The Rachel Maddow Show 5/12/ 26 NEW 🅼🆂🅽🅱️🅲 Breaking News Today May 12, 2026

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]think the odds are that while he's there, he's going to blurt out something to the Chinese about how he doesn't really mind if they invade Taiwan.

[00:00:09]Quote, "US allies are particularly worried that Trump, who is known for his sweeping off-the- cuff statements, might end up disavowing US support for Taiwan, perhaps even inadvertently, according to conversations with five diplomats from Asian and European countries. Not only are they worried about what he might do on purpose, they're worried about what he might oops seed on the international stage. What do you think the odds are he blurts out something wrong whether or not he means it? And oops, broke Taiwan. What are the odds?

[00:00:50]18 patients from that hentirstricken cruise ship have been brought back to the United States. Now, what do you think the odds are that the Trump administration will contend with that risk in ways that are sane and organized and even vaguely scientific? This is the Trump administration that fired thousands of scientists from the CDC.

[00:01:11]Scientists in particular who work on infectious diseases and all sorts of global health concerns. Also, they fired the people who work specifically on the issue of viruses spreading on cruise ships.

[00:01:23]Yeah. Yeah, what do we need those folks for? Get rid of them.

[00:01:27]It would usually be the CDC that would be the lead agency in the whole world on a crisis like this. But under Donald Trump, there's not even a CDC director right now. Right now, they've got the CDC being run as a part-time job by the guy who is also part-time running the NIH. That is a guy who is most famous for his role in a declaration that said, "Let's try to maximize the number of Americans who get infected with COVID 19." Because sure, CO would go on to kill more than a million Americans in that pandemic. But do we really think that's bad? Surely, we could have upped those numbers a little higher.

[00:02:06]That's who Trump has running the CDC again as a part-time job. Under Trump, the the FDA is being run by a guy who, it was widely reported on Friday, is being fired from his job at the FDA.

[00:02:20]There's an incredulous headline tonight at politico.com saying basically, why is this guy still showing up at work?

[00:02:28]Mackery keeps working. Yeah. Isn't he fired? Didn't we all hear on Friday that he was getting fired? We don't know.

[00:02:36]We'll see. We do know that under his leadership, the FDA just approved fruit flavored vapes because who among us does not want to make America healthy again by starting a maximum number of middle school boys and girls on grape flavored ecigarette mega dose of nicotine bombs.

[00:02:56]Maha.

[00:02:58]Under Donald Trump, the US government's health agencies are also leaning in on tanning beds for kids.

[00:03:07]Seriously, for kids. So your kid can have healthy looking skin like HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

[00:03:15]Start them early enough and they'll look like this in no time.

[00:03:20]Pass the vape.

[00:03:23]But don't worry, uh Trump has just nominated yet another person for surgeon general. This will be his third surgeon general nominee. Neither of the first two have panned out. Um the last one he nominated turns out didn't have a medical license. Uh the one before that uh said she was a graduate of the medical school of the University of Arkansas, but it turns out she was not at all a graduate of the University of Arkansas medical school. This latest one he's nominated um is a Fox News personality who sells tinctures on Instagram and what she says are quote powerful physician formulated aphrodisiacs.

[00:04:02]So clearly we're in good hands or at least we're in hands of some kind. I don't make me think about it.

[00:04:12]A lawsuit was filed today to stop whatever it is Trump is doing to the reflecting pool on the National Mall in Washington DC. He announced last month that a company who does all his pools would be doing the reflecting pool. And for some reason at his instruction he said they would be painting it blue as if it were a swimming pool. Trump announced that it would cost $1.8 million to do this job. Also, he had somehow just directed that expenditure as if we have the kind of government that works like that, which we don't.

[00:04:41]But today, the New York Times reports that mysteriously late last week, the amount being paid to the people he hired on a no bid contract to paint the reflecting pool blue, that amount suddenly on Friday ballooned from the $ 1.8 8 million Trump had announced to quote more than seven times that figure in an unannounced contract revision on Friday.

[00:05:03]The lawsuit seeking to stop the reflecting pool slimming pool uh points out that that reflecting pool is on the National Register of Historic Places which is supposed to mean something.

