The Rachel Maddow Show
The Rachel Maddow Show

Maddow: 'Is this how we invade Greenland?!'

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Rachel Maddow looks at how a Trump-aligned Texas oil company appears to be trying to worm its way into drilling in Greenland, provoking a threatening response not only from Greenland residents and off...

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So we'll pick behind the curtain of my job. If you ever have a cable news show, like I do, one of the things that you will find that happens to you in the normal course of your job. Just about every day is that you get pitched by a PR firm. You get pitched somebody's new book or

some new album or some dumb new product or you get pitched a purported expert on some issue that's usually not even an issue in the news. You will very often get pitched the opportunity to interview a purportedly famous person. Someone this PR firm is absolutely sure you A have heard of.

And B are eager to promote on your cable news show,

which is literally literally never true.

I think every single instance I have been pitched this way and it is thousands of times. Now, after all the years I've been doing this. Whenever they pitch me something like that, "Hey, I have never heard of you."

And B, I am sure I don't want to talk to you. So you get these PR pitches all the time.

One of my great pleasures in life is blocking the email,

blocking the email domain of all PR firms that pitch me. It's the one way I relax over the course of a work day. But we got a good one recently and by good I mean a particularly ridiculous one about eight weeks ago and it was a totally unsolicited totally over the top PR pitch. Offering me an embargoed confidential sneak peek at a new project from Dr. Phil.

This is part of the pitch. Dr. Phil is going to Greenland. Might I be interested, might the Rachel Maddo show be interested in covering Dr. Phil's new TV show about Greenland? As PR firm offered us a sneak peek at footage of the exciting Greenland TV series that was coming from Dr. Phil. And what they offered us, this footage turned out to be

footage in Greenland of an American guy talking about his plans to drill for oil in Greenland. Which he apparently believed he had a right to do. The guy they're explaining this to. Yeah, as a fact, we're definitely going to be drilling next year. The guy they're explaining this to appears to say, you know what this is unlawful?

It's kind of hard to hear, but it sounds like that's what he says.

But this is footage from a PR pitch, an unsolicited PR pitch sent to me in June because some PR firm and it's infinite wisdom will leave that I would find it an exciting opportunity to help promote a new Dr. Phil TV show about how exciting it would be to drill for oil in Greenland. Well, let me tell you a little bit about what we've learned since and what has happened since.

First of all, you should know that in 2021 Greenland passed a national moratorium, a national

ban on all future oil exploration. Nevertheless, after Trump got elected to go back and serve a second term as president in the

United States and he started talking about forcibly taking over Greenland for...

A new company formed in Texas called Greenland Energy. That's not Greenland, Texas. It's Greenland

as in Greenland. And Greenland Energy said they were going to drill for oil in Greenland.

In June, a representative from Greenland Energy turned up in Greenland in the part of the untouched Arctic no roads Eastern Greenland where these guys want to drill and they announced to the villagers there that this company, this Texas company, had permission. They announced that they have permission. They had least secured the legal right to start bringing their equipment. Their oil drilling equipment to this untouched Arctic area of Greenland.

After those remarks in Eastern Greenland, the company later apologized and said, "Actually, they didn't have permits to do that. They put out a statement sort of correcting

the record saying, quote, "Our enthusiasm for the project led us to communicate in a way that

created confusion." So, forget we said that. What really can create confusion locally was when this happened. This is a picture of a tugboat bringing in a barge to that area of Eastern Greenland.

And the barge appears to contain about 15, 12 or 15 shipping containers worth of stuff.

These photos were obtained by a Danish investigative outlet called Dan Wunch. They show this tugboat and this barge arriving full totally loaded on the night of Wednesday, July 29th. Then the same tugboat and the same barge are seeing leaving that same place. The next morning, except this time, empty, because all of those shipping containers, all of that equipment that was on the barge heading in, they apparently left all that stuff on land.

