The Weekend : MSNBCW : March 15, 2025 6:00am-7:01am PDT : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive (2025)

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>> and. >> welcome back to the weekend. so democrats in and out of congress are outraged at senate minority leader chuck schumer after he supported a key procedural vote that eventually led to the passage of republican spending bill, a bill supported by donald trump. now, the move has exposed fissures in the democratic party as it faces the crucial question of how to use its limited power to counter trump and maga republicans effort to remake the federal government. new polls show the public beginning to sour on trump's policies, and some democrats see schumer's decision as a missed opportunity to win back voters and capitalize on the disappointment many americans are already feeling. well, we're going to get into it with the co-founder and co-executive director of the indivisible project, leah

greenberg. >> i want to. >> take us at the table. >> thank you. a ride in the wayback machine and take a listen to what senator harry reid used to say about confronting a bully. or i can tell you what it was that he said. he said, you know, with a bully, you cannot let them slap you around. you got it? okay. let's hear it from him. >> you know, with a bully, you cannot let. >> them slap you. >> around because. >> they slap you. >> around today. >> they slap you. >> 5 or 6 times. >> tomorrow at. >> 7 or 8 times. we are not going to be bullied, understand? we're dealing with anarchists. they hate government. and who is the. worst part of government? from their. >> perspective. >> it's people that. >> work for. >> the federal government. we are going to do everything within our. >> power to protect. >> federal employees. >> so that's from 2013, when house republicans were politicizing the shutdown deadline to limit aspects of

obamacare. where is that energy today? well, the energy is still there. >> the leadership. >> is not what i'm hearing from people all over the country in the last 24 hours, 48 hours. they are flabbergasted and they are furious, right? we've got activists all over the country who were ready to fight, ready to see democrats fight, ready to have their backs. right. i was hearing from people who were planning to pull together emergency rallies to be there for folks, and they instead, what they've seen is just this shocking, you know, shocking cell phone. >> you know, near tanden, neera tanden, who director of the center for america or president of the center for american progress. at one point, she worked in the biden administration, a couple of different advisory roles. she tweeted something earlier today that essentially said, people need to understand that there's a difference between approach and ideology. and sure, there's all this conversation about the ideology within the democratic party apparatus and how maybe democrats need to be more moderate, so on and so forth. put that aside. the approach writ large across the board, from progressives to moderates

to, you know, blue dog democrats to people all over, they all want a fight. and you are you run an organization where folks are all over the country showing up in very blue places, very red places, even some purple places, because they are wanting to fight for their communities. why doesn't why don't all of the democrats on capitol hill seem to get that? because some do. >> well, first of all. >> what i would say is that is absolutely right. >> what neera said. we represent. grassroots groups all over the country, thousands of them. >> they are in. >> every community, small areas. >> big cities. >> they are. >> some of them are center left. some of them are progressive. where they are united is that they understand this is an emergency, and they want to see people fight back using every tool they've got in the toolbox. and frankly, there's been a huge disconnect over the. last few months, democrats on capitol hill have been having one conversation about how do they break through on lower prices, and they have not been listening to all of their constituents who are expressing the kind of

alarm, fear and anger about what is happening and want to see them fighting back in the moment. and it's not that lower prices isn't a crucial part of the story that we tell. it's not that that's not an important part of how we're going to break through and win back more people, but it is really tone deaf to only focus on that in a moment when donald trump is taking a chainsaw to the federal government. >> is this a. progressive versus everybody else, or a progressive versus maga fight? how how do how do you contextualize this fight that you're that you see folks on the ground ready to engage in? what is the perspective here or the focus of the fight, particularly given to simone's point that there seems to be a disconnect between the leadership, as you noted at the very beginning of your answer and this this base, because i think the base is not just the

