'Playing ping-pong with the Senate'

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Welcome back to a two-hour edition of The Weeknight.

Coming up this hour, families are paying literally for Donald Trump's war in Iran,

with gas about to hit $4 a gallon nationally.

In reports that Republicans could cut healthcare funding even deeper to cover the cost of the fighting.

Also, a head Republican leader sent Congress home for two weeks.

Despite the war raging on and record-breaking DHS shutdown,

Kongsten Raja, CrispyNorthy is with us for the conversation.

And later despite these mounting crises and an outrage nation pushing back with no King's

Marches, why is the president so focused on White House ballroom renovation?

We will dive into that soon.

But we begin this hour with Donald Trump's war in Iran, making life more expensive for everyday

Americans. By the way, this is the war that Trump himself said was, quote, very complete,

about three weeks ago. The national average for a gallon of gas is just under $4.

As of today, it sits at $3.99. Of course, in many states, a gallon of gas is already well

above $4. In California, the average is $588 a gallon. In Washington state, it's $5.33.

The New York Times reports that some families are now rethinking their vacations

and not just because of gas prices. As the Times notes, Spring Break, one of the busiest

vacation seasons of the year, has presented a trifecta of headaches for travelers.

It has soaring gas prices and airfare spikes, long and unpredictable airport security lines,

tied to a partial government shutdown and persistently high food costs.

Meanwhile, Axios reports that Republicans are considering reductions in federal health spending

to help pay for a budget bill containing as much as $200 billion to fund the war

and immigration enforcement. Literally, they have money for wars, but can't feed the ports crazy.

Apparently, that $1 trillion in Medicaid and Obamacare cuts last year, it just was not enough.

Axios notes, since the onset of the Iran War, the cost of living looks likely to get worse,

not better, at least in the near term. And that brought out many Americans to the No Kings protests

around the country this weekend.

Want to be dictators, start illegal wars? We will not be silent.

That works too, because it's Republicans want to pay for the $200 billion more that they want

to spend on Donald Trump's war out of health care. Americans, y'all realize what just happened

at the end of last year? A lot of it lost to health care. A lot of you don't have health care right

now. So you've got Republicans considering reductions in funding for health care.

And they're kind of putting it in this bucket of, as Congressman Scalia said, you know,

there are areas of fraud, waste, and abuse that we're working through with our members.

Oh, yeah. What are we talking about here? Americans are reeling right now. And these

limmings are finding every way possible to give Donald Trump every damn thing he wants at the

expense of the American people. It makes no sense to me. Yeah, it's really rich that they say they

care about fraud, waste, and abuse when we saw what a failure doge was it failed to balance the

budget. Like they claimed it would Trump has pardoned now 70 plus individuals who were credibly

accused of fraud in both the first administration and the second administration. And according to

the Congressional Budget Office, this new proposal to slash health care in order to pay for this war

that Americans did not vote for, would you would see an estimated 300,000 Americans lose health

care coverage as a result. So they claim that this might be in an effort to address waste fraud and

abuse. No, you're going to see every day average Americans who are the ones suffering as a result

to pay for this war. And this war was clearly not thought out because now we're seeing that the

cost of everything continues to go up. They have no plan to reopen the straight of her moves.

Trump keeps claiming that we're winning this war. Well, if you look at the facts to me,

Iran did not control the straight of her moves before this war. Now they do.

Iranian oil was sanctioned before this war. Now we've waved sanctions on them temporarily

to try to alleviate the costs that Americans are facing at the pump. And there's no plan in sight.

And then you have Senator Lindsey Graham vacationing in Disney World. And the Senate is taking a

two week break. I mean, it really does not get to be any more of a joke than this when you see

what is happening and that they don't seem to care about how this is impacting every day average

Americans. Well, and it's one thing, Senator, to have folks show up at No Kings rallies and

protest this and say that they don't want to bear the cost of Donald Trump's war. It is another

thing at CPAC to have Steve Bannon stand on stage. Ask their most loyal followers if they are

willing to do and just watch what happened when he asked. Let me see a show of hands.