Now, the government in Greenland had said explicitly that this American oil company didn't have, quote, "permission to unload anything at all, to unload anything whatsoever." In Greenland. In fact, before the pictures were published, showing that tugboat and barge leaving empty after apparently dropping off all that material, the minister in charge of mineral resources from the Greenland government

did a local interview in Greenland in which he said he was sure. He was absolutely sure.

This American oil company would never break the law and try to start this drilling project

without permission. Quote, "Should that happen?" Greenland has the means to stop their actions. He said, quote, "This is a society governed by the rule of law." So I have some broad shoulder demand in black uniforms. In the first instance, who can help me deal with some illegal activities if I ask for them. By which he means, I think, the Greenland police.

Then he said, quote, "Ultimately, I'm sure that the Arctic command will also contribute." By which he means the Danish military, he believes, would also intervene to stop this American oil company from trying to drill for oil in Greenland without any permission to do so.

So that's what Greenland's government had to say. It turns out, on the day,

this American company unbeknownst to them had just that morning dropped off more than a dozen shipping containers full of equipment to get started on their oil drilling operation in Greenland. The American company said they had permission to move in the equipment, then they kind of apologized for that and admitted that they didn't have the permission. But then, on the same day, the Greenland government said they wouldn't dare,

"We'll use our police, we'll use the Danish military to stop them if we need to." That same day, they turned out to have unloaded their drilling stuff anyway. They're just going ahead with it, even though the local government says no. Which led to headlines like this in Greenland. This is the Google Translate from the original I, which I can't pronounce, so I'll just give you the English language Google Translation

oil company moves equipments to Eastern Greenland without permission. That holobaloo also led to pledges from local hunters and trappers in the area that they would physically themselves block the oil company from trying to land anything else or any one else on shore. It led to the Greenland government issuing a formal warning to this oil company over what it's apparently

trying to do in contravention of local law. That apparently prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to post this online showing a giant snarling version of himself looming over and menacing Greenland. Hello Greenland. A few days ago, this Trump aligned oil company in Texas sent a cheery all smiles letter to its shareholders, bragging about how great their talks are going with the Greenland government. Recent high-level meetings between project leadership and Greenland

dick regulatory and oversight authorities have been constructive and we continue to be encouraged

By the progress being made toward the remaining approvals required for drilling.

Everything's going great. Greenland government really wants us to do this.

Our talks are really constructive. Turns out that is not at all how Greenland sees it.

Headline in the local news. Greenland Department of Resources to controversial U.S. oil company, Colin, forget test drilling this year. Last week, the oil company Greenland Energy Company issued a letter to its shareholders that painted a rosy picture of the future prospects for the project in northeast Greenland. In the letter, the company states that its drilling project is progressing rapidly and its management expects to be able to begin drilling before the end of the year.

But if you ask decision makers in this country, such as the Minister of Foreign Affairs

or the Head of the Trade and Mineral's Department in the Greenland government, according to them,

there is no earthly chance of that happening. So you put all this together. This Trump-aligned oil company based in Texas saying, "We're going to drill for oil in Greenland."

Greenland saying, "Oh, no, you're not." The company going ahead and dropping off their drilling

stuff anyway, local residents saying, "We'll fight tooth and nail." Local government saying, "We'll use the police. We'll use the Danish millet." You put it all together. Kind of seems like we're invading Greenland. I mean, this company has somehow hordeswalkled itself into a partnership with Dr. Phil to make what sure looks like propaganda TV shows about this heroic and exciting oil drilling project, which the government of Greenland says is illegal and they don't

have permission to do it. This Trump-adjacent brand-new oil company funded in large part by a major Trump billionaire donor. They sometimes admit that they have no permission to be doing what they're doing in Greenland, but they've still gone ahead with it anyway. In addition to the 12 or 15 shipping containers that arrived in the last couple of weeks that they parked on short in the last couple of weeks while the Greenland government was threatening that their police or the Danish

military should stop that if they tried it. In addition to those 12 or 15 shipping containers, the same oil company now says it's shipping 300 more shipping containers. And a whole huge drilling rig

that they plan to get there in the next month. So honestly, is this how we invade Greenland?

