of the effects, and I think that's the question I get all the time, is what's the

so what about these people doing it? It's exactly what you said. What does that mean in the grand

scheme of things when it comes to people's political identity? And you're seeing that play out right

now. Takes time. And one is that they usually snap back. So we don't have a lot of test cases to say

how long does it take for them to have broad scale change in public opinion? Because the thing is,

they almost always snap back even when they do criticize. So his durability has been the

testament to his to that effect. Right now though, you're seeing amongst white

amongst white people with out college educations, Trump has lost 40% in the polling in the last

month or so. That is the effect of this. So it takes time, but I think what we're really seeing is a

narrative that's calcified. And that's the ultimate effect. And no matter which demographic you

look at, the his numbers are all collapsing across the board. And that's the political so what?

And that's why you get something like a speaker Johnson saying, I called him to tell him to take it

down. I mean, he hasn't called him. He hasn't read about calling Trump to take intervention

up until this point. But that I think is the real tell is that you have the right wing media,

and a lot of these people changing their narrative about Trump, that then changes the politics,

the opinions that across the segment. And then you have people beginning to take actions

to try to respond more to where the political base is. I think this is not anything to

lot here, but it's a reflection of just how much has changed. In other words, they're not leaders

Charlie. They they remain followers. They just try to get out in front of the following.

Let's let's talk a little bit about the following though and what that looks and sounds like.

I want you to listen to Pope Leo. All right. Let's listen to the Pope talking about

manipulating religion. Jesus told us, blessed are the peacemakers,

but will to those who manipulate religion in the very name of God for their own military

economic or political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.

Not not a message you can mistake. Not a message you can mistake. And that's what

Earth's Trump. That's what gets under his skin because there's an individual out there with

a moral clarity and an important counter message if you will, even though that's not necessarily

the intent of the Pope. I had a piece that I did on MSNOW that talked about, you know,

how the Pope and the president are looking at this. And I want to draw the attention,

this note from that piece. Trump treats everything, especially politics, like a loyalty test.

It is not enough for members of his party or cabinet to agree with him. Then this goes a little bit

to what Angelo is just saying. They must submit. And as we recently learned, he expects the same from

the church. What Trump wants is a Pope who falls in line. Even Christ never demanded that kind of

loyalty because faith is blind. Faith is a very different kind of energy that Donald Trump

doesn't know about or is not familiar with. How do you see when you listen to the Pope tell us,

Jesus told us, I thought the Pope ain't telling you this. Jesus told you this. And Donald Trump's

response is do as I say. Yeah, this is not someone who's going to fall in line. This is not a Pope

who is going to bow the knee to Donald Trump. But this is a fight that Donald Trump apparently

wants to do to distract from what? I mean, think about the number of things that are off message here

before I get to the answer to that question. You know, you want to talk about no taxes on tips.

Now, you know, in theory, that's the kind of economic message that Republicans like,

where it was a political winner. He has stepped all over it. Donald Trump has a

weapon of mass distraction distracts from his own message. And so what are we having now?

We are having to your point a discussion about what is the heart of Christianity? What is the

message of the church? What would Jesus do? Would Jesus sound like Pete Hegseth? Would Jesus

sound like JD Vans just a using using scripture to justify cutting off a deport people around the

world or mass deportations or family separations or the bombing of Iran? So, you know, this does go

at the very, very heart of Trump's claim that he is somehow this great defender of Christendom.

And it was so interesting to watch the juxtaposition today of the Pope's comment about people

manipulating religion coming out really right on the heels of Pete Hegseth's very, very bizarre

invocation of the gospel according to Marx to attack to attack the media as a bunch of Pharisees.

So, he does the Pope does not have to name Donald Trump, JD Vans or Pete Hegseth by name,

but everybody knows who he's talking about. And he brings moral authority and this guy is not

backing down. The problem, Angelo, is that as they slip through this quicksand, whether it is

the Pope quicksand or the war in Iran, quicksand, they don't have a lot of solid higher ground

to reach for. And that is evident when you listen to the way that these Republicans,

whether it be a member of Congress, whether it is Scott Bessent, talk about the reality of gas prices,

take a listen to the best they've got. I'm sorry the gas prices are going up but help is on

his way and your national security, yes, is even more important than your pocketbook. I'm optimistic

that sometime between June 20th and September 20th, that we can have three dollar gas again.