The American citizens here, the Mag up Patriots, are you prepared to bear a little pain to get

this problem solved? Okay, run through the tape. One, two, three, three people in the crowd. I mean,

that's their base. Their race doesn't even like it. Well, it's pretty obvious. This is an

unpopular war. And usually when we go to war, there is at least some support for it in the beginning.

It's not the case on this one. And as time goes on, I think it's going to become less and less

and less popular for all the reasons you talked about. I mean, if you look at how

working families and small businesses and family farming ranch were struggling before this,

with just the tariffs, and now you add on the higher cost of energy on top of this,

this inflation is not something that's going to stop tomorrow. It's going to continue to go because

we need energy in this country to be able to grow food and to be able to make stuff. And we've

seen energy prices go through the roof. We talk about gas being at four bucks. I filled up my

diesel pickup. It was five dollars a gallon. So all this stuff adds up. And who's paying the

brunt? It's just working families. And it's the economy of this country. And this has not made

America great again. In fact, it's just the opposite. I think if you take a look at our image in

the world, it has dropped dramatically in the last 15 months. And you combine that with the impacts

the economy. You combine this. We're spending a billion dollars a day. And the lives we're losing

or people that are getting injured in the Middle East. And now they're talking about putting troops

on the ground. I mean, holy mackerel. It's incredibly, well, it puts your head on a swivel.

There's the word. It does. You know, I think a lot of times you talk about the war and the domestic

impacts. And it's like, people fill it in the grocery store, folks will fill it at the pump.

But here is farmer John Bealth of Yuma, Arizona. And he is a farmer. And he's going to talk about how

farmers can't always just pass the costs on to consumers when they have these elevated prices. Take a listen.

The things we grow take months, sometimes years to produce. And so when they're ready to harvest,

they're ready to harvest. And we have to take the price that's available in the marketplace. So it

can be challenging to pass along those costs frequently. Farmers cannot pass costs along to

consumers. So when our costs go up, either to grow harvest or to ship to market our crops,

we're not able to pass those costs along so it can be a loss. To be clear, it's not the farmers aren't

the reason the prices are going to be high at the grocery store. You know, the farmers don't control

food prices. Once they sell the commodity, then that entity collaborates with the grocery store to

hike your prices up. Fertilizer, the cost of fertilizer is up. I read something on social that

talked about the fact that nobody thought about how the technology that is used in hospitals will be

affected by this. There's a doctor that said, I hope a lot of people don't need an MRI anytime soon.

And I didn't think about the ripple effects. This is crazy.

Well, absolutely crazy. And I will tell you farmers or price takers are not price setters. And so

when you take your commodity to the marketplace to sell it, they tell you what you're going to

get for it. And there's not any negotiations. You either take it or you leave it. And you cannot

push those, you can't put those prices off to the middle man or to the consumer because they're

set by somebody else. And we can get into the markets and talk about how they don't work in the

best because there's not a left competition there. But outside of that, you increase your cost

for fertilizer. You increase your cost for fuel. You increase your cost for equipment. And I'm

telling you, there's not that much margin in production agriculture right now for these folks

to survive. So I don't care if you're an Arizona or Montana. I don't care if it's dryland or

irrigated. I don't care if you're raising cotton or you're raising wheat. You're not going to be

able to survive under these economic circumstances. And the bridge payments that just came out

that this fine we appreciate it, but it's not near enough. And you cannot, you cannot buy off

the expenses that the tariffs and now the energy increases are created for the folks in production

agriculture are farmers and our ranchers. Sarah, in 2024, it was the price of eggs that sunk

the political ambitions of a party. In 2026, it's the price of gasoline. Let's take a listen to what

voters are saying about the possibility of voting for Democrats. My car here typically is only

$35 a film. Now it's in the $45.50 range. And it's a little ridiculous. Have you ever voted for

Democrat? I have not yet. No. Do you think you will now? I'd say I'd be more open to it.

