The Rachel Maddow Show
For Trump's opponents, a model for finding their fight to stop him
19 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What strategies do Trump's opponents need to adopt to stop him?
Juu, tämä ei ole nakkiperunamuusilaatikko. Tämä on Veeran varma veto. Sen vastaanotto on ennalta selvä, menee kuin kuumille kiville. Sen sijaan kohta koulusta tulevan pikkukalevin läksyjälukuinnossa saattaa olla joitakin epävarmuustekijöitä. Elämä on ruokaa. S-Market.
Täällä meillä Satolla on tapana sanoa, kun on parhaimmillaan kotona, on parhaimmillaan elämässä. Siksi meillä on myös lemmikit tervetulleita. Kun on kotona hyvä, on usein myös elämässä hyvä. Muokraa huoleton koti. Sato.fi. Luulen, että jos olisi pitänyt syödä se, että jotain todella, todella yksinkertaisia, ehkä yli yksinkertaisia, mutta...
Yksinkertainen. Se, mitä olemme oppineet viime vuoden aikana, on se, että ei ole mitään yksinkertaisia asioita, ei ole mitään ristiriitaa siitä, millaisia suunnitelmia presidentti Donald Trump on tästä maasta. Mitä hän haluaa, kuka hän on, mitkä ovat hänen suunnitelmansa, miten hän yrittää tehdä sitä. Ei ole mitään myöskään myöskään myöskään myöskään myöskään myöskään myöskään mitään myöskään myöskään myöskään myöskään myöskään myöskään myöskään myöskään myöskään myöskään myöskään
That time is over. It's here now. We are living it. It is the challenge of our generation. Because of that, I really think that the most important thing to try to understand now, the most important thing to report on, the most important news story in the country, the true black box open question, the what's going to happen here, edge of your seat drama in our lives right now, is not at all about Trump.
about whom there is no mystery, there is no ambiguity. It's not about Trump at all. It's about Trump's opponents. How strong will they be? How strong can they be in trying to stop him from doing what he wants to do?
Ja tämän toisen vuoden alussa Trumpin kohdalla jotkut suuri ja mielenkiintoiset kysymys ovat olleet aiemmin tärkein osa siitä, että kuka on Trumpin järjestäjä? Kuka on Trumpin järjestäjä? Kun hän yrittää vahvistaa Yhdysvallojen järjestelmää, kuka on häntä vastaan ja kuka ei?
Ja tietenkin näimme, että tekijärjestöt alkoivat aloittaa hänen kanssaan. Näimme myös, että tekijärjestöt ei-tekijärjestöt aloittaa hänen kanssaan. Näimme myös, että vahvistuneet, luonnollisesti vahvistuneet, luonnollisesti patriotiittiset ihmiset ja entiteet pysyivät hänen kanssaan yhtäkkiäan ilman hakemuksia. Suuret vahvistukset, yliopistot, asiakasjärjestöt, niin sanottuja johtajia. Onneksi todelliset ympäristöt Trumpista.
I think one of the things they have to figure out now is if they can get those kinds of people back on their side, if they can get those people who caved, the people who decided to play their troth with Trump, to get into bed with Trump. The real opponents of Trump are going to have to decide whether they can get those people to cross back over, to defect from Trump.
ja taas yhdistää heidän maansa, yhdistää Trumpin järjestäminen, ja yrittää vahvistaa republikaan hänen vastaan. Oikeat Trumpin järjestäjät täytyy päättää, eivätkä he edes yrittäisi tehdä sitä, eikä he antaisi niistä ihmisiä, kirjoittaa heidät ja päättää, että heidän täytyy myös vahvistaa heitä. Se tulee olemaan todella tärkeä kysymys vuonna 2026, onko kaikkia ihmisiä, jotka tekevät
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Chapter 2: How did Harry Reid's tactics influence Democratic strategies?
