Political Violence Escalates Amid Trump's Crackdown

0:00FanDuel is dropping bonus bets into everyone's account for the tournament. All you have to do is opt in to claim your bonus. But don't wait. These bonus bets are only available for a limited time. FanDuel. Play your game. 21 plus and present in select states. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets which expire 7 days after receipt. Max bonus$500 unless otherwise specified. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. Courage. I learned it from my adoptive mom. Hold my hand. You hold my hand. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care at AdoptUSKids.org.

0:40You can't imagine the reward. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. Thank you very much. Welcome to the program. We begin with the escalating threats, the violence we're seeing in America, some of it coming from Donald Trump's federal government, some of it coming from elsewhere. The big news today is something that no one wants to see in the powder keg of Minnesota, but a brand new attack on a lawmaker. Now, that's bad no matter what. If that's all you heard, that should be enough to know that's a bad thing. And there have been times in the past few decades where people would all acknowledge in leadership that that was bad.

1:14But because this is a Democratic lawmaker, this government has had a different type of response. the president who has talked about quote a slight de-escalation or changing his tone isn't doing that and we measure these things over time you don't get to dial up the pressure the rhetoric the violence unleash actual violence against american citizens to now slain then take a break for a day or two claim that's de-escalation and then go back to attacking people in ways that are misleading and incendiary when we have these open probes. There is also no indication that these federal agents operating under Trump's orders, ICE, DHS, and the rest are scaling back.

1:55There's heat in Minnesota. Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar attacked last night at a town hall, as you see here. This man sprayed her with an unknown substance. If you are on the receiving end of something like that, it is at a minimum extremely scary because you actually don't know what you're being hit with. You can see how it unfolded. This was moments after she was calling for Kristi Noem's resignation. Here's the moment. And DHS Secretary Kristi Noem must resign or face impeachment. What if she's hiding? Whoa! Whoa!

2:36I don't know. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. He's great.

2:44That was the scene. There's a close up of what looked like a syringe with the substance. Again, thankfully, she seems to be OK and we have that reporting. But in the moment, what we're talking about here is a very menacing act. And you don't know what's in it. He's been arrested and charged with third degree assault. The congresswoman says she is OK and she will not let these kind of attacks win. Our colleague Chris Hayes is in Minnesota where he has been reporting. He just interviewed the congresswoman, a very newsworthy interview, and he joins us in our coverage here on this program in a few moments.

3:16The president would not lower the temperature or afford her any kind of the grace that he has called others to treat his side with when they have faced horrific attacks or even violence or in some cases killings recently, which are all abhorrent. instead he didn't live up to his own test and he made statements that i'm not going to report on in detail here just except to tell you that they were evidence-free but as for what they were they don't make our standards as reporting part of our news coverage because they have no basis in truth but you should know that he's being dishonest about what happened on the very first day it happened failing his own tests and any normal leadership and of course he's in charge of the federal government that is supposed to prosecute any violence, whether it's against the American people or their lawmakers and elected officials.

4:09More on that in a moment. MAGA fans have been spreading misinformation. All this after federal agents shot down two Americans, protesters slain in broad daylight. The Trump administration says the agents involved in the Freddie shooting have now been placed on leave. And there's a lot of pushback. There are Minnesota business leaders and companies calling for the federal government to at least do the bare minimum of the normal cooperation with state officials into what happened because avoiding or defying that makes it look like a cover-up and these officials these business leaders are concerned that that means we won't necessarily get to the bottom of this a handful of republicans also raising their voices americans don't want to see people killed in the streets and americans don't want to see the kind of hunting down people in a way that really demeans the process.

5:05No American believes that he was assaulting the officers. In fact, the opposite appears to be true. So we have to get some rules of the game. Stephen Miller never fails to live up to my expectations of incompetence. None of this happens in a vacuum. we have data that the threats against lawmakers jumped not 10 or 20 percent, but about 58 percent in the last year. And so how did we get here in America? What is happening now? Well, one giant obvious problem is that the president of the United States has come out for political violence repeatedly. And he's come out against the safety of police. he's come out for the convicts who attacked police and for the convicts who tried to threaten menace hurt hang assassinate or kill lawmakers in both parties the president would have people believe and wants everyone to see this as some partisan war blue states and red but it's not even that and by the way all violence is wrong if it targeted a republican a democrat or for whatever reason but it happens that a lot of this violence has been waged against both parties against Mike Pence, for example, and against Nancy Pelosi.