That's the young man we were just talking about. And that idea of being able to

capture that energy. As Alisa noted, the No Kings rally focused on the economics and the war

and a whole lot of other things that sort of came together under that umbrella. But as voters get

ready and they're starting to because primaries are starting to unfold, their attention and

their focus becomes more personal. It becomes more related to their table, their community,

what they can afford, what they can't afford. So the price of gas will trump the price of eggs.

Yeah, I think all those people who voted for Trump because they were worried about the price of

eggs. Sure, the cost of eggs has gone down, but the cost of every single other item at the grocery

store has seemed to go up. And as has everything else, whether it's you're looking at healthcare,

you're looking at the price of gas, like we just outlined, the list goes on. And so I think that a

lot of these voters out there who were sold this dream that Trump promised that this was going to be

the golden age of America that he was going to bring us back to greatness, especially after he

thought what was a failure of the Biden administration, they seem to have been duped because he promised

them that he would give them affordable healthcare. He is not and said we're seeing that they're

going to take healthcare away from millions of Americans in order to pay for this unnecessary

war that they started. Again, another failure on his behalf when it comes to his campaign promises,

getting us into this war. And then with the cost of gas, it's just another item to add to the

list of his campaign promises that he's broken because there is no plan to address this. If they

want to bring down the cost of gas, it's not taking away the sanctions that we've put on Iranian oil

and waving them temporarily. There should have been a long-term plan because we knew that one of

the first things that Iran would do if we were to strike them was that they were going to take over

the straight of her moose. And clearly, they did not think that through. And the ripple effects,

like we were talking about, the Trump administration should have been the ones thinking through what the

ripple effects would be for this war and how it would impact the American consumer. And they

clearly have not because now we're going to see all these millions of Americans potentially lose

healthcare as a result. We're going to see gas prices continue to skyrocket. And we're going to

see food prices go up as well because of things like fertilizer and how it's impacting our farmers.

At least, yeah, how would just know the Trump administration wouldn't have to start from scratch?

Like the National Security Council, they do war game these things all the time as we were chatting

before the show started, Senator, like it's been my long, I'm what, 36, for the last 47, 48 years,

people have war games, presidents have war game administrations, what would happen. And so there

was a plan for what to do, different options to take. But it was very clear that the administration,

the current administration did not consult that playbook, they are using their own.

No, they were not interested in a risk assessment. I will say that one of the ways that

coming a parent has changed me is that I don't think any more in terms of three months or six

months, which is often how we talk about the fallout from a crisis like this. Of course,

think about the loss of life we've already seen, the loss of life that could be forthcoming,

given that the president has now stationed tens of thousands of troops in the region,

even though it is unclear what it is they want to do next. But I'm thinking as you talk about

these family-owned farms and these farmers about the fact that it's like they don't just need to

get through the next three to six months. There is a fundamental question of whether or not they

are going to bankrupt family farms in a way that they cannot recover from. And when they can't

recover from it, that has ripple effects for all of us. And I always go back to the Humpty Dumpty

of the Trump administration breaking it as easy. Putting it back together is going to take so much

time and so much work and so much effort. And as we talk with this, I think it's really easy to

talk in months, but when you think about it in terms of the lasting damage here, what is that?

You're talking about generations. Some of these farms have been in the family for three,

four, five generations. And you lose that family farm. You aren't going to put it back together

again. There's no rebuild net. It's gone. It's gone forever. Rural America has diminished. Our food

security has diminished. The bottom line is a lot of the stuff that's happened right now is irreparable.

And it's unnecessary because we as farmers deal with drought and insects and disease,

we shouldn't have to deal with bad policy coming out of Washington DC. But this last 15 months,

there's been a lot of bad policy coming out of Washington DC. And the person who's orchestrating

this bad policy has no connection with the impacts it's having on regular Americans every day.