To be confident, to be impressed, to even be inspired. There's reasons to think that this next year might see Trump really, bluntly, fail at what he's trying to do. And that's, again, it's a story about the opposition to Trump. And I think the reasons to be hopeful, the reasons to be sort of impressed come down to two things.
Nämä ovat kaksi keskeisiä komponentteja Trumpin järjestelmään, joita hän ei ole voinut vahvistaa, ja joita hän on vahvistunut. Vahvistunut nyt, vahvistunut tämän vuoden aikana, ja hän näyttää olevan vahvistunut näistä asioista enemmän ja enemmän joka päivä. Nämä ovat kaksi keskeisiä komponentteja Trumpin järjestelmään.
Heidän vahvistuksensa on huomattavissa ja heidän vahvistuksensa tarkoittaa meidän maan eteenpäin. Erityisen lyhyesti, uskon. Kaksi osaamista Trumpista. Ensimmäisenä niistä kaksi asiaa kuulemme koko ajan puhumaan. Voit kertoa sen nyt minulle. Ihmiset. Ihmiset ovat yleensä Trumpin vahvistuksessa. Ja se on näkyviä, ei vain puolustuksessa, kun Trumpin valtuutettavuudet jäävät ylös, erityisesti valtuutettavuudessa.
mutta myös todellisissa tarkoituksissa. Tarkoitukset ovat menneet ylöspäin ja myöhemmin ylöspäin ja myöhemmin ylöspäin ja myöhemmin ylöspäin ja myöhemmin ylöspäin ja myöhemmin ylöspäin ja myöhemmin ylöspäin ja myöhemmin ylöspäin ja myöhemmin ylöspäin ja myöhemmin ylöspäin ja myöhemmin ylöspäin ja myöhemmin ylöspäin ja myöhemmin ylöspäin ja myöhemmin ylöspäin ja myöhemmin.
Suurella, monimutkaisella, järjestelmällisellä, ympäristöllisellä, jatkuvalla, rauhallisella, tehtävällisellä, vahvallisella protestaatiolla häntä. Tällaisilla tasoilla kuin mitä jokainen odottaisi. Ja ilmaisella mahdollisuudella tulevaisuuden kasvua.
As long as those protests stay non-violent, they have infinite capacity for future growth and they are poised for explosive growth. Trump and his administration are absolutely undone by the protests. They cannot handle them at all. The closest he can come to handling them is to pretend that they are not happening.
These protests are popular, they are effective, they are seen as being on the right side of history, they are seen as being on the right side of the American credo. They are attracting new kinds of people to do new kinds of protests all the time. And that means at a popular level, the opposition to Trump is big, organic, growing and sustainable. And in political science terms, when it comes to standing up against a despot anywhere in the world, that popular opposition is the closest thing we have to magic.
Tämä on yksi. Sanoin, että on kaksi. On kaksi järjestelmää, joita Trump ei voi mennä ylös, ei voi rikkiä, ja jotka ovat juuri nyt vahvistamassa hänet. Ensimmäinen on ihmiset. Se on se, jota kuulee minua puhumaan aina. Mutta sitten on toinen, jota itse asiassa en ainakaan koskaan puhu.
Toisiin ihmisiin uudestaan puhutaan heitä koko ajan, paljon ihmisiä on MSNow, jotka puhutaan heitä koko ajan, he ovat todelliset esitykset siitä, minä melkein koskaan puhun heistä. Ja se on poliittinen järjestelmä Trumpista, demokraatit, joita minä melkein koskaan puhun, aion itselleni.
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Chapter 3: What challenges do Democrats face in organizing against Trump?
Who's their best at fighting? Who's their best tactician? Who's their savviest fighter? Who is the Democrat who most knows and best knows how to win political fights, even when it takes really hardball tactics to do it? Well, you can try to prove me wrong. We can argue about this. I know.