[00:05:18]The lawsuit filed today also says that the reflecting pool's signature dark color is a quote character definfining feature of the reflecting pool and that the whole reason it's called the freaking reflecting pool is because its dark color means it reflects.

[00:05:34]It reflects for example the Lincoln Memorial on one side and the Washington Monument on the other side. And they don't say this but it's implicit.

[00:05:42]putting up little cabanas and deck chairs around it and painting it blue is never going to turn it into a swimming pool. Even though that's all you apparently understand.

[00:05:51]Trump literally already paved the rose garden.

[00:05:56]Now here he comes with the, you know, diving board for the reflecting pool.

[00:06:02]You first, sir.

[00:06:06]As this administration flails and fails on matters large and small, one of the solutary consequences of that for the American people is that when the American people push back against this administration, the push back almost always works.

[00:06:24]And and I I just want to take one example, one one example that we have focused on a lot here on this show. And I will tell you the reason we have focused on it a lot is because of me.

[00:06:34][clears throat] because because I've I frankly have spent a long time reading the history of guys like Trump uh in our country and in other countries around the globe over time in multiple generations in multiple centuries and patterns emerge. Okay.

[00:06:54]And what I think I have learned from that history is that like a proverbial goldfish, guys like these grow to fit the size of their bowl. Which means the more they have to work with in terms of authoritarian power they can consolidate to themselves, the more resources they have at their disposal to use for nefarious authoritarian purposes, the more repressive and monstrous they can be. So it becomes very important once you realize what kind of guy you've got at the head of your country becomes very important for you to think about what kind of resources you are handing him to use for his authoritarian project.

[00:07:31]Okay? And so, you know, given what we know about Trump's inclinations and fantasies, do you really think it's a good idea for the American people with their tax dollars to build him to build this particular president a huge new network of some of the largest prison facilities on earth, all specifically designed to hold people without trial and essentially outside the reach of the legal system? Is that a good idea to give him that kind of a system to play with?

[00:08:01]I think there is a case to be made that that could be one of the single most dangerous, one of the single worst ideas we could have as a country in terms of handling the risks posed by an aspiring autocrat. And so over the last few months, I have been acutely interested in this warehouse prison plan that Trump and his wisdom has unveiled. I have been acutely interested specifically in seeing the American people everywhere.

[00:08:26]Red states, blue states, urban areas, suburban areas, rural areas, everywhere.

[00:08:30]I have been very interested in seeing the American people step up in all kinds of ways to just say no to this, to say no to building Trump a network of huge new prison camps to fill with whoever he wants.

[00:08:44]And tonight I can tell you, and I think this is an important moment to mark, I can tell you tonight that if you have been part of the fight against those prison camps, if for example you supported the national protests against the Trump prison camps that took place a few weeks ago, or if you have supported the fight back in one of the the dozen plus states where they where they tried to put these things and failed already, if you were part of getting one of these Trump prison camps canled in Marramac, New Hampshire, in Ashland, Virginia, in Hutchkins, Texas, in Durant, Oklahoma, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in Kansas City, Missouri, in Chester, New York. If you are in one of the places that has got one of these things canled already. If you are in one of the places that's still now fighting tooth and nail to stop one of these prison camps from coming into your town and your state in places like Roxbury, New Jersey and Salt Lake City and Hagerstown, Maryland and Sakoro, Texas and Social Circle, Georgia and Surprise, Arizona and Romulus, Michigan. If you have been part of any of the fights against these facilities, I think it's important to take a moment to know that you are winning.

[00:09:53]You are winning this. Your push back has worked.

[00:09:58]Headline at Axios.

[00:10:00]ICE targets plan B after backlash to mega jails plan.

[00:10:08]What backlash? Oh yeah, that's you. Why are they giving up on plan A? Why are they giving up on the Trump prison camp warehouse idea? Because people have pushed back hard against it. And when people push back against them, generally speaking, they cave.

[00:10:25]The warehouse prisons, quote, have drawn significant push back. From quote, local activists and legal challenges and even from quote Republican elected officials, citing one source, Axios also reports, quote, there have also been talks about selling some of the already purchased warehouses.

[00:10:44]H again, that's one source from Axios. We haven't confirmed that reporting, but it kind of tracks with how this has been going, right?