And that's the problem. And that's what the No Kings March was about. It was about people talking

about, listen to us. Start doing some town hall meetings. Is what I would tell the Republicans,

are they going to be hard? You bet they're going to be hard. But people want their voices to be heard

because they have legitimate problems that can be solved by Washington DC or can be made worse.

And right now they're making them problems worse. Can I just say, you know, as the senator was

talking, it made me think about in 2014, I worked a governor's race in Nebraska where I'm from.

And that was the first time that I went across the state multiple times. It's eight hours from

Scott's bluff to Omaha and back. And I'm from North Omaha, the city. But most of Nebraska,

like many places in this country, are a rule. And I met a lot of farmers, a lot of family farmers,

a lot of different farm and a ranch. I learned that one early because there is. And these are

the economies that sustain the towns. And for a lot of folks that have never set foot in the

middle of this country that only that only know about the New York and California, maybe a little

bit in between in the Texas and Florida, I don't think that they understand the impact of what you

are describing that most people and from the from the state that I'm from, they are not going to

be able to recover there. If you live in the city, you struggle and if you live in the country,

you hurt real bad. But I think it's important. As you go to that point, serve to understand,

it's not just the rural parts of places like Nebraska, Maryland. We have beautiful farmland in

Maryland, Virginia. New York has farmland. I mean, there were horse country in large parts of

this of this country. So there's a lot of rural America that a lot of Americans sort of think is

over there, but it's actually in their own backyard. Yeah, it's definitely it's touching every

part of this country. And I think that's why we saw eight million people show up for the No Kings

rallies this weekend. And that was an increase from the last rally in October because people are

fed up with this administration. They see that he's broken all these campaign promises, whether

it be that he would bring us lower gas prices, cheaper groceries, affordable health care. Instead,

all the cost of everything is going up. And they want to take away our health care to pay for

this unnecessary war in Iran. And so the thing is that it's not just touching blue states or red

states. It's actually impacting some of his own voters. And these people now feel duped because

they supported this administration being sold this dream of the golden age of America. And I think

that what we're seeing is that it's anything but that. Well, the folks out there in America,

there's something you can do about this if you don't like what's going on. Vote.

Former Senator John Tester, thank you. Sarah Matthews, thank you. Stay with us folks.

Congressman Roger Krishnamorthy will join the conversation next after Republicans sent

Congress home in the midst of a partial government shutdown. And later organizers say more than 200,000

people attended the flagship No Kings rallies in Minnesota this weekend, including Randy Waiigarden,

her group, the American Federation of Teachers helped organize the event. We're going to discuss

what comes next for the growing movement. They're watching the weeknight.

Listen to your favorite MS now shows any time as a podcast. Enjoy new episodes of Morning Joe,

Deadline White House, and The Rachel Maddo Show. Every small,

deep democratic muscle that we have is flexing. Plus the last word with Laurence O'Donnell,

the beat with Ari Melper, The Weeknight, and more. On the go, wherever you get your podcasts,

for ad-free listening to all of your favorite shows, subscribe to MS now Premium on Apple Podcasts.

The American Federation of Government Employees says some TSA workers started getting paid

today after Trump signed an order late last week. But the fallout from the longest partial shutdown

in US history may just be beginning, folks. Congress is now out for a two week recess thanks

to Republican and their leadership. While the Department of Homeland Security remains unfunded,

the stalemate is driven by Republican infighting. That infighting tanked a bipartisan Senate bill

that would have funded the agency except for ICE enforcement operations. As Punchbowl News puts it,

this record-breaking 44-day DHS funding impasse has turned into a political disaster for the GOP.

Joining us now is Democratic Congressman Raja Cristomorthy of Illinois.

Congressman, good to see you. If Speaker Johnson refuses to bring a bill like the Senate

passed version to the floor, what then? Well, I think that at this point we're kind of in a

situation where we're playing ping pong with the Senate. The Senate is not going to pass this bill

that the House passed late last Friday night. And so I think we're probably going to be in a

situation where we're going to continue to remain a partial government shutdown. It's completely

owned by the House Republicans. They had a bill that was unanimously passed in the Senate,

including by all Republicans. And yet basically, Speaker Johnson placated the hard far right

who doesn't want any kind of compromise. And so we're kind of in this horrible situation that

we're in right now. It is a horrible situation. It's a situation that did not have to be the case.