Mutta jos kysyisit minua, niin olen varma, että on aika hyvä tapauksia, että elämässäpäin demokratiallisessa poliittisessa elämässäsi nimi on Harry Reid. Harry Reid oli 30-vuotias senaattori. Hän kuoli vuonna 2021 hänen kotonsa Nevadassa.
Nevada-politiikan puheenjohtaja, John Ralston of the Nevada Independent, has just written a book about how Harry Reid showed Democrats how to fight. Se on jonkinlainen nimi John Ralstonin uudesta kirjasta. Se on nimeltään The Game Changer. Se on, kuinka Harry Reid uudistaa sääntöjä ja näyttää demokraattilaisille, miten vahvistaa. Se ei voinut tulla paremmin. John Ralston on seuraavassa.
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John Ralston has been covering politics in Nevada for more than 35 years, reporting for the Las Vegas Review Journal and the Las Vegas Sun and the Reno Gazette Journal. He has hosted shows in Nevada on public television on Local Channel 3 in Nevada. And oh, there is a story to tell you about that. Stick a pin in that. We will come back to it.
John is now at the Nevada Independent, where he is founder and CEO. John Ralston is also a longtime friend of the Rachel Maddow Show, and in fact, a longtime friend of the Rachel Maddow. John's new book is called The Game Changer, How Harry Reid Remade the Rules and Showed Democrats How to Fight. It is out on January 20th. John Ralston, it is great to see you. Thank you so much for being willing to do this.
It's been too long, Rachel. Thanks for having me. How long did it take you to write this book? I feel like you've been working on it for, I mean, since before the senator died.
I actually started interviewing him about six months before he died. As you know, he died at the end of 2021. It's almost unreal to me, Rachel, that it's finally coming to fruition. I thought it should be X number of pages. The editors thought it should be X minus X.
200 kertaa, tiedät, miten se menee, joten se on ollut melko yllättävän yllättävän saavutettava, joten olen melko iloinen siitä, että se on lopulta saavutettava maailmassa.
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Chapter 4: What role do key political institutions play in opposing Trump?
He knew he was going to get up to live to fight another day. And I believe he would be very, very frustrated now about the Democrats in Washington, D.C. And he would be saying things, as he liked to say that he did, that no one else would say and be doing things that no one else would do. Some people didn't like his tactics. Some people didn't like his rhetoric, Rachel. But he always fought for what he believed was
was a righteous cause, doesn't mean everyone would agree that it was a righteous cause, and he would have fought vociferously against Donald Trump. And I'm sorry to go on too long, but once you get me going about the book, what Harry Reid really despised as someone who really came from nothing,
This incredibly impoverished childhood was people he thought were born on third base and thought that they had hit a triple. And he would have put Donald Trump in that category along with Mitt Romney, along with the Koch brothers and others. And he would have no patience and he would have brook nothing from them. And he would go after them in the most uncertain way with the certitude that what he was doing was the right thing to do.
Juontaja Erja Hyytiäinen George W. Bush had just been reelected, astonishingly, despite the Iraq war and torture and everything. And when George W. Bush got back in office for a second term, he decided he was going to kill Social Security. He was going to privatize Social Security. And
At that same time, Harry Reid is just becoming the leader of the Democrats in the Senate. And he decides he's going to save Social Security against a brand new just reelected second term president. And Harry Reid wins and George W. Bush loses and Social Security is saved. How did Reid save Social Security?
I think there's two components to it. One is, as you know, no senator or congressman can do what they do without hiring great people around them to execute their plan. And so what Reid did essentially is develop a war room, and they called it a war room, where they were not going to let anything that the administration did go unanswered. And they even did national tours to go and fight social security, even though
President obviously has the most resonant bully pulpit, and so they were at a disadvantage. That did not stop them. They were relentless with press releases, with press events, both in Washington and across the country. And of course, Harry Reid also had a great partner in doing this, someone that he considered the best speaker of the House in history, and that's Nancy Pelosi, who really...
