with-CHRIS-HAY-01
Ellison, Linda Sarsour >
Trump will use the full force and power of the U.S. government to benefit
his sprawling business interests and enrich himself and his family as the
Office of Government Ethics, which is charged with preventing conflicts of
interest in the executive branch took to Twitter to congratulate Trump for
addressing the issue, unleashing a very Trumpian nine-tweet tweet storm;
Before the election Donald Trump took aim at the political establishment,
the global elite, notably hedge fund billionaire and Hillary Clinton donor
George Soros and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. Trump portrayed
Goldman Sachs the embodiment of the global power structure that quote,
"Robbed our working class." And today, Donald Trump announced he wants a
former Goldman Sachs banker to run his Treasury Department. Steven Mnuchin
was the Finance Chairman for Donald Trump`s campaign. In the immediate
aftermath of the election, reports of harassment and intimidation started
to surface. In response, the Southern Poverty Law Center just released a
report that tracked 867 hate incidents in the first 10 days after the
election. A look at North Carolina politics. Why Donald Trump`s Carrier
deal appears to be more of a well executed PR move than a sign of any
larger change to come. Interview with Rep. Keith Ellison and the future of
the Democratic Party. >
North Carolina; Donald Trump; Trade; Business; Keith Ellison; Democratic
Party; Goldman Sachs; President-elect; Donald Trump; Secretary of Treasury;
Office of Government Ethics; Twitter; Bank; Law; Statutes; Congress >
SALMON: Because Fannie and Freddie are hugely profitable, it`s because their shareholders haven`t seen any of that money ever since the financial crisis.
HAYES: Fascinating. Felix Salmon, thank you very much for joining us. Appreciate it.
SALMON: Thank you.
HAYES: Just ahead, new reporting on the staggering number of incidents of harassment, intimidation, committed in the wake of Donald Trump`s victory. Look at what`s being called the quote, "OUTBREAK OF HATE", coming up.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country`s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HAYES: It was nearly a year ago that Donald Trump first called for a ban on all Muslims coming into the U.S. in the wake of the attack in San Bernardino, California. The declaration was one of the most chilling moments in candidate Trump`s campaign. Today, a little window into how a President Trump might respond to another new attack. In the wake of this week`s attack at Ohio State University when a Somali-born student drove his car into a crowd before stabbing bystanders with a knife, who was shot and killed by police of the scene. Fortunately, everyone else survived though some are still hospitalized.
The attacker appears to have been what folks call "self-radicalized", inspired by ISIS, judging by a video posted on Facebook. In the Islamic States Propaganda arm, took credit for that attack. Early this morning, Trump tweeted quote, "ISIS is taking credit for the terrible stabbing attack at Ohio State University by a Somali refugee, who should not have been in our country." Now, the 18-year-old attacker, who is a legal permanent resident of the United States came here in 2014 as a child along with his family, and it`s, of course, difficult to contemplate the extreme vetting regime that would be able to reliably predict a child`s future actions.
The President-elect`s response is also a reminder of the importance and the weight of a president`s response in the wake of an attack. Because when people are scared, they are at their most susceptible to truly awful policies and programs. Like policies banning all Muslims from entering the country where behavior that bullies and intimidates Muslims and immigrants. And there`s a disturbing new report that examines hundreds of those kinds of incidents in the wake of Donald Trump`s elections. Details on that, next.
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HAYES: In the immediate aftermath of the election, reports of harassment and intimidation started to surface. In response, the Southern Poverty Law Center just released a report that tracked 867 hate incidents in the first 10 days after the election from submissions to the SPLC website and media accounts.
Now, incidents were limited to real world events. The account does not include instances of online harassment. It should also be noted SPLC said it excluded news accounts that turned out to be hoaxes, of which there were a few. But it was not able to confirm the veracity of all submissions.
That said, the report also notes the bureau of justice statistics estimates that two-thirds of hate crimes go unreported to the police. The report also notes the bureau of justice statistics estimates that two-thirds of incidents go unreported by the police.