It is one of Republicans' own making. You've got Punchbowl News saying that, basically,

New York Times. I'll have headlines saying the same thing. Let me tell you my concern.

Because the viewers of this show know I am perpetually concerned, Congressman. My concern is that

this is a problem of the Republicans making. And right now they own it. But it's time drags on

that there are some Democrats, particularly in the House. And maybe even in the Senate that'll

come over to talk to their Democratic friends in the House, they will encourage them to cut some

kind of deal to get the government fully funded. And I don't think that that's something that

should happen. But you know better than me, how sealed is the spine of the Democratic caucus right now?

I think it's pretty strong. Look, I think that people like myself and others, we're not going

to send another nickel to ICE and CBP. The current deal that was on the table was very clear about

funding TSA, FEMA, Coast Guard and other elements. And basically not ICE and CBP. And all Democrats

were agreed on that as well as Republicans in the Senate. So I think at this point we're basically

in a situation where I think the American people are going to look at the House Republican

leadership and say, why can't you take yes for an answer? And along with the Iran war spiking gas

prices going up to five and six dollars per gallon in the country, we're also seeing inflation

increase, we're seeing interest rates increase. Everything seems to be increasing in price.

And now they're talking about ground troops in Iran. And so I think the American people are just

up in arms and fed up at this point with the Republican Party.

Congressman, that last part is I think the heartbeat that a lot of Americans feel right now

and that they have. We've talked about it at this table this evening in a variety of ways and forms.

And I think in many respects it's kind of summed up in the New York Times headline about the TSA

problem. And it says lines are getting shorter for now. But with no guarantee about future

paychecks and the partial government shutdown unresolved, the long lines could return. And that's

the part that taking Americans off. We can't govern ourselves. We can't we can't even pay the

people that to do the thing that they're there to do. Our Congress goes home in the middle of a war.

I we're talking about TSA. But with the word country at war and Congress goes home. Thank you

Republicans. So what what should the expectation of Americans be right now? When you come back

in two weeks, everybody's going to act like, okay, nothing's happened. But gas will be over $4

a gallon. The war will be into its sixth week. You'll have prices going crazy at the grocery store

and elsewhere. And guess what? Those TSA lines could have returned because yet again,

there's still questions about how much these TSA people of folks were paid today.

Not everybody got the amount they should have gotten. Can we just get people off the stupid

Mary go round of Congress and guys just fix this problem? I think you asked the right question.

What should the American people's expectation be? It should be a functioning government,

not a dysfunctional chaotic government, which is what we see, especially with the House

House Republican leadership, which seems to put its own interests ahead of what's in the best

interest of their constituents. I can guarantee you that their constituents would have wanted

that unanimously passed Senate bill to come before the House and to get a bipartisan majority

and pass and put this TSA issue to bed. Instead, unfortunately, the leadership of the House

decided that they were more interested in getting votes of these hard right conservatives

for their future prospects. Remember, they're also vying for their future House leadership

positions at the same time that they're doing everything else. And so, you know, basically,

their constituents are wondering, are you putting your personal interests first or mine?

And I think they're soon concluding that it's their House leadership positions personal

interests being put first and it's causing all kinds of problems. I mean, you just see it in

Trump's and the Republicans' popularity ratings, even on cost of living issues. I think I saw

that two-thirds of Americans now disapprove of their handling of cost of living issues,

not to mention more than 60 percent of general economic issues, which used to be something

that they pointed to as a strength. And so, right now, it's clear they're not putting the American

people's interests first and that's coming through loud and clear in their actions and the chaos

and dysfunction. Speaking of chaos and dysfunction, I'm not sure if you caught Tom Hulman

on face the nation talking about the possibility of keeping ICE agents at airports. Take a listen.

