The day after the Republican convention ended, there was another political bomb that was dropped on the U.S. presidential election [2016] from Russia. The day after the Republican convention ended, right before the Democratic Convention began we got what U.S. intelligence agencies believed to be the next big Russian incursion into our election. We got the first WikiLeaks dump.
Rachel MaddowIf something is being done on a secret basis in national security, that's a great reason for elected officials to not talk about it. And that's a great way to shirk accountability for it with the public.
Rachel MaddowSix months after 9/11, Jean-Marie Le Pen was almost elected president of France. There were a number of leaders and a number of parties running in the French national elections that year in the spring of 2002. But it ended up being not just a shock across France, and not just a shock across Europe. But it ended up being almost a worldwide shock when in the spring of 2002, Jean-Marie Le Pen came in second in those national elections. That put him in a two-man runoff for the presidency of France, spring of 2002.
Rachel MaddowWhen people get to speak about themselves and the things that matter to them, on their own terms, we see them as who they are. They can't be reduced to objects of derision.
Rachel MaddowWhen it starts to seem like you have popped into bed with a specific party, it makes it difficult for people to believe you are not doing someone else's bidding for them.
Rachel MaddowRidding Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. That was the whole idea, right? Thatโs why we went. I am reluctant to let that fact disappear down the memory hole, because if โ as the war ends, or at least starts to end โ if, at this time, the history of the war is written as us going there to topple the regime of a bad man when that frankly isnโt why were told that we were going there โ Arenโt we still at risk of making this horrific mistake again? And, arenโt we letting the people who foisted the WMD idea on us, not many years ago, arenโt we sort of letting them get away with it?
Rachel Maddow