It was the strongest the day after the election. Those numbers have since thankfully begun to drop off. SPLC categorized the incidents by motivation. For instance, 23 were anti-Trump, 187 were anti-Black, 280 incidents were anti-immigrant.
Now, we`ve seen examples of some of those kinds of harassment across the country caught on camera. For example, The Washington Post reported on a motorist in Queens, New York who allegedly yelled at a Moroccan Uber driver. The driver taped the encounter then reportedly gave it to a passenger who gave it to The Post.
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UNIDENITIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) terrorist. I don`t care, bro, video. You`re a loser. You`re not even from here, you (EXPLETIVE DELETED)
Trump is president. (EXPLETIVE DELETED) so you can kiss your visa good- bye, scumbag. They`ll deport you soon. Don`t worry, you (EXPLETIVE DELETED) terrorist.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HAYES: Then there was a self-proclaimed Trump voter who started yelling at a Starbucks barista near the University of Miami a couple weeks ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`re trash.
UNIDENITIFIED FEMALE: So what?
UNIDENITIFIED MALE: Because I voted for trump.
UNIDENITIFIED FEMALE: So what?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump.
UNIDENIFIED FEMALE: Congratulations.
UNIDENTFIED MALE: You lost. Now, give me my money back.
What is your name? I want your name. I want your card. OK. You`re garbage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HAYES: Joining me now, Linda Sarsour, executive director of the Arab- American Association of New York.
Let me ask you this, one of the things -- so we`ve been going through these accounts, right, in many cases they are hard to confirm. And there`s also -- I want to be careful that we`re not doing something where we`re shining a flashlight and we`re saying, oh, there`s this new thing happening.
But there`s been stuff happening all along, you know what I mean? I wonder how you feel about that? Does it feel like from the folks you talk to, people in your community, like there is there something that happened after the election or does it not feel that different?
LINDA SARSOUR, EXEC. DIR. ARAB-AMERICAN ASSOCIATION, NY: Oh, I mean, it absolutely does feel different. I mean, Muslims, in particular, or those perceived to be Muslims, like Sikhs, have experienced hate crimes, you know, ever since days and weeks and months after 9/11. So hate crimes, assaults, are nothing new to us. But, yes, it absolutely has exasperated in the past two weeks since election where people that you ho may have went into a store or been in your neighborhood and have been normal, then all of a sudden people are looking you in a different way. There are people that are more emboldened to come out with their hatred, so even if they were holding it in before, it`s just the story we`re hearing every day, people being spit at coming to our adult education classes.
HAYES: Really?
SARSOUR: People saying go back to your country, sometimes using just the word Trump as a way to like to antagonize you at a supermarket.
HAYES: That, you know, I have say of all this, that`s the most upsetting part of this, because I`ve seen numerous occasions in which the invocation of the name of the sitting president-elect of the United States is being deployed essentially as a kind of slur.
SARSOUR: Oh, absolutely.
HAYES: Essentailly as a kind of -- and there have been numerous reports of this. And I think -- I`m curious what you think -- it`s probably reports like this are only capturing a tiny percentage of the kinds of incidents that are happening.
SARSOUR: Oh, absolutely. I`m pretty sure that there are refugees, immigrants, undocumented people who are already not reporting because they don`t want to be on the radar of the federal government or of law enforcement agencies. And oftentimes people don`t know that you can report harassment that somebody`s spitting at you in the street is something that you should tell law enforcement, that people should not be treating you that way or if you feeling that you may be endangered that you should report these crimes.
But a lot of people are not reporting them. So, I actually think that 867 maybe triple that, but we just don`t know because we know that people don`t always report those incidents.
HAYES: You know, there`s some news today about a woman named Katharine Gorka who has been named to Homeland security transition team. She has complained bitterly to the Department of Homeland Security trains its agents falsely, in opinion, that Islam is a religion of peace. She`s someone that writes about Islam for Breitbart. This is someone who is part of the kind of cottage industry of Islamophobia.
I mean, there`s a connection between what`s happening inside and what`s happening outside it seems to me.