We're going to continue an ICE presence there and until the airports feel like they're in

100 percent in a posture where they can do normal operations. If less TSA agents come back,

that means we'll keep more ICE agents there. The President been clear. He wants to secure those

airports, especially as I said earlier in an increased threat posture. We need to secure those

airports. ICE is there to help our brothers and sisters in TSA. We'll be there as long as they

need us. One, Congressman, do you have any concern that this is in large part to position ICE

in airports so they can drive up their numbers and meet the quotas that they're having difficulty

meeting in other ways? And to my understanding is, Congress has very limited options when it comes

to stopping them your sense of where the checks and balances are.

So the answer to your first question is yes and as an immigrant myself, that's deeply,

deeply disturbing because people of my skin tone and others, regardless of where they come from,

are just they feel terrorized by ICE and CBP at this point and people in Chicago feel the same.

So absolutely that is wrong for ICE agents to be there. Secondly, they're ineffective with

regard to what TSA does. They're not trained in basically helping to speed up the processing

of people through lines. They don't know what they're doing in that regard. And so basically,

as you see from both anecdotal evidence and otherwise, they're just standing around in these

airports as of this moment. They're not really assisting in any way. And I think that the best way

to handle this again is to take up a deal to pay the TSA along with Coast Guard and FEMA and other

elements and move on with the situation with DHS. Okay, if they're getting paid and those ICE

agents are still there, I have a whole new round of questions. Congressman Roger Krishnamurthy,

as always, thank you sir for being with us. Thank you. Thank you so much. Next, more than 200,

thousand people turned up to the flagship No Kings protest this weekend in Minnesota,

Randy Winegarten, president of one of the nation's largest teachers unions helped plan that event.

She's going to join us after the break right here on the weeknight.

This year, Minnesota has been at the center of the resistance to Donald Trump's presidency

and his policies. So it's no surprise, the flagship No Kings protest at the Minneapolis State

Capitol drew a massive crowd of more than 200,000 people according to organizers. Bruce Springsteam

performed streets of Minneapolis at the event, a song he wrote after the deaths of Renee Good

and Alex Freddie at the hands of federal agents. This past winter, federal troops brought death

and terror to the streets of Minneapolis. Will they pick the wrong city?

Our next guest was in St. Paul for that demonstration. Randy Winegarten is the president of the

American Federation of Teachers. Her union is one of the organizers of the Twin Cities protest.

Welcome, Randy. It's so good to see you. You know, I just want to get your sense of the flavor of

the moment from the street level, because I had a number of friends who went, others who couldn't

and so, but they were there. And that's the thing. The spirit of this was real for a lot of people,

even if they couldn't physically get out and go that day over the weekend. What was your take?

What was your sense of where Americans wanted to go with this? We had this conversation

last hour about, you know, how do people think this is going to be? Was it just a march or was it

more than that? My sense, it was more than that. You were there, though. What was your sense of it?

So first, I was, first off, it's an honor to be with the three of you. I love your program.

I watch it all the time or as much as I can. So I'm really honored to be with you.

And it was, we appreciate you watching, Randy. Of course.

Yes. This is the difference. And I've been at, as you can imagine, I've been at many protests.

And we had organized both No Kings 1 and No Kings 2. The difference here is, A, was much more

diverse. B, everywhere, there was significantly more events in rural areas and in red areas.

You know, your station, you spent a lot of time talking about what happened in Palm Beach and

West Palm Beach. But I could see it even in my own neighborhood in Inwood, New York and talking

to friends and colleagues. Like we had friends whose mom is an assisted living place in the Bronx.

And there were 50 people that came out. That wasn't a registered event, but they were just there.

I've heard this all over the country. People feel very disquieted. They feel very uncertain

about what's happening right now. And instead of being fearful about coming out, we're seeing

people coming out with their friends, their neighbors, colleagues and saying, no, I want to be heard

as saying, I don't like this direction of the country. And that's what I was hearing everywhere.