base within the democratic party. that's what i'm really kind of get, get to. so talk a little bit about that. >> yeah. well, i would say it's not a progressive versus maga fight. it's a fight between maga and everyone else who realizes what we are up against. and that spans ideology. right. you had everyone from neera tanden and adam kinzinger out there yesterday saying, block this dirty cr. we cannot, you know, give in to republicans. and we were out there. but so but it spanned the entire ideological spectrum because it was about that strategic orientation. it was about, are you going to stand and fight, or are you going to let the bully slap you around? i think we understand organizing mechanisms for showing up for things we oppose. but there were a lot of democrats in districts trump won. i think we have a full screen of them. multiple members of the senate, including including ruben gallego, mark kelly, jon ossoff. these were hard votes for them to take. you had members of the house, about a dozen of them who who took this really hard vote. how do you harness the power of your organizing to show up for them

to say you did what we believe was the right thing, and we want you to know that we noticed and we support you? it's a great question. well, we're heading into congressional recess, right. and congressional recess. that's the time when members of congress, they go home to their district, they hear from their constituents. we are working with activists all over the country to make sure that republicans and democrats are both hearing from their constituents that if democrats took the right vote, they're going to get a hearty thank you. they're going to be invited to events, to town halls where they talk about the damage that trump and maga and elon musk are doing to our country, and they are going to be hearing or getting direct touch with their constituents who are going to cheer them on for fighting back. and republicans, our expectation is that basically no republican will try, or every single republican will be hiding from the public over the next couple of weeks because they know their agenda is not popular. they know that if they show up to a town hall, they're going to get booed by their own constituents, people who are furious at them for enabling what is going on. so we're having those town halls for them because they're not going to have them. so what we're doing is we're keeping the

heat on republicans, making sure that even if they won't show up in public, they. still have to hear from their constituents. and we're thanking democrats as publicly and loudly as we can, where we can. >> mike johnson and frankly, all of the house republicans, lisa mcclain, who is the conference chair, if you will, for the republicans in the house all the way up to the president, say that these folks who are showing up to town halls and the republicans district, they are activists, or they are actually not constituents, they are paid. what do you say to that? that these are not their actual constituents that are coming there? >> well, this. >> is just a. transparently ridiculous. >> claim, right? >> these are people who. >> are rooted in their communities. >> they are we. >> often will have a local. >> indivisible group that's. making sure lots. >> of people know about a town hall, right? >> because but the. >> people who come there are people who. >> just got their. >> benefits cut. there are people whose, you know, their son lost. >> his job. >> there are people. >> who are furious. >> about what's going on. >> because they are being directly impacted. >> by all. >> of these negative consequences, and they want to

see their representative fighting back. and you know what i've seen with this claim? we had this in 2017 when we. first got started, republicans said, oh, all those people who are mad about the affordable care act, they're paid protesters. they stopped that eventually because, you know, what really makes your constituents very, very mad is if you're calling them paid protesters while they're coming to you with their incredibly heartfelt concerns. and so it's a claim that's ridiculous, and it's a claim that. always backfires because it makes you look like you're not listening to your real people. >> one feature of this i really appreciate, in terms of what you're doing, goes to the heart of the effort that's out there now, within the republican caucus leadership, to tell the members don't have, don't host, don't go anywhere near a town hall. y'all stay your behind home. don't show up. just don't have it. i said a few weeks ago, y'all don't need your member to call a town hall. you just said you're organizing town halls in red districts, blue districts, purple districts, every district you can talk about that organization. how do people feed

into that? how does that word get out to them, particularly in those communities, in some of the reddest parts of the country, like alabama, mississippi, tennessee, texas, etc? if those members don't hold a town hall meeting? >> absolutely. >> so what we. >> tell our folks is, you know, your representative. should hold a town hall. it is part of their job to interact with the public. some of them are not doing it. they've decided that they would rather take the hit for being out of touch, for being out avoiding their district, then get out in public and get yelled at by their angry constituents. and so you don't actually have to wait for them. you can hold that town hall, you schedule it, you invite them. if they come, that's great. but if they don't come, have an empty chair, have a live well. >> we used to say. >> have a live chicken. on stage. >> we don't. >> say that. >> anymore because of avian flu, but if. >> you've got a. >> chicken suit. >> then yeah. >> bring the chicken. >> suit and represent what they are actually doing in washington. what we're seeing when we do this is that these. are sold out. people want to come. people want to be involved