How much longer will Americans continue to see these high gas prices? Well, then that's very high.

I mean, Angelo, I don't know which message it is they're supposed to be pivoting to at this point.

Yeah, I mean, they don't really either and they're trying to tell people that the economy

is somehow better and if they're not saying that, they're saying it's going to get better just

on the other side of this. And I think to me, that's the top line takeaway from all of this is that

not much has really fundamentally changed and how Trump behaves, how Trump acts, the things he says.

He's gone after the Pope and said all kinds of terrible stuff before, right? What is different

right now is actually that his own people are experiencing really significant economic pain and

they think that economic pain is going to continue to get worse because of the things that Donald

Trump is doing. So they're more likely to criticize him for the Pope's stuff, for the religious stuff,

for the other crazy things that he says because they're mad about that. That to me is the one

they take away. And to your point about what is their message, I mean, think about it.

Their big celebration right now is that they're not going to tax tips in the massive, in the

most of this economic crisis and things are getting worse, but that's good. That's that is what's at

the top. They're not going to tax tips for a very short period of time. That's right. For a short period of time.

I mean, the person they're signaling, I'm beheading out there, is the Dordesh grandma. A person that

literally is doing Dordesh as a grandmother to pay her medical bills. Like that is the person

they're holding up as an example of the consequence of the effect of their economic policy. So

they don't actually have a coherent message. They're just trying to sell a really old long con here.

And that's why it is sort of seemingly unraveling. Their feedback loop is working in reverse

on their own people. And at least, yeah, I do want to give you a quick update. There has been some

message discipline as of today. Scott Besson updated his commentary on the gas and told a reporter

as I was walking on my way out of the White House today that voters in their heart of hearts,

they feel good. I'm not sure what they're telling the survey people when he was asked about

the gas prices. But Charlie, I want to ask you about a different conversation that I also had

with a person who's close to the Trump administration who basically said that there's still time here

that when this person is in conversation with people on the hill and at the White House,

they're not in complete panic mode yet. That there is this feeling, according to some internal

polling that has been circulating, that if they get some message discipline and start to tighten

up the ship and have everyone rowing in the same direction come Memorial Day weekend, that there's

still a chance for House and Senate Republicans to hang onto the majority. Do you think this is a

realistic assessment? Well, have they met Donald Trump? I mean, have they followed Donald Trump

over the last 10 years? I mean, seriously, that if we can get message discipline, I mean, that if

is carrying a lot of water there, isn't it? Because the one thing we've learned about Donald Trump

is that he has no message discipline. We are all over the map. I mean, our conversation today,

when you think about it, all of the things that he's spinning out, it's like watching this

whirligig of, you know, of undisciplined things. A president who on one day can, you know,

Easter Sunday drop, you know, an F bomb on Easter Sunday. The next day, talk about, you know,

civilizations will die a couple of days later attack the Pope and then, you know, post a meme of

himself as Jesus. These people think that suddenly, miraculously by Memorial Day, we're going to have

suddenly a new and improved Donald Trump who will exercise message discipline. That strikes me as

whistling past the graveyard a little bit. Yeah, that's one hell of a graveyard because, you know,

Memorial Day is what, what, six weeks away. And he hasn't been able to do that in six years,

so yeah, good luck with that. Angela Carson, Charlie Sox, thank you guys very much,

appreciate you. Folks, in just a moment, Pete Hexeth compares the news media to the enemies of

Jesus in a bizarre briefing, former CIA director Don Brennan is here to react. And later,

Congressman Diana Presley joins us and talks about just how Democrats are about to go to a rare

victory here, successfully bucking the president on his immigration agenda. Congressman joins

us very soon for that conversation. You're watching the weeknight.

On April 21st, make the time to vote no. Abigail Spanberger and the Richmond Democrats want to rig

our congressional elections. Their monopoly map will elect 10 Democrats and only one Republican.