6:22And the president blessed the attacks. He pardoned those Jan 6 convicts. Remember Senator Josh Hawley, who, like Donald Trump, had made a public show of being open to what those Jan 6 protesters were planning? And that was, of course, before they actually stormed the Capitol, sending him and other Republicans running quite literally for their lives. Thank goodness we don't know what would have happened if the angry mob found lawmakers or found Republican Mike Pence or found Democrat Nancy Pelosi. Again, the titles and parties don't matter except to remind you that this was violence against all kinds of elected officials as the violence today still needs to be investigated.

7:00The wider context is that Donald Trump not only encouraged, blessed, rewarded, cheered this on, but literally freed people who had many years left to serve in prison. That's why Donald Trump is one of the most anti-police presidents we have. And if that kind of cuts against how he talks, well, remember, he's been caught lying about all kinds of things. So he may have messaged something else. He's also very much against free speech, trying to cancel the shows of people he disagrees with, trying to abuse power that way, suing everybody. He's one of the most anti-First Amendment presidents we've had, at least in the first year of the second term.

7:36We can measure these things. So you have to put aside the PR propaganda. And remember, this is a president who has taken the side of criminal convicted violence against lawmakers and taking the side of those against police. Is it any wonder we have a public safety problem in this country that is coming from the federal government or that we have people who think, some of them, I can't speak to exactly today yet, that investigation is ongoing, but in general you can find message boards on the internet full of people who think that violence is okay because their president said so and he him last time and maybe he'll do it again.

8:11That's the wider context. When punishment is gone, deterrence is gone. We have a president who is anti-police, is for government violence against the people, and has failed in one of the prime duties of any president, one he said he would try to fulfill, law and order. Law enforced equally to prevent and punish violence so that we might have order. And as about 58 % plus of Americans have noticed, we don't have order in the places where Donald Trump is most involved in putting agents in the streets. What we have as a factual matter are slain Americans and questions of a cover-up that goes to the top of this White House.

8:56I want to bring in a special guest to lead off our coverage tonight. Chris Hayes will join us in a few minutes, as mentioned, from the ground in Minnesota. But Reverend Al Sharpton is here. He's founder and president of the National Action Network. I mentioned that context because while we still have more fact-finding to do in many of these cases, the record is clear of where Donald Trump stands. The record is very clear, and it's also a blatant contradiction. First of all, we have seen the state and federal government work on many cases, and it is the competent way to get to the end of an investigation, find out what you have, and decide.

9:37In many cases, they decide whether the feds are going to take the case or the state based on what evidence brought them. And to disrupt that is absolutely smells of you trying to have the feds cover up something for the feds. That's one. But the ugliness of Donald Trump saying today that what he said about the congresswoman and you contrast that how all of us who've been very much opposed to Donald Trump, how we responded when there was an assassination attempt on him and the guy caught before he got that far. We all got out and I certainly didn't denounce it, said this can't happen. We praying for the president.

10:21He turns around and not we still don't know what she was sprayed on her and said, oh, she might have set this up. I mean, this kind of ugly contempt for people based on politics is something that this country shouldn't tolerate at the highest level of government. And the complete disrespect and possibly slanderous attack, if it were litigated, on, for example, the protester who was just killed, that doesn't sit well with most people. That's before you get to the more complex question, one you've worked on of when police and federal agents exceed their authority to a criminal degree. That's over here.