in the process. right now, people are incredibly eager. >> to hear. >> from their representatives, and if they cannot hear from their representatives, then they're incredibly eager to make their representatives hear from them. >> we talk a lot about leadership. you've got schumer in this on the senate side. on the house side, you've got jeffries, his deputies, if you will, clark and pete aguilar. what do you think about the democratic leadership in congress? i think widely everyone is on the same page about chuck schumer this week. but what about the house members? they seem to have. jeffries held his caucus together after some tumultuous weeks. i would argue of lots of chit chat out there about what's going on. >> well, look. >> he held his. >> caucus together. this was a big vote. he did the same with. >> the shutdown in december. and so we got to give him credit on some of these key votes that. >> really matter. >> he is holding the caucus together and they are showing. >> up. >> as a united fighting force. that is not what. >> we saw in the senate. >> and so. >> i do want. >> to make i think. >> it's important. >> to make that distinction. >> and i think. >> our. >> people will be making that

distinction. >> i'm expecting a lot of people to be. incredibly frustrated. >> with the senate. >> and specifically incredibly frustrated with the folks who took that vote. >> and i'm expecting a lot. >> of people. >> to be thanking their. >> house. >> member and. recognizing that they thought. >> i know we have to go to break, but i just want to say that i put out a call on social media after the election and said, when people say, what do i do? what or who do you point them to? and 90% of my replies said indivisible. so i want you to know that the work is registering and people see it. and you are right, there is so much appetite now for a place to. >> have what i want to know what's going on in the streets i call indivisible, because they are literally the streets folks. leah greenberg, thank you very, very much. still ahead, who actually has freedom of speech in trump's america? the detainment of a columbia university grad student is raising that very question. and later, former former social security commissioner martin o'malley. he will be here. we've been talking about it. he's going to discuss elon musk's dream of chainsawing your social security benefits. this is the security benefits. this is the weekend on msnbc.

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>> digesting it and. >> how. >> do you. think the. >> world is. >> digesting what. trump is saying? what are people saying to you. >> in new jersey. >> about doge. >> and what they're seeing musk and his team. >> do here? what are the global politics for. >> some of these leaders. >> and. >> why do. >> you see them. stating the

opposite. >> of what the united. >> states president stated? >> this morning? mahmoud khalil is waking up in a louisiana detention center a thousand miles from his home and his family, including his pregnant wife. despite being charged with no crime. donald trump, who campaigned on a platform of supposed free speech and referred to january 6th rioters as political prisoners, said on social media that there would be many more arrests like khalil's to come. in a complaint filed thursday, khalil accused trump and multiple cabinet officials of detaining him in retaliation for his role in pro-palestinian protests at columbia university last year. what he argues is, quote, the government's targeted retaliatory detention and attempted removal of a student protester because of his constitutionally protected speech. joining us now, former federal prosecutor and politico magazine senior writer ankush choudhary. >> ankush, draw this out so

folks really understand the core of what khalil said in his charge against the government and contextualize what the administration did, because i have a sense that beyond washington and legal corners, most americans are sleeping through the fact that a student has been incarcerated without the legal protections of the constitution, no due process, no charge of any criminality sitting in a detention center, because that's where donald trump wants him. because here's the kicker, folks. donald trump didn't like what he said about the palestinian gaza situation. talk. talk to us and contextualize for us what's at stake here. >> yeah. so this is highly, highly disturbing. as everyone has noted, i think a critical point point that you raised should be reiterated, which is thus far the government has produced no evidence of criminal conduct. i think it is fair to

assume at this point that there is no evidence of criminal conduct on his behalf, that the government is prepared to adduce with respect to him individually. you know, a lot of people i understand are very interested in what did he say and what was his association with this, that or the other group. and the principal is much more important than the person in first amendment jurisprudence. some of the most important cases in our country's history have involved the most unpopular speakers saying some of the most detestable things racist things, kkk marching in our first amendment jurisprudence supports those people. it's what makes our country great. even if they're saying vile things or things we may vehemently disagree with. the aclu released a video of mahmoud khalil's arrest, and this video was recorded by his wife. the faces of the agents in the video were blurred. that you're going to see by the aclu, not by nbc news. we're going to play that for you right now. >> what? >> you're going to be under arrest. >> so turn around, turn around.