SARSOUR: I mean, the current -- whether it be transition or actual appointments of the Trump administration are literally every Muslim`s worst nightmare being manifested into an administration. Gorka is an absolute nightmare. She has called for the sanctioning of Muslim organizations. She believes conspiracy theories about the Muslim Brotherhood infiltrating the government. This is a woman who is extremely hateful. She has written for Breitbart, but she also helps -- she`s from a think tank. People take her word for it. She`s being used as a, quote, pseudo expert on Islam and Muslims. And she`s a very dangerous woman to be appointed to help the transition of the Department of Homeland Security.
The question is security of whom against whom? And it`s her philosophy is the security of our nation from Muslims.
HAYES: Linda Sarsour, thank you for your time. Really appreciate it.
Still ahead, why Donald Trump`s Carrier deal appears to be more of a well executed PR move than a sign of any larger change to come. The story behind the headlines ahead.
And tonight`s Thing One, Thing Two starts right after this break.
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HAYES: Thing One tonight, for the past six years North Carolina has seen Republican governance run rampant. In 2010, two years after North Carolina voted for President Obama, Republicans could control both houses of the state legislature for the first time in over a century.
As the Associated Press reported, not only does the shift give Republicans the power to govern, it gives them an inherent advantage for years to come. The GOP will be in charge of redrawing House and Senate districts.
Two years later Pat McCrory cemented GOP control becoming the first Republican Governor there in two decades and repercussions were swift. GOP state lawmakers drew district lines in a way to pack 49 percent of all North Carolina`s African-American voters in just three of the state`s 13 congressional districts. In 2013, it passed a voter ID bill dubbed by The Nation`s Ari Berman the country`s worst voter suppression law. That was ultimately ruled unconstitutional this year by a federal court.
But lawmakers still were able to cut voting access in other ways. Guilford County, which has a large percentage of black voters went from having 16 voting sites open the first week of early voting in 2012 to just one this year. Meanwhile, McCrory steadily signed a Republican agenda into law, enacting abortion restrictions, expanding concealed carry permits as well as signing a law restricting LGBT protections, the transgender bathroom bill that was so offensive that major corporations, including PayPal, Pepsi, and Deutsche Bank began boycotting the state.
It`s been a GOP free for all.
But North Carolina can be viewed as a kind of blueprint for all of America right now as Republicans will soon control the White House and both chambers of congress. And if we`re looking at that way it`s crucial to keep in mind what happened in North Carolina today. And that`s Thing Two in 60 Seconds.
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HAYES: Since North Carolina Republicans won the general assembly in 2010 and the governor`s mansion in 2012, the state has witnessed a GOP agenda on steroids from right-wing legislation to voter suppression and extreme gerrymandering.
But there are two major pieces of news out of the Tarheel state. Today Roy Cooper, the Democratic challenger to Governor Pat McCrory extended his lead to more than 10,000 votes with all but six counties reporting. That matters because McCrory needs the margin to be less than 10,000 to call for a statewide recount.
And while that margin could still change, there`s going to be a recount in Durham County, Cooper`s campaign manager declared today game over.
So, looks like a Democratic governor is going to replace a Republican in North Carolina.
Meanwhile, late last night, a federal court ordered North Carolina to hold a special legislative election in 2017 with redrawn district lines citing an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. The effect is that every state senate and House member will face re-election next year with new district lines.
Right now, America`s national politics look a lot like North Carolina in 2012. For Democrats wondering how to respond, North Carolina playbook is one place to start.
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TRUMP: I was sitting home. I`m watching the news and I see 1,400 people get fired from Carrier. You`re leaving Indiana and we`re going to protect the people of Indiana.
Every single time you make an air conditioning unit you`re going to have a major tax to pay when you sell it in the United States.
You know, our politicians have been working on this problem for five years. Nothing ever happens, because they don`t understand, this is the only way, they want to give incentives.