With Dr. Phil doing a ride along like he did with ice? All because of Trump donor billionaire says he needs to drill this oil and who cares what this little country says. And by the way, wouldn't I like to help promote Dr. Phil's TV show about this? The nearest towns to where this is happening and in fact towns all over Greenland have been protesting ever since it emerged that this is the way this is going to go down for the closest

locals. A kid you're not the local musk ox hunters are saying that they may use their their dingies, their hunting boats to blockade the fjord. They'll use anything they can get their hands off to fight off this oil company if it really does try to set up on their coast. This weekend in Denmark, which controls Greenland and defends it, residents of Copenhagen formed a kayak of flotilla around the city of Copenhagen all carrying Greenland flags.

There are way of peacefully protesting against the United States of America menacing Greenland in this way. Donald Trump's war in Iran is a disaster. The only outcome of it thus far that's measurable

is thousands of people dead Iran in control of the straight-of-form news or basically out of

anti-aircraft and long-range munitions and to know effect because we've still lost this war. Losing this war, handily shows adversaries like Russia and China just how long we can go in a war before we start running out of the munitions we need to be able to sustain combat operations and protect ourselves and our allies. The disastrous war that Trump started with Iran, he started right after he invaded Venezuela and took that country's president,

which had the effect of turning Venezuela into effectively an oil company for, I wouldn't, I would say the United States, but it appears to be an oil colony for the Trump administration since nobody knows where the oil revenue from Venezuela is going. But it was right after that one that he started the Iran war, which apparently he thought would be easy, but it is six months old now and we are losing and it is a disaster with no end insight. So amid that disaster,

heading toward the midterms and the wild unpopularity of himself personally and his agenda

Particularly his war, maybe he thinks starting a new war for a new oil colony...

right on time right about now, might make us forget about the other war he's losing and can't get out of.

So yes, eyes on Greenland, eyes on this Texas-based oil company, Greenland Energy,

which appears to be playing the role of the United Food Company, or the British East India Company, companies that have gone down in history is providing the predicate and the means for super dumb wildly destructive imperial wars. Here at home, we've also got eyes on Ohio. As the Trump administration has criminalized thousands of people from Haiti who have been here legally, as immigrants, as legal immigrants

in this country, for a second straight weekend in Ohio, hundreds of people showed up at the

ice facility in blue ash, Ohio, and the Oscar just Cincinnati. That blue ash ice facility is where Haitian immigrants from places like Springfield are being told they must show up to get fitted with ankle monitors as if they are felons. These images are from yesterday morning, Haitians

in Ohio were told to turn up at this sort of remote ice facility outside Cincinnati for mandatory

appointments early on Sunday morning, which is bizarre in terms of its timing, but local residents found out about it and turned up by the hundreds before 7 am yesterday to make sure they were there to show support, to show these Haitian immigrants on the way in that this community was there to

support them, to show eyes also that they can't do this secretly, that the people know what they're

doing and that they're watching. Local clergy showed up in force as well, offering communion to the Haitian men and women before they went inside to their appointments. That's Ohio. I also want to show you this from right next door in Indiana. This is a few days ago now, anti-immigrant right wing groups planned what they called a mass deportation rally. Save heritage in Indiana, a proud member of the mass deportation coalition, they said they were going to hold a pro

mass deportation demonstration, featuring Greg Bavino, the former border patrol leader who led the Trump administration's attack on multiple American cities starting last year before he was fired. Bavino himself said the idea behind this demonstration was that they were hoping it could ignite some kind of larger anti-immigrant movement.