It's a power grab. So Spanberger and the Democrats can raise our taxes, grab our guns,

and give welfare to illegal aliens. Election day is April 21st. Don't let Spanberger and the

Liberals win. Vote on April 21st, paid for by Virginians for Fair Maps RC.

Days after Donald Trump faced bipartisan condemnation for social posts portraying himself in a

Jesus-like manner, Pete Hexeth compared the news media to a group of villains from the Bible

and put Trump in the role of Jesus. Take a listen.

The Pharisees, the so-called and self-appointed elites of their time, they were there to witness

to write everything down to report. But their hearts were hardened. Even though they witnessed a

literal miracle, it didn't matter. They were only there to explain away the goodness

in pursuit of their agenda, not all of you, but the legacy Trump hating press.

You're politically motivated, animus, for President Trump nearly completely blinds you

from the brilliance of our American warriors. The Pharisees scrutinized every good act

in order to find a violation, only looking for the negative.

Secretary of Defense, or a poorly informed Catechism teacher, joining us to discuss

former CIA director John Brennan. He's an MSNOW senior national security and intelligence

analyst. Director Brennan and I were having a moment where we're both clasping our tests

during the reading of that. Director, the secretary then went on to share a prayer with us,

which I'd like you to listen to. Let's take a quick listen to that.

It kind of feels like that, doesn't it, folks? Doesn't it kind of feel like that? Well, Secretary

Hexath, let me share with you another idea or prayer, if you will. It's a little thing called

Exodus chapter 20 verses 3 through 6. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make

yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the

waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them. For I the Lord your God,

Emma jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth

generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generation of those who love me

and keep my commandments. Sir, I duck. The reality of it is, if you want to play in this space,

if you want to play Sunday school teacher, secretary defense, as Alicia said, giving a bad

version of the catechism or religious education, you've got to be prepared to deal with what a

Pope may have to say. What fellow Christians may have to say in response to that. That's not the

space you come out of, obviously, but you know from your work, both here in the US and around

the globe and looking at how governments respond in moments like this and what that says to people,

what's your take away? What does it say to citizens when they hear their government thinking,

acting and behaving this way? What should we be concerned about? Because I don't think people

fully appreciate where all this leads. I think people are aghast. I'm the product of 17 years of

Catholic education. Oh, yeah, you, yeah. When he Texas was thrown down today, there's no resemblance

whatsoever to the ethos of the Catholic faith or Christian ideals. That was not so. That really

was. But also the US military is a religiously diverse, multi-confessional organization that want

to do what they have to do on behalf of a country, not on behalf of a religion or that perverted

view of what he was saying today. And so it just is very, it's idiotic. It's kind of productive.

At a time when the US military is involved, it's very difficult operations to have somebody like

Peter Hex or the Secretary of Defense, not the Secretary of War, the Secretary of Defense,

who is using these biblical verses in a very distorted and misrepresenting, in fact the ideals

of Christianity, which is why the Pope has been so outspoken about what is going on right now.

And I think most Catholics, those who are practicing their faith and as well as those who have

been brought up in their faith, can see that Donald Trump and Pete Hexath are not in any way

representing, again, the ideals of Christianity and the ethos again of the Catholic faith,

which is really supposed to be trying to promote peace and love, which is what the Pope was saying.

And so the past couple of days, and I just came back from Europe. I've been over there a

couple of times in the past couple of weeks. And I must tell you, people are looking at the leaders

of this country and just being so confused as to this is not what they are used to seeing from

American leaders and really just putting us in a very bad light. What were you doing in Europe?

I was talking to people. I was briefing folks and they want to understand exactly what's going

on in this country. And also what the role of the United States is on the world stage now,

given that Donald Trump has taken a very, very unique approach to international relations.

And they want to know whether or not this is going to be enduring and also understanding the

lasting impact. I want to hear from them how they are now reacting to what's going on here in

Washington. You know, what NATO countries are thinking about, how they're going to ensure that

they can have the peace and security and stability that they need while the United States is off

on this very, I think, destructive tangent of what our history has been.