[00:10:54]There's a lot of things that Trump and the Trump administration have been doing that are terrible ideas for the country if you go by what the American public tell pollsters they think about those ideas. I think there is a case to be made that the worst of all ideas from Trump is is now not yet declared dead, but it is definitely more dead than alive.

[00:11:19]this archipelago of massive prison camps for Trump. They tried it. They could not handle the push back. And so now basically they are no longer trying it.

[00:11:32]And it doesn't mean these fights are over. People are going to be protesting in Hagerstown, Maryland, for example, tomorrow against their continuing efforts there to make sure this thing is never ever going to happen. But if you have been part of this fight against the Trump administration for these past few months, honestly, this news should put some wind in your sails, cuz what you've done has worked. It has been protests.

[00:11:54]It has been pressuring local elected officials, including the Republican ones.

[00:12:00]It has also been some lowp profofile, but really consequential, brave local officials like this man. this man, the town manager from Social Circle, Georgia, a local official who did not ask for this fight, but when it came to him, he decided he was just going to throw himself in the path of this thing.

[00:12:19]And if he had to make up his own tactics to do so as he went along, well, then that's what he would do. Watch.

[00:12:28]>> Do you feel like your community is being steamrolled?

[00:12:30]>> Absolutely.

[00:12:33]Absolutely. Um, I feel like at times that um, I am one man standing in front of the freight train. That's the federal government.

[00:12:43][music] >> The facility was originally set to open in May or June. Under Mullen, the timeline is unclear. For [music] now, Taylor is using every tool to make that impossible.

[00:12:54]>> I have put a lock on the water meter over there.

[00:12:58]>> You went over and locked their water at the facility.

[00:13:00]>> Yes.

[00:13:01]>> Can you do that?

[00:13:02]>> I don't know.

[00:13:04]I don't know. I did.

[00:13:06]>> You [laughter] did it. All right. It's done.

[00:13:08]>> I did. I did. And And I And I told them that I wasn't going to remove the lock until I get a satisfactory answer about how they're going to be servicing the water and sewer. You know, I'm a big admirer of John Lewis and and his um get in good trouble. And that's my uh that's my one way of hopefully, you know, getting into some good trouble on behalf of of [music] this community.

[00:13:30]getting into some good trouble. That's the city manager of Social Circle Georgia. Um his name is Eric Taylor. Um interviewed by Antonia Hilton for MS. Now that good trouble of that kind and others um has worked so far with the Trump administration looking for a plan B since plan A didn't work at all. When you push back against these guys, you win way more often than you might think.

[00:13:58]They don't want to work hard. They want to do stuff that's easier. They can intimidate people out of pushing back against. But when people do push back, more than not, they cave. And and and now we're starting to see this campaign against the Trump prison camp, the warehouse prisons, right? We're starting to see that campaign, that successful campaign spread out. So, it's also about the prisons that Trump already has open, not the new ones he was he is finding himself unable to build, but the existing prisons where Trump has been holding immigrants without trial. I mean, these are images just from the past few days. People protesting at the immigrant prison where they hold people in St. Albins, Vermont. That was this weekend. That was Friday. People protesting outside Texas Governor Greg Abbott's house on Mother's Day weekend.

[00:14:40]Protesting about moms and kids held in the hellhole immigrant prison camp they hold women and children in at Dilly, Texas. We're seeing people protesting this weekend and and frankly regularly now. And with increasing intensity at the biggest ice facility in the whole Northeast, the very troubled, very screwed up Moshannan Valley facility in central Pennsylvania, moms were protesting there this Mother's Day weekend as well, specifically about the women held at that increasingly notorious prison in central P central Pennsylvania. Uh the news outlet Pen Live has just started an eight-part series on the Moshannan Valley prison for immigrants and what seems to be going so very very wrong there. Keep your eye on that Moshannan Valley facility. people locally in central Pennsylvania protesting there. People now coming from Pittsburgh and from Philly. Keep eyes on that as they move to close down the so-called Alligator Alcatraz prison in the Everglades in Florida. As they move to potentially close down the Camp East Montana, disastrous Trump immigrant prison that they built at Fort Bliss in El Paso, where they've already fired the contractor who was running it. Just just watch these protests. watch these campaigns because even though the Trump administration and all [clears throat] guys like him always try to make it seem like the stuff they're doing is inevitable and permanent and there's, you know, resistance is futile. Turns out none of it is inevitable and permanent. When they get push back, they cave. They can't handle sustained, smart, non-violent opposition. More often than not, it flumxes them. It makes things just too hard for them and it makes them change course. And and part of that I I think an increasingly large part of that as time goes on is is because part of the reason they cave. I think part of the reason they lose basically every fight anybody picks with them is because they're not just hapless and shambolic when it comes to things like accidentally starting wars they don't understand and you know firing all the government experts who work on cruise ship virus outbreaks. you know, hiring influencers for doctor jobs, right? They're they're not just bad at that stuff. It turns out, we're seeing this more and more over time, that they are particularly bad in court.