There have to be consequences when they leave. There are no consequences.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HAYES: On the campaign trail, Donald Trump made a freaking example of Carrier, U.S. based air conditioning manufacturer, which about nine months ago announced plans to relocate 1,400 jobs from Indianapolis to Mexico. Trump claimed that by threatening steep tariffs on companies that export jobs he and he alone could convince Carrier and its ilk to keep employing American workers.
In this one case he already appears to have succeeded. As we reported last night, Carrier announced on a Twitter, "we are pleased to have reached a deal with President-elect Trump and VP-elect Pence to keep close to 1,000 jobs in Indy. More details soon."
Tomorrow, Trump and Pence will travel to Indianapolis for a kind of victory lap.
Now, it is a huge win for the 1,000 workers who now get to keep their jobs as well as a campaign promise fulfilled and a big public relations coup for the president-elect. What it is not, however, is an actual plan to create sustained job growth or manufacturing in the U.S.
Details about the deal are just beginning to trickle out. It seems that Trump may have opted for the carrot approach that he decried, incentives, instead of the stick. Rather than threatening Carrier with tariffs, the state of Indiana where Mike Pence is still governor, we should note, reportedly plans to entice the company with economic incentives as part of the deal to stay.
We don`t know the total cost of those incentives, but as economist Justin Wolfor`s (ph) put it, every savvy CEO will now threaten to jump ship, ship jobs to Mexico and demand a payment to stay, great economic policy.
According to one official, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, Carrier`s parent company may have been concerned about a stick, however, about losing billions of dollars in federal contracts under a Trump administration.
John Mutz (ph), who is also a former lieutenant governor told Politico, quote, this deal is no different than other deals we put together at the IEDC to retain jobs, but the fact is that the difference is that the United Technologies depends on the federal government for lots of business, a major factor that changed is we had an election.
In a statement released today, Carrier said the deal was possible, because, quote, the incoming Trump/Pence administration has emphasized to us its commitment to support the business community and create an improved, more competitive U.S. business climate. The incentives offered by the state were an important consideration.
Again, we don`t know what those incentives are.
We did get a first look at that commitment to the business community with an interview with Trump`s new pick for Secretary of Treasury this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE MNUCHIN, NOMINATED FOR SECRETARY OF TREASURY: We`re going to cut corporate taxes, which will bring huge amounts of jobs back to the United States.
UNIDENITIFIED MALE: What do you think you`re going to get to that?
MNUCHIN: We`re going to get to 15 percent. And we`re going to bring a lot of cash back into the U.S.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HAYES: That`s the face of economic policy in the Trump era.
Now, the Democrats are trying to fight back and put together an economic agenda of their own. Up next, my interview with a man who wants to lead them.
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HAYES: During the campaign, Hillary Clinton made the strategic decision to wall Donald Trump off from the rest of the Republican Party, at least rhetorically, portraying him as a singular figure and an exceptional threat to American traditions.
But, three weeks into the transition, Trump`s cabinet picks have made it increasingly clear, this administration is going to be extremely Republican, about as Republican as it gets.
Trump may have run as a populist insurgent, but ideologically he`s largely an empty vessel. And now that his party controls two whole branches of government, they`re filling up Trump`s agenda with items from the conservative wish list -- privatizing Medicare, cutting corporate taxes.
The big question now for Democrats, how to counter that Republican juggernaut.
I`m joined now by congressman Keith Ellison, Democrat from Minnesota, candidate for chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
And congressman, what`s the plan here?
REP. KEITH ELLISON, (D) MINNESOTA: Well, the plan is very simple: we have to really deliver for America`s working classes. That means that we need to fight for higher wages. We`ve got to fight for real trade deals. And we got to make sure that we are invested in training and everything else that Americans need.
HAYES: But congressman, you can`t deliver any of that, respectfully, in the minority of one House of congress.
ELLISON: But we can offer an alternative vision. And the other thing we can do, Chris, is we can make sure that the American people know that they`ve been given a bill of goods. They voted for certain things but what they`re getting is a cabinet full of billionaire lobbyists, white supremacists and people who really are not the ones who are there who are going to deliver for the American people.