Why do you think this has been the red line for so many steadfast Trump supporters? People like

Georgia Maloney, who has been very reticent to criticize Trump.

Because it seems blasphemous. It's also seen as, you know, the Pope has always represented

sort of the goodness of the Christian faith. And, you know, he's worked in the Middle East a lot.

And there was a lot of reverence and respect for the Pope among the Muslim faithful.

Because they see that the role of the Pope is to try to bring this world together.

And they see that what Donald Trump is doing and he's portraying himself as a Messiah,

Jesus, whatever, and is fighting publicly with the Pope. While the Pope is just saying,

basically, war is wrong. What we need to do is to get back to principles of peace and be able to

live together. And so, you know, I give the Pope a lot of credit and praise for speaking out

at this very difficult time.

Director Brennan, I'm going to take a hard pivot here. But there's some new reporting in Reuters

today about you. And I want to give you a chance to respond to the FBI apparently ramping up their

probe into you over the Russia report. The probe represents a far-reaching effort by Trump's

Justice Department to revisit an investigation whose core conclusions were later affirmed by the

Justice Department, a bipartisan Senate committee and a CIA review, fueling critics concerns that the

Trump administration is using prosecutorial power to target perceived adversaries and relitigate

a central episode of Trump's first term. I want to focus on the second part of that, that the

relitigation, why do you think that remains so critical to them?

Well, because, you know, Trump cannot get over the fact that in the 2016 election,

the Russians did intervene and trying to promote his chances of being victorious in the

presidential election. And they denigrated Hillary Clinton. And he feels as though that's attained.

And this is all part, I think, of a retribution campaign. So, yeah, people like Jim Jordan,

who is obviously a highly partisan individual, who's, I think, unethical, unprincipled in terms

of making criminal referrals to the Department of Justice. You know, when I saw that report,

I like to think that the Department of Justice prosecutors are doing the right thing, which is to

interview people. I'm glad they're interviewing people. I'm glad they're going to be able to hear

from people who were involved in this period, who worked on the assessment, who can say exactly

what happened. I feel very, very confident in terms of what I have always said to Congress,

in opening closed sessions, is consistent with the facts. And so, again, I am looking toward

those prosecutors to be able to carry out their duties, their obligations, and responsibilities,

in an ethical, principle, and legal manner. I'm just hoping that this is going to come to

an end sooner or later. You know, I think about your story, and I think about the story of many

others, director, that we've talked about at this table, from, you know, private citizens to those

in public service, who've come under this hammer of this administration. And I'm reminded of,

you know, again, since we've talked about and opened the Bible, you know, blessed are those who

are persecuted for, you know, for, you know, they are the ones who are the righteous ones,

and they will be remembered for that. And the reality is, this effort right now is not just

touching those who have served publicly in forward facing. It's also touching those who are

doing the day-to-day work inside our government, who have been asked to do things that they,

that that doesn't seem right. I got to put a pin there and come back to that and maybe talk to

somebody. You have now, Gabby, Tulsi Gabbard going after the whistleblower, and Representative

Jim Hines making note of the fact that the whistleblower who made Congress aware of Donald Trump's

efforts to extort a Ukraine and falsely smear his opponent, followed all the rules and demonstrated

courage and principle. No amount of psychophatic, this is a new one, Lick's Biddle, will erase the fact

that the perfect call was released, and the American people could see Trump's corruption and abuse

of power firsthand. This goes to what you just said about investigation. Do the investigation. You

want to come at me, do the investigation because the investigation will show you very much as the

Congressman noted here, that there was not the thing the administration says it was, right? These

things did not unfold the way they're now portraying them. How do you, you look at these,

these bookends of, of persecutions and prosecutions and things like that for those,

with public profile and those without, where do you land right now?