And in Minnesota, in Minneapolis, it was a healing. You saw throngs, tens of thousands of people

coming. And it was a sense of, we're going to heal ourselves. We're going to heal each other.

And then we're going to actually take this energy to the polls. Because even if we disagree

about lots of things, what we don't disagree about is that it should be the people, not someone

acting like a king who should be president of the United States.

Just looking at the pictures in the video from the crowd, even if we just head up on the screen in

St. Paul, it is remarkable the different flags that are there. You see the American flag.

You see, there's so many, there's some flags we're not going to zoom in on because it's not

appropriate for our audience, children are watching. But I just, I think what is interesting

about this is just what you noted, that it was Minnesota that, frankly, after seeing what happened

in Los Angeles after what the people in Chicago experienced, right? Minnesota also in that line stood

up. And Governor Walls, I think his comments on Saturday's, folk to this, was played a little bit

for our audience. When the wannabe dictator in the White House sent his untrained aggressive thugs

to do damage to Minnesota, it was you, Minnesota, who stood up for your neighbors,

who stood up for decency, who stood up for kindness. And at this moment that we are still in,

when democracy itself seems to be at risk, it was Minnesota who said, not on our watch.

You need to consist of the people to govern and the people in Minnesota, in Chicago, in Los

Angeles and my hometown in North Omaha, Nebraska, they are saying we do not consent. I think this weekend

was so important because of what it means for going forward. That in this country, the people really

do still have the power. I know a lot of times it feels overwhelming. It feels like the government

is literally, we can't do anything there. The government are trying to crush us. But look at

these photos. We can do something. They, the proverbial day, they're concerned about these crowds.

The people still had the power in America, Randy. Exactly right. And you, Simone, you got it

exactly right. And, and when, you know, we were backstage for a lot of this, we were in the crowd.

Some when governor wall spoke, you heard a huge roar, even a bigger roar than Bruce God, because it

was a sense of saying you stood up for us. And he said to everyone in the crowd, no, you stood up

for our neighbors. It becomes as simple as this. The mutual aid in Minnesota is still going on.

The sense of we need to stand up for each other. What is a more American value than that? And the

peacefulness all throughout the country was really, you know, thank God, because we keep on saying

peaceful rallies. But what we saw this time is that police and other community law enforcement

were helping us throughout the country. I agree with you. There is a sense of something shifted

this weekend. They basically say, no, you can't take America away from us. We may be different in

a lot of different ways. But we believe in a country that is for the people by the people. And,

and the governing is by consent of the people. And, and that may sound like a little ditty from

my social studies class. But this was a practice that I saw all throughout the country and got

reported from by, by our members who were in their yellow shirts all over the country.

Randy, I don't have a question for you. I just wanted to echo what you said in, in all of your answers,

but to us. But the thing that struck me and stays with me is the fact that you and I have been

on the opposite side on a number of issues over many years. And we've debated and we've gone

back and forth. But I consider, I consider you a buddy. I consider you someone who would have my

back because we're part of this democracy as I have your back in this moment. And so I just

think that that's an important thread that you sort of woven into and throughout your, your

responses this evening. And I just want to say I appreciate that. Thank you. I think, let me just

if I have them one more moment, I think we too often, and Michael, you and I practice this and

have practices, but too often when people disagree with each other, immediately they are enemies.

But democracy works in a way of compromise and working for a common good and working to make

things better. Like, so our kids have a better life than we do. And that is part of what the American

fabric has been. And that's what I think you saw. That is a sense of dignity and respect that

starts in Minnesota. But Chicago, you saw it. LA, you see it. You see in the streets of New York City.

But as Simone said, you see it in Nebraska. Yes, you do. Randy, go, I garden. Thank you so much.

Thank you for organizing. Keep that organizing going out there ahead. Donald Trump is besieged by

foreign and domestic problems of his own making. So why can't he stop talking about his renovations

to the White House ballroom? We'll try to answer that. And the weeknight continues.