>> turn around, turn around, turn around. okay, stop. >> stop resisting. okay, okay. he's not resisting. he's giving me his phone. can we get. >> a. >> name, please? of. can we get your name? i understand the lawyer is asking for your name over there. >> we don't give our name. >> the lawyer is asking for your name. she's saying that. >> he's saying they don't. >> give their names. can you please specify what agency is taking him? please excuse me. there. nobody. they're not talking to me, i don't know. >> i have. i'm. it is not cold in here. and i literally have chills watching that. i, i think that we are living under a presidency and united states government that that does believe that they can round up anybody that they would like with no charges or anything, round them up because they don't like what they said they don't like. this man is a permanent, lawful resident. he has a green card. >> he's one step away from being a citizen. >> one step away from being a full united states citizen. but

when you are a permanent, lawful resident, you have the protections of the united states constitution. he's not a student on a visa. >> yeah. and i think, you know, everybody is. >> rightly this could be anyone. >> it could be anyone. and for any other sort of disfavored speech, by the way, not just this form of speech or in the subject matter, but i think it's also important to focus in on the machinery of this. right? everybody is directing their frustration and anger correctly at the top of the trump administration. the people who are implementing these things, the agents we just saw, the prosecutors who are going to be involved in this, shame on them, shame on all of them. that is wildly unprofessional conduct that we just saw on that screen on on behalf of those agents. and it shouldn't be tolerated. and i would like to make sure as we go forward over the next months and years, to remain focused on the individuals, particularly the lawyers who facilitate this conduct. it is bad. >> there are multiple elements to this. there's rubio talking about this in the context of immigration. and then just yesterday, this from the associated press, the justice

department is investigating whether columbia university hid students sought by the u.s. this is a quote from deputy attorney general todd blanch. just last night, we worked with the department of homeland security to execute search warrants from an investigation into columbia university for harboring and concealing illegal aliens on its campus. that investigation is ongoing, and we are also looking at whether columbia's handling of earlier incidents violated civil rights laws and included terrorism crimes. >> i just want you to know, they went into the dorms in columbia, the agents, it's all over social media. they went into the dorms in columbia, not, like fully in full regalia, looking for people. what is happening. >> that is it's very disturbing. it's very disturbing. and if i may, i'd like to focus a little attention on columbia. briefly. i had the privilege to go to that school both for college and law school. i had a wonderful time and i benefited a lot from it. i have been appalled by the university's handling of all of these issues for the last year. going back to the protests, it has been misstep after misstep

after misstep. it's almost like the university is in self-immolation. and what is amazing to me at this moment is the ridiculous double standard that the administration applies. in december, tim wu, who is a law professor at the school, tweeted out something basically celebrating the assassination of the united health care ceo. what did the law school do? nothing to him. they didn't condone it. they didn't criticize it. they circled the wagons. now, when their students need that same help and that same protection, where are they? where is the law school? where are the deans? gillian lester, mr. obey, the current dean, where the law professors who are millionaires? quite a few of them, including tim wu, who should absolutely be out front helping these students. it amazes me. elite lawyers or quote unquote elite lawyers have a role to play here. and if they don't rise to the occasion, they all deserve our disapprobation as well, too. >> i think to the point about the lawyers not lawyering in

this situation. i'm reminded of the image of donald trump's visit to the department of justice. and you have this room full of lawyers whooping it up and celebrating this this sort of illiberal behavior represented in this particular convicted felon who is president of the united states. i, i think we're in a disturbing space here because you're going to find agents, federal agents, you're going to find municipal, you know, law enforcement lawyers who align themselves with this. >> absolutely. and you are absolutely correct to be concerned. and there is a precursor here which i have never forgotten about and written about quite a few times, which was the family separation policy during the first trump administration that could not have been implemented without many federal prosecutors playing a role. and when the administration turned over to