[00:16:54]They are particularly terrible lawyers.

[00:16:57]And when you're talking about government policy, that is turning out to be a bigger and a bigger Achilles heel for them all the time. You will remember, for example, uh when when Trump lawyers sent Marramac, New Hampshire legal documents that spelled out how they were going to install that Trump warehouse prison camp in Marramac, New Hampshire.

[00:17:16]They sent the town of Marramac, New Hampshire all these documents spelling out how great this new prison was going to be for the economy of Oklahoma.

[00:17:25]What Jimmy is in New Hampshire, you guys? That's not right.

[00:17:31]But that kind of what that kind of duh step on a rake error is a theme with these guys.

[00:17:38]Uh the excellent Wired magazine just recently did a rundown on how things are going specifically at the Justice Department's voting rights section. Used to be kind of the crown jewel of the Justice Department in terms of excellent lawyers and excellent lawyering. Right now quote mistakes in the office happen constantly.

[00:17:55]In a May letter sent to the Colorado Secretary of State, the DOJ rejected access to records. excuse me, requested access to records pertaining to the November 2000 federal election when they likely meant the 2020 federal election.

[00:18:10]In August, DOJ sent a letter to the New Hampshire Secretary of State seeking voter records which cited the wrong provision of the Help America Vote Act.

[00:18:19]In January, lawyers at Trump's DOJ filed a lawsuit in the wrong federal court in Georgia, and the judge therefore dismissed the action. In February, the same agency filed a lawsuit seeking New Jerseys voter roles. In that lawsuit, they misspelled Governor Mikey Cheryl's last name five out of the eight times she was mentioned in their lawsuit. In March, it was revealed that lawyers at Trump's DOJ had spent months emailing the wrong address while seeking information on Oklahoma voter roles.

[00:18:49]Also in March, a judge in Washington state demanded to know why DOJ voting section lawyers had improperly served their lawsuit and missed a crucial deadline. The judge also questioned whether whether the lawsuit was served in a different way than had been outlined to the court by DOJ and if so, why DOJ's lawyers had made quote inaccurate representations to the court.

[00:19:12]In another filing in late February, DOJ lawyers seeking sensitive voting data in a single filing misspelled the words voters emergency and United States United St. I mean I mean how's it how's it going overall with Trump lawyers efforts to to nationalize the midterm elections and have Trump take over elections all over the country? quote, "The Justice Department has not secured a single court victory in the 30 lawsuits it has filed to try to force states to turn over sensitive personal data on voters."

[00:19:51]The Washington Post reports now that in the crucial Eastern District of Virginia, which handles a ton of national security cases, um Trump's genius effort to bring a banana Republic criminal case against former FBI director James Comey. You know, the sea shells thing that has resulted in that office losing EDVA has lost its US attorney. They've also lost the head of the criminal division there. They've also lost the head of their national security division. Also the deputy head of the National Security Division. And yes, surprise, that is the same office that just lost the highest profile terrorism case of Trump's second term.

[00:20:28]They charged a guy with a suicide bombing at the Kbble airport that killed 13 American service members. You remember that? Well, it turns out, surprise, after losing all the top attorneys working on the that case in that US attorney's office, surprise, they were not able to get a conviction on that charge.