Heillä oli samanlaisia kokemuksia kuin Reed, mutta usein he eivät olleet samanlaisia, kun sen jälkeen, kun sen jälkeen, kun sen jälkeen, kun sen jälkeen, kun sen jälkeen.
He went out and hired people to staff that as well. He would even have them go after what he considered some of his wobbly Senate colleagues and then say, oh boy, I got to stop that, which was just a classic Harry Reid move. But he would pull out the stops. And by the time he was done, there was the short-term game that you mentioned, which is he stopped Social Security privatization. But he also brought the Bush's numbers way down so that in the midterm –
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Chapter 5: How can Democrats effectively mobilize their base in upcoming elections?
Hän oli, ja minä todella uskon tätä Harryn Reidista. Kuten mainitsit, minä keskustelin Reidista pitkän aikaa, mutta oppin paljon enemmän hänestä, jotta hän kertoisi joitain tietoja hänen strategioistaan ja teemoistaan.
tutkimuksen kautta ja kirjoituksissa, joita hän antoi minulle tilannetta, jotka olivat niin järkyttäviä, Rachel, ja jotka antoivat tietoja siitä aikaa ja toisista. Mutta Harry Reid oli ihminen, joka käsitti todella paljon voimaa, ja hän käytti kaikkia osia siitä, jotta hän pääsisi sinne. Kiitos kun katsoit videon!
We'll get him next time. And he always had the next steps in mind. And yes, he was willing to use very ruthless tactics against his own allies. And he was actually brilliant, looking back on it, at keeping that caucus, that democratic caucus in line. And he had some obstreperous folks in there. And I talk a lot in the book about his relationship with Joe Lieberman.
When the caucus wanted to oust Lieberman after he went with John McCain and how he played the long game there. Obamacare might not be the law of the land if he hadn't done that. His relationship with Lieberman and with guys like Max Baucus and all of that stuff, he's keeping them in line. He's using hardball tactics against, as you say, even his own side. But a lot of these people that are engaged in this sort of locking of horns with him don't actually realize what he's doing to them.
Until they're on the other side of it. And I love how you get him, you get Reid to say, like, in reflecting on that time from 2004 to 2006, when Reid and Pelosi are saving social security, one of the Republicans they really have to contend with at the time is Bill Frist. And Reid tells you, I'm assuming this is from an interview with you, tells you like, oh, Bill Frist was such a nice man, but like,
He wasn't very politically savvy. Basically, I'm so sorry that I had to completely run rings around him and absolutely defeat him at everything he was trying to do, but the poor guy, he just didn't have the chops. That's so Harry Reid.
In fact, at the end of that quote, I believe, is, so I messed with him. And he said it with relish, right? I mean, he enjoyed doing that with Frist. And there was one press conference that one of his staffers told me about, where he had won a battle with Frist, and he could barely contain his smile. And his staff was kind of giving him the, you know, don't do that, don't.
Don't do that. But Harry Reid loved to win, and when he won, he was not afraid to brag about it.
You know, John, one of the things that I really hadn't ever put into words before, I hadn't really like put my finger on it before reading your book, but it always, I think, sort of flummoxed me about Harry Reid, because I absolutely share your view of him as like an archetypal democratic fighter from whom Democrats today can learn something. I absolutely believe that. But I always felt like it was like hard for me to explain Harry.
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Chapter 6: What lessons can be learned from Harry Reid's political career?
I described him several times, and by the way, he never complained about this description, as charismatically challenged. And I think you're absolutely right about how a lot of the national media, there are a few who understood him, but most of them saw this kind of milquetoast guy who would make these verbal gaffes, wasn't charismatic, didn't like going on,
the Sunday shows. He went on a few times, but he was happy to let Chuck Schumer do that, because Chuck Schumer loved doing that. But what Harry Reid's public presence belied was not only how steely, tough he was, but also how he had in private interactions, Rachel, if he was one-on-one with other senators, he knew how to connect with people.