There`s a guy in the cabinet now in the Treasury who was part and parcel of the whole housing financial collapse. We have another person, Betsy Devos, who is all in favor of privatization of education. We`re looking -- I mean, the people are not going to get what they have been promised in this election.
HAYES: This is a question to me. Is it Donald Trump, I think, was able to win that primary, in many ways win the election because of his sort of ideological deviations from the Republican Party. Do you think that will continue given the signs you see of what Ryan says he`s prepping in the House, who is around him, or are you going to basically get Scott Walkerism with a guy who likes to tweet a lot?
ELLISON: Well, I think we probably are going to get the worst of both. But you know, Elizabeth Warren said something really smart, which is personnel is policy. And if you look at who he is selecting to be at Treasury, you know, big hedge fund manager, involved in the financial collapse, the education thing very scary because we need education to be economically competitive, and also you know, Medicare and Medicaid now on the block with Tom Price, people need health care to be economically viable.
And so what we`re seeing is a set of appointments that will be the opposite of what people voted for when they thought he was going to be a working class champion. He might have played one on TV, but he`s not a real one, and we know that because of the choices he`s already made.
HAYES: Well, then, so how do you operationalize that? I mean, it seems to me that in the position that you`re in, there`s going to be some high profile fights and in the Senate they`re probably going to pick fights on who those nominees that they`re going to really go in after, in the House you guys are going to have fights about, say Medicare privatization possibly, something like that. I mean, what`s the broader message of the Democratic Party? What does the Democratic Party stand for in the era of Trump? Give me your elevator pitch.
ELLISON: The Democratic Party is the party of working people across this country. We`re not here for the special interests and the big money folks, we`re here for the people who pour the cement, drive the buses, the people who take care of the patients, who teach the classes, the real working classes of America. And we`re going to be fighting for them.
So yes, Democrats in the House and Senate and every state legislature and every city council will be fighting on that front.
HAYES: What has...
ELLISON: But it`s really about the grassroots, Chris.
HAYES: OK, yeah, but what has to change institutionally about the Democratic Party to make that a reality? Because what happened I think we saw an election in which the candidate for the Democratic Party raised a huge amount of money. A lot of that was from wealthy donors. I don`t think, you know, whether you morally fault her for that or not, you run for president, that`s part of what you do. Are there institutional ways you need to change the party to be a more credible party for working people?
ELLISON: Absolutely. We got to decentralize from Washington to the grassroots. That`s the real thing.
You know, the elected officials, they`re going to fight, but the real people got to be put in the game to fight are the people who have got to be put in the game to fight are the people who work on the grassroots every day all across this country. And that means the Democratic Party needs to be moving resources towards the grassroots to empower them. That means communications, technology, but mostly heart and a fighting spirit for working people.
HAYES: What`s the lesson for Minnesota? I was looking at a map. It was the Minnesota congressional -- am I correct that it`s all Democrats in your delegation in Minnesota?
ELLISON: Nope. No, we`ve got some Republicans in there, too.
HAYES: So, you -- but you guys have not seen the kind of sea change in that state the way that some other states around you have seen. You`ve had Democrats hold the line in Minnesota.
Minnesota`s a state that Donald Trump almost won sort of miraculously. What have you learned from Minnesota?
ELLISON: We learned that voter turnout strategies that operate 365 days a year really do work. That`s how we made sure Rick Nolan won in the eighth district when you had Stewart Mills threatening down there. That`s how we hung on during this wave for Tim Walsh.
In my own district, we outperformed the Democratic average by about 60,000 votes, which helped keep Minnesota red. So, he lost by about 42,000 votes but we over-performed the Democratic average in my district, and that kept us a blue state.
HAYES: There`s a story to be written about Minnesota right now.
Congressman Keith Ellison, thanks for your time, appreciate it.
ELLISON: Thank you, Chris.
HAYES: That is ALL IN for this evening. Make sure to tune in tomorrow for my exclusive interview with Senator Bernie Sanders. I`ll talk to him about the Democratic fight in the Trump era. More, you do not want to miss that.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. END
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