11:01Before you get there, we've seen leaders in both parties throughout history say, well, it's a tragedy that any American lost their life. Not this administration and not Kristi Noem, who some Republicans I report tonight are talking about whether she should resign. Tucker Carlson has been all over these issues. I don't think he has a consistent record on Jan 6th, but he just recently went as a minuscule a step as to say, well, yeah, you don't demean the American who was killed. Take a look. it was just outrageous that the secretary of homeland security uh christy noem just got up there and trashed alex preddy you know clearly it was i agree yeah it was just uh obviously what she was saying was false and i i don't understand it i mean i i found it you know dehumanizing and gross yes i think uh i agree I mean, this is absolutely beyond the pale.

12:03If Tucker Carlson and others can say this, where are we when you have the president of the United States and his upper staff people calling this man a terrorist? The man had what they claim they support, a legal gun. I mean, where's the NRA and others saying on this? He had a legal gun that they didn't even know he had. And they're going to justify multiple shots on a man who did a good Samaritan deed of trying to help a woman who had been pushed down. And now you not only kill him, you discover a gun later after you shoot him, you're going to demonize him and make him a terrorist. This is inexcusable.

12:44And it's something that I think even Republicans of some strife say, wait a minute, that's a bridge too far. Yeah. And this is a time where some people are getting very discouraged. We've seen great courage and bravery and we've seen people in the streets and in the cold. Others, though, commenting and you see this online, some people say, gosh, well, what can you do when the government is arrayed against you? What's the point if they're not even following the rules? Almost almost a kind of a lament. and yet you have been a part of these movements for decades and you go back far enough. We're around learning from and marching with heroes and some of them did courageously have to risk life and limb.

13:23It shouldn't be that way, but I wonder what we can learn from that. And so I wanted to ask you about that, which is a bigger picture question of resilience and activism tactics. I know you've agreed to stay. We're going to get into that when we're back with Rev in 90 seconds.

13:41There have been many examples where federal officials have been charged by state prosecutors for committing crimes. I say I really do believe that the vice president and other official other leaders who said absolute immunity are truly misserving ICE and Border Patrol agents because there is no absolute immunity, friends. You have to obey the law and you can be held accountable. Attorney General Ellison speaking about the possibility with the foundation of indicting federal officials in that state. Reverend Chardin's back with me on what history might teach people today. Well, what history should say when we talk about some people becoming disillusioned and saying, what's the point?

14:24We must remember the generation before me, Dr. King and that generation, they fought against the laws that said that they were less than having the capacity to exercise rights. They didn't have the rights and they fought and sacrificed anyhow. The law is on our side in this case, in these situations. We just need to force them to go by the law that is there. So all of this wringing of the hands and it's no use and I don't see no hope to me is a coward's way out. We've got to do what the people are doing in the streets of Minnesota because they had more than King and Rosa Parks had. They were fighting the laws.

15:08We're fighting to make them enforce the laws. The laws are clear that you cannot shoot and kill an unarmed woman in a car and put two bullets or three bullets in her head. The law is clear about they don't have unqualified immunity. So we're not trying to change the law. We're trying to enforce the law against a president and an administration that seems to want to say those laws don't apply to us. They're giving out immunity. You can't give out immunity. The law is the law is the law. And the way the states and the federal government have worked in the past, there is no legal reason they can't work that way now.

15:46And that brings me to another question about the intersection of communities that have more experience with this or less. We both deal in learning and knowledge. I always think of it. There's what you want to know and what you have to know. And over police communities, neighborhoods where the government might come in and be a threat. there's some stuff you have to know um we have communities that have it's sometimes called the talk or how young you have to teach someone about how trigger happy some police and agents can be and now other people learn about that where does this fit into the fact that in a in a i think a very sad way more americans now have to know that you're not guaranteed safety sometimes with some armed police and government officials.

16:32So you learn how to deal with that. But you also then, through that learning, say, maybe this is wrong. This needs to change. I think that you hope that people deal with what they have to deal with and then turn to this has to change because now you're teaching kids. You're going to have to teach children or you began teaching children that you see some of the federal officers and we don't know if they're going to grab you and hold you for two or three days until you prove you're a citizen or not. You've got to fear the people that we told you are going to protect us. And they are saying we have the immunity to do whatever we want with you.