Well, I think like many of my former colleagues, I'm very proud of my 33 years of public service,

and I stand behind that record. And so when the former Inspector General and a whistleblower

are now being prosecuted, persecuted by Tulsi Gabbard, when the acting Director of National

Intelligence at the time, Joe Maguire, a former admiral, very widely respected, said that both

of those individuals, like Representative Heimsted, carried out their responsibilities appropriately,

and consistent with all of the requirements and policies and laws. And so what I'm concerned

about, though, is that all those FBI agents and those Department of Justice prosecutors who are

pursuing this, the opportunity lost to do other things that are meaningful, the resources that

are being expended to go on these false witch hunts. This is really the cost when this country faces

so many challenges on the cyber front, on the international crime front, so many fronts here,

and now we have FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors who are being pulled off of these things,

leaving us, I think, vulnerable as a nation. Former CIA Director John Brennan, thank you,

sir, for being with us. Coming up next, as Republicans struggle to govern despite their

congressional majorities, Democrats are finding ways to notch important victories. Congresswoman

Ayanna Press is going to join us at the table on the win she just scored today that is right here

on the weekday. On April 21st, make the time to vote no. Abigail Spanberger and the

Richmond Democrats want to rig our congressional elections. Their monopoly map will elect

10 Democrats and only one Republican. It's a power grab. So Spanberger and the Democrats can

raise our taxes, grab our guns, and give welfare to illegal aliens. Election day is April 21st.

Don't let Spanberger and the liberals win. Vote on April 21st, paid for by Virginians for Fair

Maps RC. Senator Tommy Tupperville just said the quiet part out loud. Republicans have done nothing

with their congressional majorities. Everything that goes on up here, Benny, is about,

oh, we got to get reelected. We got to keep the majority. Well, hell, we ain't done anything

in a majority. While we should, while we should we keep majority? Meanwhile, Democrats are

finding ways to score small, but meaningful wins in the minority. Today, 11 Republicans

joined House Democrats to pass legislation that rein states temporary protected status for

Haitian immigrants. The bill now heads to the Senate, and it marks a rare Republican

rebuke of Trump's immigration agenda. Joining us now is the lawmaker who led the effort

to get this bill to the Senate, Democratic Congressman Ayanna Presley of Massachusetts.

Congressman, I want to make sure that we don't undersell what an accomplishment this is. How huge

it is for the 350,000 or so Haitians in this country who have temporary protected status

for their families, for their communities. I wasn't surprised to see a lot of the Miamians,

the Floridians, Republicans join this effort. They know that come election time. They're going to

have to answer to their constituents about this. I will admit, I was a little more surprised to see

Congressman Bacon and his rationale. Let me read us to you, and then you can respond. This is what he

told the Wall Street Journal. Nebraska Republican Representative Don Bacon, who's retiring, voted for

the measure. He said the removal of temporary protected status would affect workplaces in Nebraska,

including in the healthcare industry that are already facing serious staff shortages.

I don't see the goodness of deporting people who are here legally working and contributing to

our country, Bacon said in a social media post. How did you pull this rabbit out of this hat?

Well, I appreciate the question very much. It was certainly a massive undertaking that yielded

a massive victory that is deeply meaningful and ultimately just a good common sense policy

and the right thing to do. This State Department affirms that Haiti is not a safe place to visit,

much less a place to be permanently deported to. 350,000 Haitian nationals, I represent

the third largest Haitian diaspora in the country. I co-chair the House Haiti Caucus.

This was not only in defense of our Haitian neighbors for all the ways in which they contribute

to civic life to culture, to workforce and economy, but temporary protected status is a legal

status. The country of Haiti is a beautiful country, but it has been devastated and ravaged by

natural disasters, politically instability, and rampant gang violence to deport anyone there as a

death sentence. So extended temporary protected status is the right and humane thing to do to keep

families together, but understand that these are law-abiding, hard-working folk who are making great

contributions to our workforce, our economy, and our tax base. And how did I pull this off? I built

a coalition, a national coalition with our labor partners, with impacted families, with immigrant

rights advocates, Haitian bridge, domestic workers alliance, if see from my district back home,

a national coalition. My grandfather always told me, plant your work and work your plan. I just

worked the plan. I was head down, building this coalition, amplifying and telling the stories,

and one of the stories was about caregiving. We are in a caregiving crisis. The Secretary of