Being in Indiana on August 1, there's a lot of opposition to that rally. First mass deportation

rally ever held in the United States and hopefully it, you know, hopefully everything goes off good there. But that is perhaps, you know, everything starts with the spark. Hopefully everything goes off good. But you know, the head of the group behind the rally expressed similar ambitions telling Indiana public radio that he wanted this mass deportation rally to quote ignite and mobilize people. That is what happened in Indiana, but just not in the way they

hoped. Their mass deportation rally was originally announced for a town called Fisher's Indiana,

but they ended up moving it for some reason to a secret location, reportedly about an hours drive

away and they reportedly only got fewer than a hundred people in attendance in the end. Meanwhile, back in Fisher's Indiana where they had said they were going to hold this anti-immigrant rally, look what happened in Fisher's. Something like a thousand people counterprotested in Fisher's Indiana protesting against the mass deportation rally protesting against ICE and showing support for their immigrant neighbors. This is whirl Indiana. Tonight we're going to talk about the efforts

to shut down one of Trump's immigrant prisons, one of them where yet another person has just died. We're going to talk about that with a member of Congress who was arrested at that facility and is being prosecuted by the Trump administration. Tonight on the eve of primaries tomorrow in Alabama, Connecticut, Minnesota, South Carolina, Vermont and Wisconsin, we're also going to be talking about an unexpected thing that keeps happening in multiple state primaries. Something unexpected

that appears to be unnerving Republicans in multiple states and in multiple states it has made them abandon some of their worst plans for targeting black Americans and targeting black political power. We've got updates for you tonight as well on the deadlines that have happened in multiple states today and tonight deadlines to replace candidates or drop candidates off the ballot when their candidacies have turned rotten for various reasons. We've got three different states

that hit those deadlines and three different races tonight. We've got three different outcomes and all of those will have those details for you coming up. But I'll tell you, in the meantime, if there is a PR company out there that wants to try to entice me into an exciting interview

Prospect with your clients, maybe double check before you send it to me that ...

me video evidence of your clients potentially breaking a law and maybe starting a war.

Because that actually might end up being of interest to me and not for the reasons you were hoping.

Lots to get to tonight, stay with us. Hey everybody, it's Rachel Mado here. I want to tell you that more than a dozen of us from MSNow are going to be in Texas on Saturday, September 26th. I'm going to be there, Lawrence O'Donnell will be there, so we'll Jen Psaki, a whole bunch of us are all going to be there in Texas. Tickets start at just over 30 bucks each and if you buy a ticket, you will get access to our new

MSNow membership free for a year. Tickets for Texas are on sale now. You can learn more at MS.nale/together. Hope to see you in Texas. Republican lawmakers in Kansas have been frustrated for years by their state's Supreme Court. Among other things, their state's Supreme Court has protected the right to abortion in Kansas. And that has made Republicans absolutely crazy.

So, Republicans this year wrote a constitutional amendment that would change the whole structure of the Supreme Court in their state, including the way its justices are put on the court and how they can be removed. Well, when the people of Kansas got their chance to vote on that proposal last week, they rejected it hugely. They rejected it by 20 points. That same day in red state Missouri voters there gave their verdict on a Republican proposal that would make it much

harder for ordinary citizens to vote to change the state's constitution, even though Republicans in the legislature could still make changes. They wanted under the old, easier rules. The people of Missouri rejected that idea full stop 80% of Missouri voters said no way to that. Another Republican proposal in that same state, a move to a wildly regressive new tax system, which Republicans wanted from Missouri, that feared even worse at the polls.

83% of Missouri voters said they absolutely rejected that as well. All over the country, this primary election season, in states red, blue, and purple, things have not been going Republicans' way. But I want to point out something going on

specifically about black political power that I think Republicans did not expect.

Because Republicans all over the country this year have taken the Supreme Court, the U.S. Supreme Court's dismantling of the voting rights act, and they have used it to start a radical radical effort to constrict black voting power in the United States of America. In state after state, Republicans have been engaged in redrawing congressional districts, not just to entrench themselves in power, but specifically to take power away from minority

voters and black voters in particular. Well, in response to that, we are now seeing in state after state that people have something to say about that too. Takes off Carolina. Earlier this year, Republican legislators in South Carolina were they were steaming ahead with a plan to dissolve the state's only majority black district, the seat held by the state's only black congressman, James Clyburn.