[00:20:47]Last week, we also saw Trump's DOJ abruptly drop felony charges against protesters they arrested in Illinois, protesters who were protesting against ICE. Trump's prosecutors dropped the charges, and we don't exactly know why, but they dropped the charges unexpectedly right after the judge in that case demanded to see the transcripts of what exactly those lawyers had said to the grand jury behind doors, behind closed doors, in order to get those felony indictments in the first place. Is it possible that something bad was indicated in those transcripts? They couldn't let the judge see? I don't know. But it cost them all those felony charges. They dropped them all.

[00:21:23]Even in the ballroom case, the ballroom people suing to stop the stupid ballroom construction of what used to be the east wing of the White House.

[00:21:34]Those plaintiffs have now told the judge that they believe Trump's DOJ lawyers lied to the court multiple times in that case about the ballroom.

[00:21:44]A federal judge in Rhode Island, we talked about this last week on the show, is also now pursuing a disciplinary referral against one of Trump's DOJ lawyers for a disciplinary referral for misconduct because that lawyer appears to have, say it with me now, lied to the court, which is something you are really, really, really not allowed to do.

[00:22:07]So, we're gonna we're going to talk tonight on the show about the effort to try to fight back against the new Jim Crow.

[00:22:14]Trump's appointees on the Supreme Court voting to end the Voting Rights Act.

[00:22:18]Republicans all over the South moving with lightning speed to bring us back to the 19th century to end all black representation in the states of the old Confederacy and anywhere else Republicans are in control.

[00:22:34]Their best trick is to make their actions seem permanent and irreversible and inevitable. The people's best trick is to push back nonviolently and relentlessly and then watch them cave.

[00:22:47][snorts] They don't like a hard fight in the first place when their hard fight has to involve lawyering, which it so often does. Well, turns out they're as good at that at that as they are at skincare advice and international diplomacy and aphrodisiacs you can buy on Instagram from the wouldbe surgeon general.

[00:23:10]The former head of the civil rights division at DOJ is going to join us next on the fight for black America's voting rights. The head of the campaign for accountability is here tonight on the latest Trump official to just blurt out and confess to what appears to be some serious public corruption. The folks behind the secret handshake Jeffrey Epstein Donald Trump statue have have done it again. They have outdone themselves this time. We've got that coming up for you in just a moment.

[00:23:33]We've got a lot to get to tonight. Lots to see. Stay with us.

[00:23:42]They say you see and moved to change the rules Midame uh allowing Republicans in his state to erase the state's majority black congressional districts. So even though a third of the state is black, black voters would elect zero of the state's members of Congress. Sure, the election had already started. Sure, tens of thousands of people had already cast their votes. Of course, there was chaos and anger at the polls. But no, Governor Jeff Landry told 60 Minutes this weekend. No, he saidnone of that is my fault.

[00:24:13]>> Voting was already happening as we sit here right now. Uh more than 45,000 ballots have been returned. What happens to those?

[00:24:21]>> Oh, those ballots are discarded and and those voters will vote again in November.

[00:24:26]>> You say that like it's not a big deal.

[00:24:28]>> Well, it's it's not a big It's not my fault.

[00:24:32]>> It's not my fault. Those votes will all be discarded. It's not my fault.

[00:24:39]This week, residents of Louisiana began an effort to recall Governor Jeff Landry. They will need to gather more than a half million valid signatures from Louisiana voters by October to move forward with that, which will not at all be easy. But honestly, people want to do something. There's a lot of people in Louisiana right now who are just rip roaring about what's going on. And quite understandably, I mean, this was the scene inside the Louisiana State House last week as Republicans work to jam through the new maps. Protesters packing the halls demanding to be heard.

[00:25:09]Frankly, some of the same in Alabama, where Republicans are trying to take away at least one of the two congressional districts in Alabama represented by a black lawmaker.

[00:25:18]Protesters saying we shall overcome outside the House chamber. Some of them dragged away by security guards.

[00:25:26]Same thing in Tennessee, where Republicans have passed new maps that break up majority black Memphis so Republicans run the can run the table for the whole state. Protesters blew whistles and booed and shouted shame as Republican lawmakers walked in to cast their votes. I should tell you in Tennessee, a big slice of black residents in Memphis will now have their votes folded into a white county called Williamson County. Williamson County literally still has a Confederate flag on their county seal, but they'll have just the right size of a slice of black voters from Memphis to make sure they can never with our other Memphis residents elect a member of Congress of their choosing.