president biden, america garland, they did nothing to even express any disapproval with those prosecutors involvement. and so the lesson that those people learned currently sitting in the justice department is do whatever you're told, because there will be no repercussions and you'll be fine professionally. and we're going to see that play out, unfortunately. and i think we're already seeing it play out. >> i think you're right. >> the columbia journalism school, can i note they did put out the faculty, put out a statement on press freedom, and they noted that many of the international students have felt afraid to come to classes and events on campus. these actions represent threats against political speech and the ability of the american press to do its essential job, and are part of a larger design to silence voices that are out of favor, with. >> the very likely those same students will likely find it is in their long term survival and best interest to resign or leave the university because there's no place of protection there for them. so get ready. columbia. ankush chaudhari, thank you so much for being here. next, trump's crusade to end birthright citizenship heads to the supreme court exactly where

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vision changes, or eye pain occur. ask your doctor about breztri. >> a new timeline has been set on donald trump's legal effort to end birthright citizenship, even though it is in the united states constitution. earlier this week, the administration asked the supreme court to allow it to enforce trump's executive order ending the guarantee of citizenship to anyone born in the united states. this is a part of the constitution and a trio of near-identical filings. the administration urged the justices to partially block preliminary injunctions, and these were issued by federal district judges in three jurisdictions that bar the government from implementing trump's order that goes against the united states constitution. later on friday, the court called for the challengers in these cases to respond to the administration's filings by april 4th. birthright citizenship is in the

constitution. it's the 14th amendment. i feel kind of crazy having to say this over and over again. >> yeah, and part of where i feel crazy is that what they are doing is de facto carrying this out, as though they have already stripped people of birthright citizenship. i'm not sure if i saw the story about a ten year old u.s. citizen. this child is a u.s. citizen. she is recovering from brain cancer. she was told that the brain cancer was not survivable. she survived it. she has ongoing treatment. her parents were going with her to an emergency medical appointment when they were detained by ice. and it's not just this little girl. she has four american born siblings who were also deported with their parents. so there's the fight that they are waging at the supreme court, michael, but they are already out here

deporting. let me say it one more time. u.s. citizens. >> yeah. >> because this this is the inhumanity of it all. i mean, look, this. i don't even know the words to find at this point because, symone, it you know, three times in the lead in reminded us that what they are doing is in the constitution. it's not it's not a regulation. it's not a policy prescription. it is not a suggestion or a thought. it is spelled out very clearly in the 14th amendment to the us constitution. so i guess, you know, in the supreme court is, you know, that the way that read to me was, you know, they're putting the onus on on the challengers to this effort to prove what's in the constitution. i don't. >> they're fighting it in the constitution.

>> why wouldn't they just deny it? i'm sorry. that's that's. >> what i'm doing. why didn't you. >> just say. why are you. >> talking about the. >> this is what i. because they want to overturn it. to use his law degree to help me. well. >> look, i think i think at the end of the day, what the court wants to do is to take the matter in. and this is this is my hope. they take the matter in and they declaratively define. >> it, resolve. >> it, and resolve it so it doesn't come back in any way, shape or form. so that's the hope. that's the hope. but it is. it is with some of the members on this court who through other rulings in, in this space, have indicated. yeah. okay. yeah. maybe we should deport the parents of a ten year old with brain cancer. >> well, and they're fighting this on every front because in addition to what we've already talked about this week, the other big news is you had trump the expectation that he will invoke wartime alien enemies, act to carry out mass deportations. this is a wartime law. and the thing that i want people to focus on here is if