That effort to box out James Clyburn drew protests, but it also drew voters.

In numbers that alarmed South Carolina Republicans. The first day of early voting in the South

Carolina primary saw record-breaking turnout, nearly five times more Democrats than Republicans cast ballots. Many of them said they were out at the polls to send a message, specifically to try to stop the redistricting plan to take away Clyburn's seat. And guess what happened next? That very same day, that first day of early voting, South Carolina Republicans got scared and scrapped their plan. The Republican state Senate leader

warned his colleagues, "People will vote when they're angry and I think we've made some people mad."

South Carolina also take a look at Georgia. Republicans in Georgia tried the same thing, tried drawing up new congressional districts to entrench themselves and to dilute and thereby deny black political power in the state of Georgia. As soon as the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the voting rights act, Georgia's governor called a special legislative session to redraw the state's maps. While when lawmakers arrived at the Capitol for that special session,

this is what they were greeted with. The state Capitol packed to the gills with protesters. Who let the lawmakers now just want the people of Georgia thought about this plan? Georgia Republicans looked up at the balcony, looked up at the gallery, looked around them,

looked at the fury they were about to unleash and said, "Okay, never mind." On second thought,

maybe we will not try to redraw our maps to make our congressional delegation

Wider and more permanent.

Now look at Tennessee. Tennessee is one of the southern states where Republicans did carry out their

plan to dilute black political power. They broke up the state's single majority black district around Memphis, spreading black voters out into more rural, more conservative, wider districts that stretch hundreds of miles from the city. And after the Republicans did that, then they decided, well then they realized they were going to have to learn what the people of Tennessee thought about it. Black leaders in Memphis

in particular got to work. Pastors and organizers and activists and civic groups and unions held voter registration drives, organized rallies, worked the phones, knocked on doors, all in an effort to channel their neighbors in-dignation and anger into action. In Memphis, the Reverend Earl Fisher of the Abyssinian Missionary Baptist Church

said, quote, "I think in a lot of ways, this awoke a sleeping giant. I don't think Republicans

have anticipated or accounted for a mass mobilization effort." Well sure enough, when Tennessee held its primary a few days ago on Thursday, Democratic voter turnout in Memphis's majority black Shelby County surged to the highest level in a decade. More than twice, more than double the turnout percentage for similar contests that were held just two years ago. The next day, Reverend Fisher told the Washington Post, quote,

"And I'd like this," excuse me, "and I'd like last night, let you know it's not all in vain." Well, he said he's not not taking a victory lap. Black Tennessee Democrats will be up against long odds in November. These newly drawn congressional districts. Last week's turnout is

a big first step in one that is rattling Republicans in Tennessee.

Joining us now is the Reverend Earl Fisher pastor at Abyssinian Missionary Baptist Church and Memphis, Reverend Fisher. It's a real honor to have you with us tonight. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. What did you end your colleagues? Your fellow Tennessee residents do to

push voter turnout to those remarkable heights last week? Well, I think it was a few things and

you mentioned most of them. I think the anger that people felt was palpable because they knew what the racist redistricting did was unjust. And so people wanted to respond to that. There's also some admiration. I think we have a candidate like Justin J. Pearson who has shown that he can appeal to people across a whole lot of different demographics from age to race, to gender. And I think people were motivated by them. And then also the activism of a lot of

organizations who just decided we were trying to target those low turnout precincts. And we were crunching numbers and gathering people and rallies and trying to stay up to the wee hours of the night and trying to figure out how we could make up the margins. It's going to be an uphill battle in November for Mr. Pearson. Although you just described some of what I think he's known for it even nationally in terms of how energizing his candidacy has been to his supporters and how talented he

is as a politician and as a leader. But that's going to be a plus 20 district or something. They've really jerry-mandered that district to try to make it impenetrable to any Democratic candidate, let alone a black Democratic candidate. How do you feel like these efforts that you've shown

so much effectiveness with thus far? How do you feel like they sustain over time or build over time?