Health and Human Services Secretary Kennedy affirms that. In fact, one in five health care workers

are a Haitian TPS holder. One in four long-term health care workers are a Haitian TPS holder. These

are people who took care of the sick and alien risking their lives during the pandemic. So this

was not an appeal for charity or even benevolence. This was about reciprocity and the fact that this

is a common sense policy. And that's how we built a coalition of independence, of Republicans and

Democrats. And might I add, in the last 40 years, only 15 discharge petitions have met that 218

threshold. And so the American people are hearing about discharge petitions more now because of

the dysfunction and the obstruction under this Republican majority in our inability to legislate

in conventional ways. We are now looking at these Hail Mary passes. And that's actually how people

saw it. They did not see this as incredibly feasible or viable. But I focused on those Republicans

representing those large Haitian constituencies in New York, Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania.

And out of accountability to their constituents, and recognizing the innumerable contributions

they make to our tax-based workforce and economy, they did the right thing today. I just

appealed to them as people of conscience. So Senator Tupperville said the quiet part out loud,

Congresswoman, because it's easy to do that when you're leaving the building.

When you're not going to, there are no consequences to, he's running for governor and, you know,

what does he care at that point? But meanwhile, while that was happening and the success that you had

there, you did have the House vote down the effort to end the war. And you had, for specifically,

the Republican-controlled House voted Thursday to reject a resolution ordering President Donald

Trump to end the war with Iran. The vote was 213 to 214, almost entirely along party lines. As

Republicans overwhelmingly, stick with Trump refusing to slap guardrails on his military campaign.

So everything you just described there in your efforts to get Republicans to bring them in on

something that touches on health care and the like, when it comes to the war and what's going on

there, they seemingly want to hold the line and further commit our men and women in the armed

forces to possible service in a war that Donald Trump started. Michael, can I just say it is

unacceptable and indefensible that I have colleagues that under this culture of political

retribution and grievance by Donald Trump that are more worried about keeping their jobs than

doing it. This war, the fact that they would be complicit in this, when the majority of the

American people, this is not where they want their taxpayer dollars to go. And it's a further

demonstration of Donald Trump not keeping one promise that he made, even people that voted for

Donald Trump, see that. He ran as a peace president and he has renamed the Department of Defense

and Department of War. He initiated this Operation Epic Fury as if this is some sort of imaginary

video game. This is people's lives and we are filling the impact all the way around and there

was no case made. This is an unauthorized lawless, reckless escalation that has destabilized

an entire region, put in harm's way, robbed us of the lives of innocent civilians,

our military, a service, men and women, and people are filling the impact here at home.

Trump said he was not for forever wars. Trump said he would address affordability, but instead he

is attacking anything and everyone, including the Constitution. Except for affordability,

and meanwhile, Democrats in the minority are focused on lowering the cost of the things that people

care about, housing, healthcare, child care, and in a minority, effectively governing as evidenced

by our effort today to extend temporary protected status for 350,000 Haitian nationals.

Congresswoman, I honor Presley on the heels of a big victory. Thank you so much for being with us.

And in this week's episode of Clock at our colleagues, Simone and Eugene Daniels discuss what

Americans actually want to see from Democrats. Should they regain power after the midterms?

Let's talk about the piece you published on Monday on the mess now. We walk around here.

We walk around. The headline is first is Democrats need to start planning now for return to power.

What the American people are saying right now, and especially if they hand Democrats a

keys back to the House and the Senate, they won't be looking for compromise. They'll be looking

for action and they're looking for Democrats to use their power in a way that is effective.

An all-new episode of Clock at is out now, scan the QR code on your screen to listen,

after quick break. And I must now exclusive, Jackie speaks with the Kennedy Central Center whistle

blower. This is the weeknight.

bombshell reporting from the Atlantic exposed as the chaos at the Kennedy Center under Donald Trump.

Joseph Palermo, who was suddenly fired from his position as visual arts curator,

paints a picture of partisanship, cronism, and greed inside the cultural institution.