You wouldn't think that about Harry Reid, but he wrote, and I found this in his archive, hundreds, maybe thousands of personal notes, which he copied and put in his handwritten notes to these senators, talking about books, talking about current events, talking about their families. He never forgot birthdays, he never forgot...
He knew what buttons to press. And so he developed these relationships that would eventually pay off for him in legislation. And when he made his gaffes, and some of them were really, really bad gaffes, and some of them I think were strategic gaffes in a way, in the sense that he was willing to say what his caucus believed, but no one in his caucus had the gumption to say, and they were silently cheering him on for saying what he believed.
mitä he halusivat sanoa. Luulen, että hänellä oli erilaista eri tavoin, Rachel, ja se oli yksi niistä. Jos soittaisit Harryn Reedin harjoituksesta pressikonferenssissa tai TV-ohjelmassa,
Ja muun muassa, Rachel, jos voin mennä tarkemmin historiaan, joka on nyt melkein 40 vuotta vanha. Ensimmäinen rauha, jonka keskustelin Nevadaissa, oli Harry Reidin ensimmäinen rauha, jonka rauha oli valmisteltu Ronaldin Reaganin ja Paulin Lackshollin nimeltä Jim Santiniin.
Mietin Reedia ensimmäistä kertaa vuodesta 1986 ja en usko, että hän oli yksityiskohtainen. En tiedä paljon poliitikasta, mutta en usko, että hän oli yksityiskohtainen.
Hän oli niin rauhassa, että hän ei voinut laittaa kertomuksia yhdessä. Olen yllättynyt vain, jotta voin sanoa asiaa. Sitten tutustuin Santiniin, joka oli erittäin rauhallinen ja koulutettu hallitusjohtaja. Sanoin, että tämä rauha ei edes ole kovin kova. Ja tietysti Reid on voinut tämän rauhan ja seuraava on historia. Mutta hän aina laittoi hienoja ihmisiä ympäri hänestä. Hänellä oli hienoja kampanjoja, jotka auttoivat hänet karismaattisesti kokeilemaan.
ja hänen omaa häneltä. En voi sanoa tarpeeksi, Rachel, mutta luulen, että näin sanotaan kirjassa hieman. Kuinka monta mahtavaa ihmistä hän laittoi ympärilleen. Ja erityisesti hän edusti naisia ympärilleen, jotka olivat suurin piirtein influenssit.
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Chapter 7: What impact did Harry Reid's leadership have on Democratic unity?
She had tremendous influence on him. And what she told me, and Landra can send it to three interviews, and she wasn't always the biggest fan of mine because of some of the things I wrote about her husband, but she was great and helped fill in details. And she basically said to me that he was so busy, he didn't have time to watch any of the hearings. I watched every minute, and I told him,
ja valitsi Clarence Thomasin vastaan. Hän uskoi Anita Hillille, hän ajatteli, että Reid teki ison ongelman. Se on vaikea kertoa, mutta luulen, että hän valitsi 45 minuuttia ennen valinnasta. On jotain sanottavaa siitä, että kun hän valitsi, se oli jo valittu.
He knew how important that vote was and how it would be remembered. And of course, he went on from this eloquent speech praising Clarence Thomas to not only voting against him, but later saying the most vicious things imaginable about Clarence Thomas, the most Harry Reid things imaginable about Clarence Thomas once he got onto the court. And meanwhile, in his archives, there's the speech.
Phrasing Clarence Thomas and explaining his vote for him, which he saves, which you ended up getting your hands on. It's incredible. I do have to ask you, John, speaking of the archives, speaking of Landra not being a fan of yours, Harry Reid...
Not a fan of yours. So this is just the discipline it took from you to save this story for the acknowledgement section of your book. Just tell me, you are going through the archives, you've been granted in...
Thanks to Harry Reid, who talked to you in the six months before he died, who knew you were doing this book, who cooperated with you, his wife talked to you, his staffers talked to you. He gave you, allowed you access to his papers before the public broadly has access to them. You are going through his papers in the archives, and you find papers about you. And tell everybody what you found. I absolutely cannot believe it.