you care about immigration, it applies to immigration. but to me, it is about this gross use of executive authority and a desire to pervert the powers of the presidency, to carry out an agenda which he could very well go through congress on a lot of this agenda. >> you said that because this is the key thing. you had an immigration bill that this that this man sitting at 1600 pennsylvania avenue killed because he wanted the politics of this issue. this is not about the humanity of the individuals. this is not about our constitutional rights. this is about one man's effort to purge the country of people. he does not like that he's already called criminals and bad people. >> so the last time the alien enemies act was was used, it was during world war two to detain japanese americans. the internment camps in the united states of america, where they detained japanese americans, people who were citizens of this

country. the united states government ended up paying reparations to japanese americans for that very act. the united states government has done some very terrible things in our history and our past. and if this happens right now, i just i this is a very slippery slope to somewhere that we're not going to come back from. >> talking about slippery slopes. up next, elon musk sets his sights on the social security administration. the former head of that agency, martin o'malley, is here. this martin o'malley, is here. this is the weekend. here's to getting better with age. here's to beating these two every thursday. help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need, and the flavor you love. so, here's to now... now available: boost max! ♪♪ zyrtec allergy relief works fast and lasts a full 24 hours so dave can be the... deliverer of dance. ok, dave! ♪♪ let's be more than our allergies. zeize the day with zyrtec.

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of your favorite msnbc shows now ad free. subscribe on apple podcasts. >> the social security administration could be forever changed if elon musk has his way. musk is planning to use the unchecked power given to him by donald trump to overhaul the administration in an effort to tackle what he calls, quote, waste and fraud in entitlement spending. but as symone points out in her latest piece for msnbc and msnbc.com, these falsehoods about waste, fraud and abuse are being spread as a justification for musk to take his chainsaw to the earned benefits that help keep tens of millions of americans out of poverty. joining us now, former social security administration commissioner martin o'malley. martin o'malley, welcome. >> thank you. >> michael steele. good to be with. >> you, governor. thank you. all the people. martin o'malley used to be the governor of maryland. my maryland. right. so he's going to always be the governor.

governor, people don't believe us when we talk about the threat to social security. every time we've had this conversation over the last three weeks, inevitably people are in our email inboxes and our social media saying, why are you lying? why are you trying to scare people? can you? you're the expert. can you please tell them that we are telling the truth? >> yes, i learned. >> a lot. >> about social. >> security in. >> the year that. >> i had. >> to work with those men and women and turn around what had been ten years of declining customer service metrics, and they got it moving in the right direction. i think we've all kind of come to. >> take for. granted that social. >> security will. >> always work, that the check will always be there. >> and that's a. >> tribute to the folks that work there. they are. >> serving more customers. >> than ever because. >> of baby boomers, my generation, and they're. >> doing it. >> with staffing that's been reduced to a 50 year low. >> but think about covid. >> when all of a sudden. >> they were told. evacuate and keep. >> the. >> checks coming. they did that. and i think that lulled us into

a. false sense of that. it can't ever be broken. >> but get this, there are. >> 1300 people at social. security at woodlawn in the. office of. >> technology information systems. >> of those, 1300. 400 of them took the early retirement and are now being paid to leave. they're going to pay them for. >> the whole. >> year if they will leave right now. and the people, the division that had the greatest. >> numbers of. >> people that were retirement eligible were people in an office called. >> obama's office of benefit information systems. >> they are. >> the people that make. >> sure that. >> the 72.5. >> beneficiaries have get their. >> direct deposits, get their checks. i watch them. pull all nighters for a week when the cola the cost of living increase. >> went through. it was like watching, you know, a. >> countdown for. >> a for. >> an apollo. >> launch or something, or the

end of a. >> campaign, you know, just people caffeinated, making sure it happened, doing the first. >> batch, testing. >> it, doing it the second time, the architecture of. >> social security. >> that allows. >> those checks to go. >> out is based on a very. >> old cobol based. >> system, green screens. >> in fact. >> when the employees bring them up in the morning, it. >> actually the green screen. comes up. >> and there's actually a message. >> that says. welcome to the future. >> so that's. >> the foundation. >> but on. >> top of that foundation have been built numerous. >> applications, silos, if you will, that allow us to process claims, allow us to. >> update, you. >> know, direct deposit. >> accounts. >> all of those. >> sorts of things, but they ultimately get connected. >> to that. >> foundational base layer. >> and the. >> people that. know how. >> to do that, 400 of them were just paid to leave right now. and don't let the door hit your backside. >> on the. >> way out. so that's. >> why what you're.