Jackie spoke exclusively on camera with Palermo today to dive deeper into his allegations.

One of the biggest headlines we have seen come out of this administration so far is the decision

for, I'm not sure if it was Grinnell or the president himself to go ahead and add his name

to the formal Kennedy Center mantle. What happened during that process and what happened to

your relationships after that decision was made and materialized?

I had been speaking with artists to try to do pop-up residencies or one-off exhibitions

outside of the ones that I had been trying to plan for the America's 250th.

And I definitely heard from artists who were no longer interested in collaborating with me because

of the name change.

We're going to hear so much more about that interview with Joseph tomorrow morning,

on morning Joe, where he goes into a lot of the allegations that he made in his first 10

piece of the Atlantic. He was someone who was hired by Grinnell to carry out a position regarding

the visual arts at the Kennedy Center. But we should note that after we interviewed Joseph,

we obtained email correspondence between Grinnell and Joseph where he shared

complimentary and positive correspondence about working with Grinnell and his interactions with him,

including on the day that he was laid off from his position. We followed up with Joseph about

those interactions. Again, all this happened after our interview today. And he said,

Rick was his boss. He wanted to keep a professional work environment in regardless of his

criticism of his leadership or lack thereof. He always treated me with courtesy and respect.

And so I showed it back to him. But the Kennedy Center declined to comment on our more detailed

questions about some of the allegations that Joseph made. And again, tomorrow, you'll see more

about some of the ethical red flags, the lapses in management. And some of the things, the more

unsavory things that he witnessed behind closed doors with regards to donors and fundraising.

And he also speaks about the now impending closure of the Kennedy Center. And whether or not,

he thinks that it's actually necessary. Michael, can I just say when I hear this story,

one, I still just can't get over the fact that it's called the Trump Kennedy Center.

Like, that feels like a joke gone wrong. The fact that it has actually been brought to fruition

is such a reminder of the moment that we find ourselves in. I also, though, I have to say,

I am heartened by the fact that we are still hearing from whistleblowers.

Given the way that whistleblowers have been treated just in this past week by this administration,

Michael. Yeah, no, I think that's, that is an important part of this. And congratulations,

again, Jackie, for getting that sit down in that conversation. Because I think it's a side

of the story that a lot of people don't get in. It's really to Alicia's point important

that those still inside the building or those on their way out or those who have left

to feel that they can tell the country, this is what's happening. This is the grift. This is the

game. This is the, the, the, the trashing of the institution. Look, I believe very firmly,

I don't call it the, the Trump Kennedy Center. It is the Kennedy Center. It is on hiatus.

The artists aren't going to perform there unless there's sort of, you know, off brand, whatever.

The reality of it is that all turns around in a few years. The name will come off the building.

We've got to go through the funk right now for sure. But the reality of it is this kind of

exposure, along with everything else we see happening from the battle with the pope to the craziness

at the Department of Justice, people begin to see the still importance to your point, Alicia,

that people working there have something to say about what's happening to them and what's

happening to the institutions. And that is what Jackie is bringing us. And we really appreciate it.

You can catch more of Jackie's exclusive interview with the Kennedy Center Whistleblower

on the weekend, Saturdays and Sundays beginning at 7 a.m. Eastern right here on our own MS now.

The interview will also be posted on YouTube for details just head to ms.now slash the weekend.

And coming up next all in on all along, Maryland Senator Chris Van Holland joins the show.

That's at eight o'clock Eastern right here again on MS now. We'll be right back.

That does it for the weeknight. We'll see you back here tomorrow 7 p.m. Eastern. We're going to be

joined by Virginia Congressman Eugene Vindman as voters in the Commonwealth way a redistricting measure

that could net Democrats and additional four seats in the House.

On April 21st, make the time to vote no. Abigail Spanberger and the Richmond Democrats want to

rig our congressional elections. Their monopoly map will elect 10 Democrats and only one Republican.

It's a power grab. So Spanberger and the Democrats can raise our taxes,

grab our guns and give welfare to illegal aliens. Election day is April 21st.

Don't let Spanberger and the Liberals win. Vote on April 21st.

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