What kind of goals are you setting for yourselves and your fellow prisoners and residents? Well, as you said, I think this is an opportunity to clap your hands but not run a victory lap. There is a longer wrong way now because we were responding to the immediacy of the moment

when it first happened a couple of months ago. And now after this structure test that we could call

the primary, you see where there may be some weak spots and you want to try to lean in and put a little bit more elbow grease in those spaces. But we still have a short window of time when you look at November. And so hopefully those candidates who were running in the primary who didn't win can throw their weight behind the candidate who did win. And those of us who have networks and congregations and community members can do all we can to make sure that we are

educating our people on the issues, empowering them so that they feel strong when they come out and then doing all we can to translate registration and education into voter turning. I'm Fisher, I want to ask you to sort of a bigger question about this. I feel like sort of a moral cornerstone of this country. When we talk about who we are and what kind of a journey we've been through in this country we talk about not just the civil rights movement broadly

but the voting rights act in particular and what it took to get the voting rights act. And as the conservative dominated Supreme Court essentially washed away the legislative protections,

The legal protections of the voting rights act.

eliminate black political power everywhere they could particularly all over the south. I feel like

it was greeted with a lot of, you know, consternation and worry but not much work, especially on the part of the National Democratic Party, white liberal Democrats. I feel like people are sort of worried and sad about it but not doing much to try to fix it whereas what you and your colleagues are doing is the work. What could be done if anything nationwide of people watching this across the country right now to support more practical work to try to save black political power

of the kind you and your colleagues are doing? Well, the last thing people should do is just

surrender and I think that's what you saw us do after the verdict was in, whether it was the

Cala Vertigo, whether it was what they did at the State House when they cracked the district. So instead it's just throwing up your hands and surrendering the first thing. I started to do was just looking at what some opportunities were and one of the things I found out rich is that even in the state of

Tennessee, 48 percent of voters would vote in patterns that are consistent with independent voters.

Only 33 percent of voters would identify properly as Republicans. So that means that there was some opportunity there. Then you look at some of these counties where a lot of people were just hadn't been out and done a lot of organizing. So that was another opportunity there. So I don't think that they calculated the moral force of black leadership and our capacity to motivate our people and to allow them to see a vision of what's possible even when the odds are stacked against them. I know a little

some about history and then there have been situations that have been similar to this where we

came out on top and I think this could very well be one of my not lost on the magnitude of the

enormity of the task right here. It is a big thing and you know if we do lose it won't be because

I or my colleagues pulled any punches. We'll do all we can all across the state and I believe people all across the country can't support and sometimes that means sending your people this way, sometimes it means sending money, sometimes it means raising your voice. Everybody can make a phone call, everybody can send the text messages or share social media posts or something like that. So the more like light that we shine on the darkness, I think the better opportunity coming over them.

Couldn't put it better myself. It's beautifully put. The antidote to despair is not worried. The antidote to despair is action. It's organizing. Reverend Earl Fisher, pastor at the Obesity and Missionary Baptist Church in Memphis, Reverend Fisher, it's a real pleasure to have you. Thank you so much for your time. Good luck to you, sir. Thank you so much. All right, more news ahead tonight to stay with us. You better eat your

whitties today because there's a lot of news to cover. Money. Time for the business. All eyes on the new fed chair. The economic fallout from the war is a temporary power. The president is now a major crypto industry operator is this White House for sale. Politics is there an energy to respond

to this aggressive jerrymandering. It has never been more important to be informed and engaged.