>> going to see the people that. this is what you're going to see, you're already seeing. some of it. this agency that had already been reduced to a 50 year low in staffing is now being whacked, hacked, gutted. by elon musk and the doge team. and it's a fast. fast blitzkrieg of dismantling and gutting. >> this agency. so you're already seeing all of those customer. service metrics like speed. >> to answer the telephone, which we had gotten down to 12.5 minutes. boom. that's up again over a half hour. sometimes longer. you're going to see, you know, already we have more people dying waiting in line for their initial disability determinations. that number is now going in the wrong direction. >> so can i ask you though, some of that what they want? because what they want to do is make an argument that this should all be privatized. >> it's i believe it's absolutely that. >> i mean. >> they want to. >> in order. >> to rob. >> the agency. of that, those. >> trust fund dollars. >> they have to turn the public.

>> against the agency. that's not so. >> easy to do when you consider that second only to the interior department. and smokey the bear. is the. >> social security. >> administration in. >> terms of trust. >> so in order to they need to they need to turn the. >> public against it. >> the way they do that is they. destroy its ability. >> to serve the public. >> so they. >> have to wreck. >> it so that. >> they can rob it. >> and so what we're. >> seeing, what you'll see in the ensuing. you know. the next couple of months ahead, you're already seeing all of the customer service metrics go in. >> the wrong direction. >> that will continue to skyrocket. rocket. secondly, you are. >> going to see. >> intermittent shutdowns. >> of some of the application systems. >> atop that, that cobol base. >> the interruptions. >> will only be for like an hour or two. it might be just for this line of claims, just for the website, you know, my tsa.gov. and then you will see those those interruptions happening more frequently. and then for a longer duration,

you're then going to see so many people leave the agency because they're being paid to leave. >> the agency. >> paid for an entire year, by the way, just. >> to. >> leave right now that you're ultimately going to see a cascading event of those multiple of those kind of shutdowns of. >> longer duration. >> that will ultimately cascade into a total. system collapse, that will interrupt benefits. >> for. >> some period of time. will it be for a week? will it be for two? will it be for a month? >> hard to say. >> so i want to i want to address, i think, at the heart of what all of us are hearing and seeing from folks outside this window who, when we raise this issue, are, you know, suspicious of that, you know, what you just laid out isn't happening. and it's largely because of the crap coming out of elon musk's mouth about social security. let's listen to him talking about claims of rampant social security fraud.

>> there's a massive amount of fraud of basically people submitting social security numbers for social security benefits, unemployment, small business administration loans. and medical where those. are those are those are fake social. >> security numbers. >> there's where they've stolen somebody else's. >> social security number. >> and we're we're trying to put a stop to all of that. >> and that's. >> the number which. >> is estimated to be on the order of 10% of. federal expenditures, which is, you know, half a half $1 trillion. >> so here's folks, just real quick. and, you know, this, governor, the ssa inspector general found in 2024 that only 0.84% of the trillions of dollars disbursed between 2015 and 2022 were improperly allocated. most of those improper payments were overpayments, and some of them were recovered. so to the point

that alicia raised about, well, we just want to, you know, flood the zone with a lot of bull to scare you into thinking that this agency is corrupt and fraudulent. therefore, it's okay to deconstruct it and throw it away. could you address this claim of fraud because they haven't produced any fraud, by the way, folks. >> fraud the crime. >> they showed no, no fraud or no crimes at this point. >> yeah. they have you know, in watching him, i used to be i used. >> to go. >> to court a lot and my cop court instincts kick in when i watch him talking. >> about this. >> because he's obviously everything about him says that he has no freaking idea. >> what he's talking about. >> he's like, you can tell he's kind of pulling it out of. >> his right. >> you know, he. >> so let me talk. >> about let. >> me. >> talk about the waste, fraud and abuse. >> the first thing that donald trump did was. >> to eliminate. >> all of the inspectors. >> all of the inspectors general, all throughout the country, including the one at ssa, that social security, that