[00:26:07]There's a reason why people are calling this Jim Crow 2.0.

[00:26:11]This really is plainly an effort to drag us back to the postreonstruction era after the Civil War, right? the so-called redemption of the old Confederacy where the slave states reverted to giving black Americans zero say in their own democracy and the federal government let them do it.

[00:26:30]Tonight, the conservatives on the US Supreme Court gave their blessing to the no black voters need apply new map in Alabama. Even though more than a quarter of the population of Alabama is black, nothing about this is subtle. People recognize absolutely what is happening.

[00:26:44]They are energized and they are fighting for it in the halls of our state capitals and also in the courts where in some cases they are getting some excellent help. Our next guest led the civil rights division at the US Department of Justice under President Biden when it was still the Department of Justice.

[00:27:01]Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clark came to that job after after defending voting rights at the NAACP legal defense fund. Now she serves as general counsel at the NAACP.

[00:27:11]Right now, she is leading the legal battle against what Republicans are trying to do in Tennessee. Joining us now, Kristen Clark, general counsel for the NAACP, former assistant attorney general of the United States. Uh, Miss Clark, it's a real honor to have you here. Thank you for making time tonight.

[00:27:25]>> Thank you for having me.

[00:27:27]>> There's a lot of fight back on this issue and there's a lot of passion on this issue and I think people see it very clearly. What I think people don't know how to assess is whether this is gone, whether this ship has sailed, whether the fight back has any prospects of success. I mean, I'm I'm interested to hear about that for your your lawsuit in Tennessee, but also how you how you view this more broadly.

[00:27:50]>> Yeah. Well, it is no doubt a a challenging moment in American democracy. And I think history shows that you democracy dies in the darkness.

[00:28:03]It dies in silence. But what we're seeing right now from Tennessee to Alabama, Louisiana is that people are rising up. They are turning out to the town halls. They are showing up in their capitals. They are making clear that we are are not going to stand by idly as lawmakers work to strip black people of their voice and strip them of the ability to shape democracy right now uh at the NAACP. We are busy and active in the courts. We are determined to use every tool available even in the wake of the destruction dealt to our nation's most sacred civil rights law, the Voting Rights Act. We are determined to use every tool available to fight back. A democracy is uh nothing without representation.

[00:28:58]I know that the NAACP has helped to mobilize people um in Alabama and Tennessee and elsewhere. And we're seeing obviously, you know, just the the palpable pain and anger and I think determination to not let this stand, to not just let this go by um in those states and others. What do you think the mood is like um in these states where you are helping people fight and where you've been helping people organize and where people are feeling the brunt of this um so bluntly?

[00:29:28]People are angry.

[00:29:30]People are fired up. This is not the American democracy that we have fought uh for uh that people gave their lives for that people bled for. you know, in the Supreme Court ruling that uh put the death nail in the Voting Rights Act, you know, Justice Alo and in the Shelby decision, um uh Justice Roberts talked about the South. They in their view think that, you know, we've reached a new day in America, especially in the South, they say. But right now, the South is exhibit A for how far we still need to go as a country. It is not surprising or shocking that the South is the one racing forward at lightning speed to strip black people of their voice. And they're doing so without hesitation or shame. The Voting Rights Act was always what nudged us in the right direction. And that nudge was needed most greatly in the South, in the deep south states, the former Confederacy that is not even blinking as they shamelessly strip uh away districts represented by honorable black public servants. So, as we have done throughout our nation's history, the NAACP will continue to march forward in the wake of the animus and the hostility. We will uh turn out in the streets and use our votes, our voices. We will turn out in the courts, constitution in hand, standing up for the rights outlined in the reconstruction amendments. But most importantly, this election season, you will see turnout like you have never seen before. It is at the ballot box where we will use our voice the most determined fashion during this dark season.

[00:31:25]Kristen Clark, general counsel for the NAACP, former uh head of the civil rights division at the US Department of Justice. Um, Miss Clark, it is a real honor to have you here whenever we can have you here. Thank you for making time tonight. Keep us surprised. I know this fight is just beginning.

[00:31:40]>> Thank you for having me.

[00:31:42]>> All right, much more news ahead here tonight. Stay with us.