Money power politics with Stephanie rule weekdays at 9 a.m. Eastern on MS now. We have some breaking election news tonight from North Carolina. Tonight North Carolina Republicans have decided who they are going to choose to fill the anxious void left behind when Republican Congressman Chuck Edwards abruptly announced last week that he will not seek reelection. Congressman Edwards announced his sudden retirement after the House Ethics Committee found that

he had inappropriately and relentlessly pursued personal relationships with two young women in his office. One of these young women was just 19 years old when she started working for him. Congressman Chuck Edwards is 65 lawyers for Congressman Edwards say he looks forward to clearing his name in this matter. But meanwhile, he has cleared himself off the ballot. And so tonight was the deadline for North Carolina Republicans to choose someone not named

Chuck Edwards to run for his seat, which represents Western North Carolina, including Asheville. Well, tonight, just within the last hour, North Carolina Republicans have made their pick. They've chosen a state lawmaker, state representative named Jennifer Balkham, who's going to be the new Republican nominee for North Carolina's 11th congressional district. It's a little bit weird, but she's handpicked by her party to run for that seat because of the scandal that forced out

the incumbent Chuck Edwards. That's North Carolina. In Ohio today, there was also a deadline. It was the very last day for Republican Congressman Max Miller to step down and get off the ballot and let his party replace him on the ballot for November. Congressman Max Miller is facing

A slew of horrific domestic violence allegations, all of which he denies.

in his own Republican Party, Congressman Max Miller is insisting that he will stay in the race,

that he will stay on the ballot, and that turns in otherwise likely safe seat for the Republicans

into a possible pickup opportunity for Democrats as Ohio Democrat Brian Poindexter continues to out poll Mr. Miller in Ohio's surveys. Then there's Montana, and this was a little different. On the Democratic side for U.S. Senate, the nominee, the Democratic Party's nominee is named a Lonnie Bankhead. She has faced pressure to drop out of this race, the Senate race in Montana, not because of any scandal, but for strategic reasons. 22 members of the Montana legislature

asked her to quit the race, and instead support the independent Senate candidate, because they think

that he has a much better chance of winning that Senate race than she does. Well, a Lonnie Bankhead

announced tonight that she is staying in the race. She will not be dropping out tonight. It was the deadline, but she will not get out. She will not be following the example of Democratic

Senate candidates in Nebraska and South Dakota and Idaho, who have all dropped out in the hopes

of clearing a path for an independent candidate to take on the Republican in a very red state. If that independent Senate candidacy gambit succeeds in any of those races, again Nebraska, Idaho or South Dakota, that would have huge implications for which party controls the U.S. Senate next year, but it looks like Montana will not be following along those same lines. All that news breaking tonight. Watch this space. This whole thing is just getting started.

This man is in a federal immigration prison in Adelanto, California, which is just northeast of Los Angeles. This is from a video call he did with his family. You see him holding up this bottle of water here? What he's showing them is that there appears to be something swimming around in that water. He says this is the drinking water that he and all the other detainees are given at this ice prison in California. What it is that swimming around in there in the water,

I honestly don't know. It looks like worms or some kind of larva. The GO group runs this facility.

They did not respond to requests for comment. The Department of Homeland Security told us today that this ice facility gets its water from the city of Adelanto, California. Okay, and does it come to you from the city through pipes and plumbing fixtures inside this facility? I don't exactly know how it makes it better if it comes from the city, but that's their explanation. This is the Adelanto immigration prison in Southern California. This is the immigration

prison in Newark, New Jersey, Delaney Hall, where a second prisoner in just the past few months

has died while in custody there. The man who died his mother says that her son needed to take medicine for diabetes and high blood pressure in seizures, but she believes he wasn't given any of those medications during the six weeks that he was locked up at Delaney Hall. He had reportedly complained of dizziness and fatigue before he collapsed inside that prison, according to Congressman Robin Dennis, who's district includes Delaney Hall. He says the prison staff did call 911.