17:11In fact, we don't care what you say. We're going to throw you at home. Taking five-year-old kids. How do you explain to your five-year-old child or seven-year-old child that you could be a target tomorrow? So we don't know if we want you to play or kindergarten game or with your friends. This is an atmosphere we've not seen in decades. Those that come out of that era that trained people like me and the next generation has said, yeah, but imagine what they, they bombed Dr. King's house three or four times. We're not there yet. And we need to stop it before it gets there. If we allow them to get away with, they've gotten away with so far in Minneapolis, then we will be in a place that is of no return.

17:55Reverend Al Sharpton on these stories. Thank you tonight for joining us. Tonight, we also have a firsthand report about some of what is driving the president and the bombshell claims from a story that the White House would like everyone to forget. New accounts from an Epstein conspirator, Maxwell, as Trump's DOJ breaks the law on the document release. I'm going to have a special report on that later tonight. But next, as promised, Chris Hayes reporting from Minnesota when we come back.

18:55We'll be right back. dot fanduel dot com gambling problem call 1-800-GAMBLER your place works hard just like you do from last night's dinner to everyday messes you want a clean that actually delivers Lysol kills 99.9 % of viruses and bacterias on surfaces and now leaps find a fresh lavender scent you'll actually love disinfecting wipes handles phones remotes and everyday surfaces the all-purpose cleaner keeps kitchens and bathrooms in check and the power toilet bowl cleaner disinfects the brush and bowl for two-in-one disinfection. Strong clean, great smell, no extra effort. Don't just clean, Lysol clean.

19:28Courage. I learned it from my adoptive mom. Hold my hand. You hold my hand. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care at AdoptUSKids.org. You can't imagine the reward. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Do you trust Tom Holman? Well, look, this is a tough one. And what I said to folks here and folks on the street were saying this, and I agree with them, is that I said Tom Holman is more of a professional. But the fear I have with that is, is it we're going to get more of the same, but more efficient? Minnesota Governor Tim Walz there speaking in an MSNOW exclusive with Jacob Soberoff.

20:06As part of the All In Special this evening, Chris Hayes is continuing his reporting on the ground for Minneapolis. The show we should mention also features what is now a both sad but newsworthy interview with congresswoman ilhan omar after that attack uh which we will get to uh welcome chris what do you think is important from what governor walls was saying there and what you're seeing on the ground and you're reporting tonight everyone here i mean no one extends any benefit of the doubt to the trump administration after what they've seen over the last month um And, you know, I talked to a state senator who represents Columbia Heights, which is a sort of inner ring suburb that that Liam Ramos, that five year old boy is in that school system, along with three other children who were taken, one of whom had actually come back.

20:55And I said, have you seen any kind of change in the tempo, in the tactics? And she said, no, so far we haven't. I talked to Elliot Payne, who's the city council president here in Minneapolis. He said the same thing. So right now everyone's operating like nothing is going to change. and until, you know, ice gets leaves. And I think I understand why they're doing that. There's a kind of steely resolve here. They built up all this infrastructure. But the real question is going to be like, they tried a lot of these tactics in Los Angeles. They've done some, they did them in Chicago. And in both of those places, deportations and some of the tactics have stayed after the kind of operation ended.

21:36But there was a real palpable difference in Chicago, I know, from many people I know there, after Operation so-called Mid-Wavelets ended. And so far, we have not seen something similar here in Minneapolis. I mentioned your interview. We have an excerpt to that. So let's take a look. This is new, Chris Hayes exclusive with the Congresswoman. I remember feeling like someone was saying something close to me. And I looked up and there was a man plunging towards me. and there was like some liquid thing that I at the moment thought it was like a spit. And so I, you know, instinctively tried to like punch him basically for trying to spit on me.