would have been an independent office that could have called balls and strikes on this horse hockey. the second thing that happened after they put their own puppet commissioner in place, was they eliminated a whole division at social security. >> called o ero that. >> stands for the. office of oversight, analytics and review. >> so those are the. >> people whose job. >> it is. >> year in. year out, day in, day. out to be the inspection function to prevent improper payments to double check. >> the allowances. >> and the disability. program. to do huge samplings, to figure out what. >> are the reasons for. >> the. >> overpayments, what are the reasons for. >> the underpayments? how can we get to. >> the. >> root causes? how can we fix these things moving forward? so this you hit the nail on the head though. they're doing everything they can to break the administration's the social security administration's ability to. serve the customers. and they're doing everything they can to demean the agency,

to undermine public trust in the agency, because they have to do that in order to rob it. and they can't rob social security until they wreck it. so they're wrecking it. >> boom, folks, you heard it from governor martin o'malley. okay, it's not just us. he's the expert. he used to be the commissioner of the social security administration. thank you for being here today. >> thank you. >> thank you, thank you, thank you. a quick programing note, folks. we hope you'll check out msnbc's new series. it's called the covid test. scan the qr code on your screen. start reading the new digital series, marking five years since the world health organization declared covid 19 a pandemic, and explaining where the united states fell short. maybe we'll have to get one of these for social security in about five years. don't go anywhere, folks. there's much more of the weekend there's much more of the weekend straight ahead. ♪♪ zyrtec allergy relief works fast and lasts a full 24 hours so dave can be the... deliverer of dance. ok, dave! ♪♪ let's be more than our allergies. zeize the day with zyrtec.

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lawyers, fellow lawyers who? >> elias. mark elias. >> being being one of them. and weiss. >> mr. weiss. >> and so folks, you're seeing real time. the side of donald trump that basically says he's now drunk with the power given to him by the supreme court to act with impunity. drunk with the power of an election that, you know, he did he you know, he won, obviously. majority of the vote. but the reality of it is the idea of governing and serving the american people is the farthest thing from his mind. and he's getting his little army that he's going to send out around the, around the country to enforce his view of what america should look like. >> i watched the whole thing. i was getting ready for meet the press now, and i was i just felt it was so strange how he talked so much about the election. yeah. it was it was, in fact, a campaign rally speech. and it

was it was so in normal abnormal, if you will. when i worked in the administration one time, we. >> loved. >> the story of justice because the vice president was going to swear in merrick garland, and there was a practice of not swearing in the attorney general at the white house, but doing it at the d.o.j. we go in there and she swears him in, and the reporters in the room, they shout a question that had nothing to do with merrick garland. it was like a political question, and she answers it. baby, when i tell you the chief of staff, the spokesperson was anthony coley. at the time, they were. everybody was mad because they felt like the vice president answering any kind of political questions, put the department of justice in jeopardy for looking political. right. me and coley had a very terse phone conversation where he, like the vice president, can't do this. and i'm like, she's the vice president, but okay, i got you. we won't come back. but my, my, how times have changed. >> well, i think about when comey was fbi director and he famously sort of receded into the curtains at the white house because he didn't want to appear

political in any way. there's a reason there is a bright line. >> he did everything he could to wrap his arms around him at the time to show the country, this is my lawyer, and he will do what i want him to do in that room this week. he got the ultimate confirmation that they don't work for us. they work for him. so y'all better watch out. all of us better watch out. because the department of justice has now been ramped up and turned on the american people. >> head on a swivel hunting. this is why you got to find you a hobby. you got to keep the energy up. positivity somewhere. coming up next on velshi folks, ali will be joined by wesleyan university president michael roth to discuss the arrest of mahmoud khalil and the first amendment. much more still amendment. much more still ahead. [restaurant noise] allison. [swooshing sound] introducing allison's plaque psoriasis.

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