But that it took emergency responders about 37 minutes to arrive after the call to get it and actually attend to this young man. It's not like Delaney Hall is out in the boondock somewhere. It's a Newark, New Jersey, and a super urban, densely populated part of the state. What is it about Delaney Hall that makes it so it takes emergency responders 37 minutes to get inside to be able to access a prisoner having an active medical emergency? I mean, if other people have already

died in this facility and it's still taking 37 minutes after you call 911 to get anybody in there to somebody who's in distress, it just seems like something's very wrong there. There were protests renewed protests outside Delaney Hall this weekend, including a live band calling themselves brass uprising, protesting the conditions inside Delaney Hall, protesting the at least two deaths that have happened there in recent months. Protesters were pepper sprayed by the prison staff

reportedly for touching the gate in front of the entrance. In New Jersey tomorrow, democratic leader, how came Jeffries and other members of Congress are going to hold a press conference to talk about what they call the Trump administration's cruel and dehumanizing conditions inside immigration prisons, including Delaney Hall. They're going to follow that press conference with a roundtable discussion with former Delaney Hall prisoners and the families of prisoners who have

died while in custody there. Delaney Hall is a particular point of interest for congressional Democrats, given that one of their own Democratic Congresswoman Lamanica McIver was indicted on

Federal charges after she attended a protest at Delaney Hall last year.

those charges politically motivated still today more than a year later. She is fighting that indictment. Joining us now is Congresswoman Lamanica McIver Democrat of New Jersey, Congresswoman, it's a real pleasure to have you with us tonight. Thank you for taking the time.

Oh, I can't hear you. Let's see. You're not on mute, are you?

Hi, Rachel. It's good to see you. There you are. That's great. So we know from ISIS's own accounts that two people have died at Delaney Hall in custody

in the last few months, just in the last few days we learned that a third person had a medical

incident at the prison who was taken to a hospital who died. What do you make of these these recent reports? I mean, they're devastating. They are so disheartening and sad to hear, especially for the families that we speak to, but Rachel, it's not surprising. It's something that I've been talking about since last May before I was even charged by this administration and we continue to see the coolness in the chaos happening at Delaney Hall under the Trump administration and it's extremely

horrible. I know that you and other members of Congress have continued to do oversight visits to Delaney Hall. You and lots of other people have pushed for closure of the facility. Do you feel like any

of the activism around this, the fury over your arrest and them charging you for having

been there at having been present during a protest at that facility? Do you feel like any of this has made any progress? Either to try to get conditions in proof there are at least to push more oversight into what is happening there and what kind of conditions that people are held in prison there are facing? Yeah, I think it's not, I would love to see Delaney Hall closed. I mean,

that's what I've been calling for since day one. I think what it has done is definitely could see

you to keep what is happening at this facility in the light, right? Because the Trump administration is so adamant about making sure that they keep things in a dark. I think that they have stepped up there and creased on trying to stop oversight. I mean, I've been to Delaney Hall multiple times virtually each time. There's a new rule. There's a new, oh, I can't speak to this person. I can't do this because they know every time that we go there and we speak to the Tamees and we see the

conditions of this facility we continue to report out and bring it to light, bring it to public eye. And I think that ice is extremely, you know, scared of that, the geo group, especially is scared of that, but people continue to rise up. They continue to use their voices to talk

about what is happening at this facility and we have to continue to do that. I mean, I'm facing

federal charges for doing my job, but it hasn't stopped me from continuing to show up and hold this administration accountable. I know that there are limits as to what you can say about the status of that case right now because it is still a live case and you're in the middle of fighting it. But can you give us, in our viewers, an update on what's happening with this case when they, this case in which they brought these federal charges against you? Absolutely. So we are currently

waiting for an opinion from the third circuit quarter of a pill. We were there this patched June

basically arguing for these charges to be dismissed because of my legislative immunity and my ability to do my job and the executive branch should not be able to, you know, bring up false charges to stop me from doing so. And so we are waiting for that opinion to come down from that panel of judges and that's where we are, that's where we are right now. We're in the second stretch of this fight and it's been over a year, a fight in it and it's been very costly and very stressful,

but we're still pushing. I'm still pushing and still showing up doing my job most importantly. Congressman Lamanna, come back, Ivor, Democrat from New Jersey. Thank you so much for talking to us. I'd love to have you back any time to talk about your case, to talk about Delaney Hall, as all of these fights continue. Thank you. Thank you, Rachel. All right, we'll be right back stay with us.

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