22:23You thought he was spitting on you? Yes. So you thought a guy had come up and spit at you? That's what I thought. And then I heard, yes. Which is why you did this. Well, I mean, that was, you know, I was raised with three brothers who are older than me. And so, you know, you learn that maybe taking the first punch when somebody is bigger than you yields you better results. A natural human moment there. What else can you tell us about your interview and how this is feeling in Minnesota, where thankfully it wasn't worse, but it fits into what's been a horrific and escalating time? i gotta say that the what people here have experienced has has set people on edge there's sort of a really interesting combination of like minneapolis midwestern um cheerful and welcoming and polite and also people are scared and they're nervous and they're on edge if you roll up to a location and you're sitting in an unmarked car people are going to come up and be like what's up man what are you doing uh because they think you're ice the the experience of having what is this mass secret police force rolling around unmarked vehicles which again it's a very strange experience for most americans it's not one people have had you know where you see cop cars um see police officers in uniform these are you know this these sort of this kind of ambient malevolence that just sort of hangs over everywhere every school and workplace and so what it does is it makes people on edge, really palpably and noticeably so.

24:01And I think it's, you know, a testament to the security folks there that, you know, nothing happened other than he was just tackled. She later said to me in that interview that he was saved by security from her decking him, basically, which is what she was going to do if he had not been tackled to the ground. And, you know, she has lived in a threat environment for years now, where I think she has just kind of gotten used to that being the reality of her life. She holds a monthly town hall meeting with her constituents. And that's what that meeting was before he interrupted it. You mentioned how people are feeling, you know, out in the public square.

24:41That's by design. We've covered many different situations and you've been out in the field before where there is an almost escalating or provocative mode of some government forces. Is there kind of the center holding where people say, well, we know actually we're being provoked, indeed, terribly with the killing, with the misuse of pepper spray, with the taunting and the unprofessional, normally grounds for firing of these federal officials and people saying, But we don't want to tip over into giving them the response that Trump and some clearly want. Yeah. And in some ways, it's not even talked about in those terms, because so much of what is happening is this kind of, you know, like the iceberg under the water line, mutual aid and sort of neighborly help.

25:35So, you know, we went by the Whipple federal building today where there's protesters and the protesters have bullhorns and they're, you know, jeering the DHS folks and they come driving out. Ninety nine percent of what's happening is people in safety vests are walking around schools at pick up and drop off. People are getting groceries together. There are doctors who are providing medical care, including delivering children in basement apartments to people that that don't want to leave. And so it's hard to describe because it's not a pro, you use the term protest, it's not protest in that traditional sense by and large, 99 % of it.

26:11And so the idea that like people are going to get violent or engage in property damage, first of all, it's freezing here. But second of all, they went through 2020 and that produced some real trauma here and also produced some real resilience that people built up in the wake of it. And number three, there is what is happening here is something different than how we traditionally think of protest as protest. It is it is like the logistical day in, day out, task based work of protecting people from their own government in whatever form that takes. Yeah, understood. An important distinction when we understand what folks are up against there.

26:53Chris Hayes, thank you. I hope everyone there, including you and your team, stay safe. These interviews tonight that we just showed you some of, you'll see them in full with Governor Walz and Representative Omar on this special edition of All In, 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific. We have a lot more in the program. The Trump DOJ breaking a different law that Trump just signed on Epstein. I have an update on that. And as Chris was just telling us about how it feels in Minnesota, and we see the revolt against ICE, there is something brand new. Bruce Springsteen speaking out with a new song.

27:51An important story that Donald Trump doesn't want in the headlines, but he's not in control. The DOJ breaking the law, failing to release the Epstein files that the law requires. There is a sort of a slow going process. They say in the near term they will finally comply with the law they're currently breaking. The deadline is over a month ago. There are more questions about the cover-up. And although there's not a ton of credibility, we can also report that Maxwell's, which is Jelaine Maxwell, I should say, Epstein's co-conspirator, is trying to get more lenient. She already got a kind of special treatment from the administration.

28:26She makes references in a recent bid to try to get out of prison to quote 25 men and four co-conspirators that she claims reached secret settlements connected to Epstein's abuse who were not indicted. Now, let me make a clear point about that. She is not very credible. She is a convicted co-conspirator of Epstein, a sex trafficker. So saying those words doesn't mean a ton. If, however, she can point to evidence that the government under any party failed to pursue those people, that there's paper, that there's sources, well, that would matter, even though she obviously has a credibility problem because she might say anything she can to get notice, get Trump's attention, try to get out of jail.