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Olin tietoinen, että Harry Reid oli itse asiassa yllättänyt minua. Meillä oli semmoinen jatkuva yhteistyö. Hän ei puhunut minua vuosina 1990-luvulla, ja sitten taas vuonna 2010-2011 hän ei tullut esiin, kun minulla oli esiintyminen.
I owned the station where I worked at one time, Jim Rogers, who owned a bunch of NBC affiliates. And I knew how close Jim Rogers was to Harry Reid. And you didn't just work there, you had a big politics, a dedicated Nevada politics TV show there. That was a really big deal in Nevada, and that national reporters like me spent a lot of time combing for Nevada news. I mean, you were a big deal at the station.
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Chapter 8: What advice would Harry Reid give to Democrats facing today's challenges?
Hän sanoi, että hänen perheensä haittasi, mutta se oli enemmän siitä, miten hän käyttäisi vaikutuksensa yrittämään auttaa lapsia eri aikoja, jopa pääsemään järjestöihin. Jos pystyn nopeasti, kun hän lopetti lopettamaan kirjan, ja minä olin loppunut vuosina ihmisiä kuten Susan McHugh, Rebecca Lam ja muut, jotta hän lopettaisi kirjan, koska hän oli kaikkein mielenkiintoinen. Hän oli yksi henkilö, jonka haluan todella kirjoittaa kirjan.
He knew it wasn't going to be hagiographic, and so I think Landra wouldn't let him do it. But finally, after he was out of office, he summoned me to his office, which of course was at the Bellagio on the Strip at that time, because he was working for MGM Resorts. And he looked at me, and I had already had some sense that he had made attempts to get me fired. He said, John, you and I have something in common. And I said, what's that, Senator? And he said, we're both survivors.
And I wanted to say to him, but I didn't because I was hoping he would do the book. No thanks to you, Senator. What I had to survive was you. It's not like we both faced off against the plague. He was the one who was trying to kill you off. I mean, that's so Harry Reid. You talk about, you know, sort of mutual respect and him or even grudging respect while he's actively trying to kill your career and remove and successfully removing you from the airwaves in Nevada.
Se on ihan oikeastaan oikeastaan oikeastaan oikeastaan oikeastaan oikeastaan oikeastaan oikeastaan
I know I'm not going to like everything that you write in the book. You know that this was about my family, that I didn't talk to you for so long. I don't think you're going to attack my family in the book. And so I want you to just tell the story. You're the best person to tell it. Do what you need to do. And he he never asked. He said, we don't need a contract. I don't want to see a first draft, which I wouldn't let him see anyhow. But he didn't ask for any conditions whatsoever. Just do the book. I am.
It's really sad, Rachel, that he is not alive to see the book, because I would have really, really wanted to know what his reaction to this was. I sent a copy to Landra. I have not heard from her, but I will be interested to see. You never know how family is going to react, because they want all sweetness and light, even though I am sure that his family knows everything.
Niitä asioita, joita hän teki, koska kirjoitin niistä aiemmin. Mutta olen tyytyväinen, että hän ei ole olemassa, jotta hän ei reagoida kirjasta. Minä olen todella tyytyväinen. Minä olen tyytyväinen. Minä olen tyytyväinen. Minä olen tyytyväinen.
for whatever it is he was going to object to in the book. Well, John, I would be remiss if I didn't ask you just a couple of closing questions about Nevada. I mean, you know, Reid famously built a formidable political machine in Nevada that could make or break candidates that turned Nevada blue for four straight presidential elections, starting with Obama in 2008. But of course, Nevada went for Trump in 2024.
I gotta ask if the machine still exists, if Democrats are still drafting off of what Harry Reid did in Nevada or whether they've been able to build something on their own. Are you sensing any buyer's remorse in Nevada in terms of the vote for Trump for the presidency last year?
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