As Donald Trump's war of choice rages on and gas prices continue to rise, the president,

well, he's focused on other priorities.

But fighting wars and other things. But this is very important.

He didn't have time to do it, but they definitely brought it on Air Force One. It's crazy.

I know what you think, but that was not a one off. Okay, over the last month, Trump has not

been able to stop talking about his ballroom. We have a magnificent ballroom being built.

The building you see over there is under budget and ahead of schedule. That's the ballroom.

This ballroom is going to be something that's so beautiful for this city, so desperately needed

by presidents. Every president said, can we have a ballroom, please?

You know, I've got a lot. What did he say? I thought I'd do this now. It's easy. I'm so busy.

I don't have time to do this, but I'm fighting wars and other things. But this is very important.

I'm fighting wars and taking runs to kinkos.

I have to print out this. What is that? They do have that thing. It's a White House, too.

They can get it done. I just want to know the American people are struggling.

They're folks in this country who their parents who have gone to bed tonight, hungry,

because they only had enough money to put food on the table to feed their children.

There are folks who are literally pricing out how many times I can drive to work this week,

because gas is too damn high. And the president is bragging about gold and marble and ballrooms.

It's like the ads write themselves. Hello, Democrats in America. Put the ads up.

Okay, so that's the politics of it. I want to talk about the legal of it,

so then you continue right up. It's a rage. Because the reminder, there's still legal question

around this. This is from the Washington Post. The judge and appointee of President George W. Bush

has signaled his ruling on the national trust lawsuit could come as soon as this week, too.

The judge has been skeptical of the Trump administration's argument that the president

had the authority to tear down the East Wing to build his plan ballroom. He also has criticized

Trump's reliance on donations from private companies to fund the project,

saying it amounted to an end run around congressional oversight.

What is interesting to me, Michael, is that as the articles are being written about this ballroom,

they're basically saying, we anticipate that regardless of what that ruling is,

this administration is going to plow ahead anyway. Absolutely! Donald Trump didn't give a damn

what a judge tells him to do. That's a crazy state. Even though it's a true line.

When has he ever done it, even before he was president, we have the history of Donald Trump

and his relationship with judges and courts. So I appreciate that, but the bottom line is folks,

Donald Trump said it right, and you need to focus on what he said. Fighting wars, I'm busy fighting

wars and other things. And the other thing is not you. It's not for you. The other thing is not

you. What is the other thing? Well, it's whatever else he's tried to grift and graft off of,

making billions for his family. Have you all been paying attention to what his sons are making

right now? Right now? Just take a look at what they're pulling down and ask yourselves,

how much are you making? What did you earn last year? What are you earning right now?

So that's the reality, while he talks about the ballroom. And so my bottom line, when I see the

imagery of the stairways and the columns to nowhere. Yes, they're design plus. And you walk up a grand

stairway, stairwell, stairway. I can staircase into a wall. How dumb is that? So this is...

He's been busy with the war, Michael. He's been busy with the war, and I guess it was easy to

put the wall up in. We'll put the door in later. And the military complex is going under the

ballroom. He said this on Air Force One. I just want y'all to know, there was a complex under the

East Wing already. It was the presidential emergency operations center. It seems to me they're

redoing that. That's what the president is doing. Yeah, but the thing about growing up here in

town, whenever they dig a hole in the ground in Washington DC, guarantee the government's putting

something in. All I'm saying is I wouldn't know did the corporations get a piece on a bunker?

Questions. We need answers. We have to go. We do. Top of the hour. Do not miss the Rich Elmato

show. Tonight, Rachel looks at the record-breaking No Kings protest, speaks with indivisible co-founder

Ezra Levin about what's next that is coming up 9 p.m. Eastern right here on MSNOW.

Well, that does it for the weeknight. We'll see you back here tomorrow at 7 p.m. Eastern and

be sure to follow us on social media at weeknight MSNOW.

Subscribe to MSNOW Premium on Apple Podcasts.